Sunday, February 1, 2004 -- 12:43 PM

The witness, who was described as an acquaintance of the victim, was interviewed by the Yoknapatawpha County Sheriff's Department. The interview was conducted by Detectives Armstrong and Murphy. The interview was recorded on a portable tape recorder with the witness' knowledge and consent.

SM: Thanks for talking to us.

DM: Sure.

SM: Would you please state your name and address?

DB: I live at 982 Maple Forest Court in Madison, Mississippi. I also still own a home here in Oxford. Over near Beanland.

SM: What do you do?

DB: I'm a business manager at Buchanan, Ives, and Allen.

TA: What kind of company is that?

DB: It's a law firm.

SM: Mom or dad's?

DB: Dad's.

TA: How long have you been working there?

DB: A couple years, since I got out of school.

SM: What brought you into town?

DB: I was just hanging out. Visiting old fraternity brothers. Since I still have the house up here, I come up for almost all the ball games. And any other time I need to get out of the Madison-Jackson area.

TA: How often would you think that is? That you visit Oxford?

DB: I don't know. Once a month or so.

TA: That's pretty often. You've been out of school for a little while now.

DB: Well, you know how it is. Madison is pretty boring.

SM: Do you know why you're here, Mr. Buchanan?

DB: I'm sure you want to talk about that murder.

SM: How do you feel about being interviewed?

DB: It's not comfortable. It's like you think I might be involved in some way.

TA: Did you have any involvement in Ms. Dubois death?

DB: No. None.

SM: Where were you on the night of January 30th?

DB: I was here.

SM: In Oxford?

DB: Yes.

TA: What did you do that evening?

DB: I went to that party.

SM: What party?

DB: The party for the beauty pageant. I went to that.

TA: Do you often hang around beauty pageants?

DB: I had some friends in the pageant. And some friends that wanted to meet hot girls. So we went.

TA: So you just went to meet girls?

DB: That's about it.

TA: Any luck?

DB: Nothing to brag about.

TA: Why did you get a room?

DB: In case we needed some privacy, you know?

SM: How well did you know the victim, Barbara Dubois?

DB: You know the answer to that, Detective. You know we dated for a while. I wouldn't be here if you didn't have that information.

SM: Did you talk to her that night?

DB: No.

TA: Can you take us through a timeline of your activities that evening?

DB: We went to the party. It started about dinnertime. I was there all night.

SM: All night? What time did the party end?

DB: I think it ended around 10:00 or so.

SM: What did you do afterwards?

DB: I went up to my room, then I got bored, so I just wandered around the hotel. I was trying to find one of my friends. He hooked up with one of the girls that got cut in the early rounds of the pageant. So I was basically just hanging out, waiting on him.

SM: All night?

DB: Yeah, pretty much. There really isn't much to report about that night. I mean, it was like channel surfing. You know? You know how you sit there, clicking on the remote, not really watching anything and you look up and five hours have gone by? That's kind of how that night went.

SM: What time did you go back to your room?

DB: It was after the body was found.

TA: You spent all night just hanging around? Waiting for your friend?

SM: So you can't account for your whereabouts during the night?

DB: Well, I didn't want to be indiscreet. I guess I should confess that I made a new friend from the pageant. I mean, is that what you want to know? You want an alibi?

SM: We aren't interrogating you and you are not in custody, Mr. Buchanan. We're just trying to establish a timeline here.

DB: Doesn't matter to me. This girl, Ingrid. She's in the pageant. We ended up in her room and I guess it was about 5:30 or 6:00 in the morning when I left. I was in the hotel lobby when all the commotion began.

SM: Did you get this Ingrid's last name?

DB: Freeman.  Ingrid Freeman.

TA: How would you describe the nature of your relationship with Barbara?

DB: There wasn't a relationship. It was a college thing. I'm not a college kid anymore. It's not a thing anymore -- it's been over for two years.

SM: Who ended it?

DB: It was mutual. She wasn't my type, anyway.

SM: So you had no feelings for Barbara, nothing left over, one way or another?

DB: I can't imagine why I would hold anything against her, not that I would be wrong if I did.

TA: How's that?

DB: If a woman rejects you for no good reason, and you're what they call a catch otherwise, don't you think that's a pretty good signal she thinks she's better than you?

SM: Is that what you thought?

DB: No way Barb Dubois is better than a Buchanan.

SM: Can you think of anyone who might want to cause her harm?

DB: I don't know. She may have offended someone with her goody-two-shoes appearance. We all have faults. Or maybe she told some other guy he wasn't good enough and he got mad and decided to teach her a lesson.

SM: Did she need to be taught a lesson?

DB: She probably did -- but I wasn't the one to give it to her.

TA: Did you ever think of teaching her a lesson?

DB: Never. Looks like she got one anyway.

TA: If you were investigating this, who would you look at first?

DB: Maybe some competitors? Maybe some crazy mom, like that cheerleader mom. Y'all should check all the girls in the competition. Or maybe the judges. Guys sit there passing judgment on women, they've gotta be freaks. There's probably lots of folks for you to look into. But I can't name anyone in particular.

TA: Who would you say definitely did not do it?

DB: Ingrid. Not that kind of girl.

TA: We'll be doing a very thorough investigation, and we have an excellent forensics unit. Will there be any reason your name will come up again, or a reason we might find something at the scene associate with you?

DB: My name? I dunno. I might have ticked someone off and not know about it. And what kind of stuff at the scene are you talking about?

TA: Fingerprints, semen, blood, that kind of thing. Or fibers from clothing. Maybe skin under her nails.

DB: Won't be mine.

SM: Okay, thanks for your time. I'm sure we'll be talking to you again.

Interview ends -- 1:21 PM