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On January 15-16, 2005, the Yoknapatawpha County Sheriff's Department
conducted a canvass of the Taylor community in the vicinity of
the crime scenes. Investigators were looking for potential witnesses
who might have seen or heard anything unusual in the area during
the preceding 3-6 weeks. The interviews summarized are some of
the most typical or relevant to the investigation and are representative
of all interviews conducted.
County Road 323 Residents
- Mark Lynch, 255 CR 323, Taylor, .18 miles west of human
remains scene
Repeated visits to Lynch's residence met with negative results.
No answer to knocks on the doors and no vehicle observed on the
property.
- Will Newman and Anya Holcomb, 251 CR 323, Taylor, .4 miles
west of human remains scene
Newman, a local reporter for Oxford Eagle, was asked if any
strangers or otherwise suspicious characters had been seen in
the vicinity, particularly near the bridge, within the past 3-6
weeks. He frequently saw strange cars drive by. He never paid
attention to cars because everybody who lives on CR 323 drives
by his house, and he doesn't know everybody on the road. He said
that he chooses to mind his own business.
Newman reported that his neighbor, Mark Lynch, frequently had
visitors, mostly female, within the past several weeks. There
was one guest in particular, a short, stocky male, who stayed
for several days at Lynch's house. Newman had contact with this
visitor on or near New Year's Eve, when the man appeared to be
preparing to wade into in the swimming hole behind Lynch's house.
Newman had been sitting on his back porch and noticed the man.
Newman called out to the man and warned him that the small pond
had snakes in it. The man replied, "Good!" and waded in. He was
in the water for about 15 minutes, then got out and returned
to Lynch's house. Newman did not know why the man was wading
in the pond. He did not see the man put anything into or take
anything out of the water.
Newman added that he had heard a gunshot coming from the Whitehead
farm one night several weeks earlier.
Newman's fiancée, Holcomb, was at work at Square Books
in Oxford at time of interview.
- Hank and Karen Moreland, 267 CR 323, Taylor, .3 miles east
of human remains scene
The Moreland farm is set back from the road and obscured by
trees. The Morelands said they don't pay attention to who comes
and goes, and neither Mr. or Mrs. Moreland recalled seeing any
strange cars or people on the road or near the bridge. Mr. Moreland
recalled hearing a female scream coming from the woods on the
west side of his property on 1/15/2005 at approximately 10:00
a.m..
- Corrine LaRue, 448 CR 323, 1.3 miles east of human remains
scene
LaRue lives with her mother, Edith LaRue. Neither of them noticed
any strange activity, aside from the usual racing up and down
the road in cars by kids. They both turn in early every night
and haven't been called upon by any strangers in the area, nor
have they heard anything. The house is set a distance back from
the road.
County Road 3065 Residents
- Buzz Dakota, 21 CR 3065, 1.9 miles east of human remains
scene
Mr. Dakota, who recently moved to the neighborhood, was asked
to report anything unusual in the area, any strangers or unfamiliar
faces in the area. Dakota insisted that a UFO had landed in the
woods behind his house in December 2004. He held firm to his
account of UFO contact, saying that alien beings had exited the
ship and took one of his neighbor's cows. The UFO encounter was
the only information about unusual people or events in the area
that Dakota was able to give.
- Gabriel Hamilton, 19 CR 3065, .6 miles west of human remains
scene
Hamilton, a painter, could not recall any suspicious people
in town, but he recalled a conversation he shared with two men
from Athens, Georgia, on January 12, 2005. The two men were in
town for the Ole Miss/University of Georgia basketball game.
Before the game, around 3:00 p.m., the men rode out to Taylor
to see the town and inquired at his studio about the area. Hamilton
didn't remember their names, but he described them: the first
was tall and hefty, approximately 6' 1" and 250 lbs, with thinning
red hair. The other was approx. 5' 8" and 180 lbs., with short
black hair and glasses. Hamilton described the men as awkward
and rigid, and he found it odd that they had inquired about Taylor,
as "they hardly seemed interested in being alive."
Hamilton also recalled hearing the gunshot coming from the Whitehead
farm one night approximately four weeks earlier. He said it was
common to hear gunshots in the country at night, particularly
with coyotes about.
- Bernadette Robbins, postmaster at Taylor Post Office, 10
CR 3065, .9 miles west of human remains scene
The only thing Robbins recalled out of the ordinary was arriving
at work one day approximately six weeks previous and finding
a man's tennis shoe on top of the mailbox outside the post office.
She said it stayed there for several days, then she saw a dog
playing with it. After that, she never saw the shoe.
Officer inquired about Mark Lynch. Robbins replied that Lynch
was surly and lazy, but that they'd had few problems during their
brief exchanges each morning for the three years that she held
the job. She said that Lynch's personality fit him, and that
he didn't make trouble at work, though she'd heard from various
citizens that he had a tendency to create disturbances in Taylor
at night. Robbins last saw Lynch on Friday, January 14, 2005
at approximately 8:30 a.m. when he finished his shift.
- Stella Mackie, Mackie's Market, 11 CR 3065, .8 miles west
of human remains scene
Mackie, owner and proprietor of Mackie's Market in downtown
Taylor, found her store vandalized on the morning of Wednesday,
January 5, 2005, upon arriving for work at 6:15 a.m. She reported
the incident to the Yoknapatawpha County Sheriff's Department,
but no arrests have been made to date. The incident report taken
on 1/5/2005 confirms Mackie's estimation of damages: scarecrow
stolen from front porch, windmill upset in rear, water spigot
on north side of building broken off, spray painted vulgarities
on west side of building, mailbox on porch destroyed. No signs
of break-in.
Inspection of the premises reveals stacks of plastic buckets
in the back. When asked if she had any pool chlorine buckets,
Mackie responded that she wasn't certain. Various people had
brought her buckets to plant flowers in. Most were from a friend
who regularly brings fertilizer buckets. She didn't recall any
missing buckets, but she did not keep an inventory.
When asked if she had noticed any suspicious characters around
in the past 3-6 weeks, Mackie responded, "Everybody's suspicious
to me." She gave descriptions for a tall, thin black male (approx.
6'0", 130 lbs.) in his early 20s that came in the store on foot
and looked nervous, around December 23-24; white business man
of average height and weight (approx. 5'10", 150 lbs.), balding,
mid 40s who passed through town and took lunch of cheese and
crackers on the front porch during last week of December; and
two teenage girls around 16, one short and overweight (approx.
5'4", 150 lbs.) with freckles and long blonde hair, the other
short and skinny (approx. 5'6", 90 lbs.) with greasy brown hair,
who sat on the porch drinking cokes for an hour or two around
January 2, 2005.
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