Authorities seeking the identity of a woman’s body found Friday night near Edwards hope dental records available today will show whether the remains are those of 81-year-old Ethel Winstead Simpson, last seen a week ago leaving a Vicksburg casino with convicted sex offender James Cobb Hutto III of Alabama.

“Our objective is to secure those dental records this morning and have them compared with the remains today,” said Hinds County Coroner Sharon Grisham-Stewart.

How long that might take depends on the extent of dental work that had been done, but results were expected this evening, Grisham-Stewart said. Clothing found on the body matched what Simpson was last seen wearing, Clinton Police Chief Don Byington said Friday.

Hutto is being held at the Lee County, Ala., Detention Center after being arrested there Friday afternoon in an unrelated case. He was driving Simpson’s 2002 Mercedes-Benz at the time.

Byington is out of the office this week, but Clinton Police Capt. Michael Warren said the investigation awaits the identification of the body.

“With the discovery of the body in Edwards Friday night, the case gets turned over to the Hinds County Sheriff’s Department,” Warren said this morning. “Our investigators did go talk to (Hutto), but no revelations came out that were unexpected. He was a bit closed-mouth and invoked his right to an attorney fairly early.”

Both Clinton police and Hinds County sheriff’s detectives have been involved. Clinton investigators have led the search for Simpson, and the sheriff’s department oversaw the removal of the body around 9 p.m. Friday near a hog farm off Mississippi 22 in Edwards.

Jurisdiction over the case, should the remains be those of Simpson, would rest with the sheriff’s department.

Lt. Jeffery Scott, spokesman for the Hinds County sheriff’s department, said today that their office had not spoken with Clinton police about their questioning of Hutto, or with other agencies said to be investigating Hutto as a suspect in other crimes.

Hutto was charged Friday in Alabama with attempted murder and first-degree robbery after 56-year-old Mark Ambers Cox of Opelika, Ala., was wounded in a knife attack believed related to a robbery attempt.

Hutto was also wanted in Alabama for failing to register as a sex offender. He was convicted in 2002 of the sexual abuse of a 17-year-old and served 3 1/2 years of two concurrent 10-year sentences before being released in 2005.

Capt. Dan Jackson, an investigator with the Lee County, Ala., sheriff’s department, said Hutto will have an initial hearing in the Cox case within 48 to 72 hours, and possibly be appointed an attorney. He said the investigation there is proceeding carefully. Cox is conscious, Jackson said, and has been able to provide some preliminary answers.

“There are a lot of investigative steps that we need to lock in to build the case,” Jackson said this morning. “We are watching to progress of our victim very carefully.”

Birmingham authorities have also been in contact with them, Jackson said. Hutto is suspected in the death of a relative there, and Lee County has set up a process for their investigators to interrogate Hutto, Jackson said. He has not been contacted by other Mississippi jurisdictions such as Brookhaven police who reportedly think Hutto might have committed a crime there.

Simpson was seen with Hutto on security cameras at Vicksburg’s Riverwalk Casino Monday night. She was believed to have been befriended by him in the parking lot at the walking track at the Baptist Healthplex in Clinton. Hutto was seen driving Simpson’s car out of the complex, and around 11:40 p.m. out of the parking lot at Riverwalk.

Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace said authorities here were not notified until Friday morning that Simpson was missing or had been seen in Vicksburg. He said deputies spent most of the day Friday searching areas along Warrenton Road, Interstate 20 and U.S. 80 to the county line.

Clinton’s Capt. Warren said the case is tragic: “The lady was doing a good deed, probably, and it just went bad in the worst kind of way.”