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REPORTING OFFICER'S NARRATIVE (Brief narrative of the facts surrounding the offense
and the arrest.)
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At 6:50 a.m., Dispatch
received a 911 call regarding a missing person at the
Yoknapatawpha County Conference Center (YCCC) Hotel at
1710 Belk Boulevard. The caller identified herself as
Mary Jones, friend of the victim. Yoknapatawpha County
Sheriff's Unit 209 (Officer P. Winston) was dispatched
and arrived at the scene at 6:57 a.m. Upon discovery
of the body at 7:02 a.m., R/O notified Dispatch and requested
backup and medical assistance. Unit 213 (Officer M. Arborogh)
was dispatched to provide backup and arrived at the scene
at 7:06 a.m. Reporting Investigators (R/Is) Detectives
T. Armstrong and S. Murphy were assigned and proceeded
directly to the scene. At R/Is' request, Coroner’s
Inspector L. Johnson and a CSU team were notified to
respond to the scene. R/Is arrived at the scene at 7:43
a.m. Upon arrival, R/Is found that R/O had secured the
area. Environmental conditions at the scene upon arrival
are as follows: Weather: Interior crime scene location;
Ambient Temperature: approximately 66°F/19°C;
Relative Humidity: approximately 71%.
R/O Winston made the
following verbal report, which is stated in summary and
not verbatim. R/O was met in the lobby of the YCCC hotel
by three adult females: Mary Jones (Person 2); Susan
Dubois, the victim's mother (Person 3); and Scarlett
Webb, a competitor in the pageant (Person 4). These witnesses
reported that Barbara Dubois (Person 1) had been discovered
missing from her hotel room (# 203) at approximately
6:30 a.m. and that her bed did not appear to have been
slept in. R/O was then approached by an adult male, Walbert
Dopelson (Person 5), who identified himself as the Director
of the ongoing Yoknapatawpha County Literary Festival
Beauty Pageant and indicated it was critical to determine
the victim's location as soon as possible because her
presence was required at the day's events. R/O was then
notified by Bob Niwachee, manager of YCCC hotel (Person
6), of a disturbance on the second floor and possible
location of the victim. R/O proceeded to the second floor
of the hotel, where he observed an adult male, later
identified as Bill Lamar (Person 7), kneeling on the
floor just inside an open custodial storage closet, crying
and cradling the head of an apparently dead adult female,
later identified as Barbara Dubois. R/O observed an apparent
blood pool in the area of the victim's head and an apparent
blood trail leading from the interior of the closet to
the hallway. At R/O's request, Lamar removed himself
from the immediate crime scene and waited in the hallway.
R/O then reported the situation to Dispatch and secured
the scene. R/O said YCSD Unit 213 (Officer M. Arborogh)
arrived at approximately 7:06 a.m. and provided backup
and assistance in securing the scene. R/O said
YCFD EMTs R. Peterson and J. Bilkey arrived at approximately
7:11 a.m. and, after confirming the victim was deceased,
withdrew from the crime scene. R/O Winston further stated
that, to the best of his knowledge, the following personnel
had occasion to enter the crime scene area and must be
excluded by CSU personnel: witness Bill Lamar, EMT Peterson,
EMT Bilkey and himself.
After receiving the
report from R/O Winston, R/Is conducted a preliminary
inspection of the scene. In the hallway, approximately
6' west of the entry to the closet where the body was
located (Room # 273), R/Is observed a small quantity
of possible dried vomit as well as a possible blood trail
leading from the vicinity of the vomit to the door of
the closet. Also in the hallway, approximately 3' south
and 1' east of the entry to the closet, R/Is observed
a trophy, broken and with small reddish-brown stains,
engraved with the words "First Annual Yoknapatawpha
County Literature Festival Beauty Pageant, February 1,
2004".
R/Is observed no signs
of forced entry on the door or door frame of the closet
where the body was found. R/Is observed the interior
of the closet appeared to be approximately 10' x 10'
with a concrete floor and a single point of entry from
the hallway. Against the west wall were two storage
cabinets with doors, each cabinet measuring 4' wide x
1.5' deep x 6' high. Against the north and east
walls open shelving units measuring 7' wide x 1.75' deep
x 6' high. R/Is observed some signs of disturbance in
the room such as a number of items on the open shelving
units in disarray and several items including rolls of
toilet tissue, boxes of facial tissue, boxes of trash
bags and containers of cleaning solutions on the floor
of the closet.
Also on the closet floor,
R/Is observed a lifeless human body, a female apparently
in her early twenties. Visual inspection indicated the
victim was wearing a blue floor-length formal gown with
rhinestones on the halter and matching high-heeled shoes.
The skirt of the gown was above the victim's knees. The
body lay in a supine position with the the head towards
the southwest corner of the room and the feet towards
the northeast corner. The right arm was at an approximate
45º angle to the body and bent at the elbow. The
left arm was at an approximate 90º angle to the
body and bent slightly at the elbow. The left knee was
bent slightly and the right leg was essentially straight.
R/Is further observed a small apparent blood pool around
the victim's head and an apparent blood trail leading
to the door. Further visual inspection revealed the victim's
hair appeared to be saturated with blood. R/Is
delayed further inspection of the body until the arrival
of the Coroner's Inspector.
Coroner's Inspector
Luwinda Johnson arrived at the scene at approximately
7:55 a.m. and joined R/Is at the body's location. Inspector
Johnson pronounced the victim deceased at 8:00 a.m. by
visual observation that the victim was not breathing
and by tactile observation that the victim did not have
a palpable carotid pulse. Inspector Johnson noted that
the body appeared to be in the early stages of rigor
mortis. Inspector Johnson visually examined the posterior
of the body and observed blunt force trauma and a penetrating
wound to the back of the head and neck, as well as fixed
lividity on the posterior of the body. While she withheld
an official estimate pending an autopsy, Inspector Johnson
speculated the victim had been dead approximately 7 to
10 hours and the apparent cause of death was a penetrating
head wound. Inspector Johnson indicated that further
details would be available in the official autopsy report.
After Inspector Johnson completed her initial inspection
of the body, she stayed with the CSU team to ensure integrity
of the body, while the team took photographs of the scene
and performed preliminary analyses, until the body could
be removed from the scene without affecting other evidence.
CSU arrived at the scene
at approximately 8:08 a.m. R/Is instructed CSU to take
the trophy as well as samples of the possible vomit and
possible blood trails and blood pool into evidence for
analysis and to process the entire scene according to
standard procedure.
A preliminary search
of the immediate area for the weapon(s) causing the injury
to the victim met with negative results. CSU will conduct
a more intensive search and report their findings.
Following preliminary
inspection of the scene, R/Is interviewed witness Bill
Lamar at the scene (interview transcript attached). After
observing apparent blood stains on the witness' clothing,
R/Is requested CSU take the witness' clothing into evidence
for analysis.
R/Is left the scene
at 1:50 p.m. Before leaving, R/I Murphy instructed CSU
to seal the scene upon completion or end of day suspension
of processing. CSU to notify R/Is of progress by the
end of this date. As of this filing, CSU is still actively
processing at the scene.
Body of the deceased
remanded into the custody of Coroner's Inspector Luwinda
Johnson. Deceased was removed from scene at 10:27 a.m.
and transported to the coroner's office for autopsy.
Evidence remanded into
the custody of Forensics Officer T. R. Douglas for transport
to the State Crime Lab for routine analysis. CSU is expected
to submit an inventory of items taken into evidence within
fourteen days of this report, with detailed report(s)
of their findings to follow at a later date.
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