|
Oxford EAGLE
Monday, January 17, 2005
Severed Head Found in Taylor
by Loretta Winston
STAFF WRITER
The Yoknapatawpha County Sheriff's Department discovered a severed
head alongside a creek in Taylor. According to police, the decapitated
head was discovered at approximately 11:00 a.m. on Saturday.
Eleven-year-old Taylor resident Kyle Whitehead had been walking
on his family's property with a friend when they stumbled upon
a clearing beside a creek. The site appeared to have been the location
of "a strange ritual," according to the boy's father, David Whitehead.
Responding to a 911 call from the elder Whitehead, sheriff's officers
arrived to investigate the reported vandalism and discovered a
white and yellow bucket. The head was found inside that bucket
and was floating in an unidentified chemical solution.
The vandalism scene, which was the subject of the initial report,
offered its own unusual evidence, including the remains of a campfire,
a burned wooden box, empty rum bottles and a dead chicken. Still
odder was a ball of wax, which contained a scrap of paper bearing
some handwritten words. Sheriff's Public Information Officer Elizabeth
Jones declined to specify what was written on the paper.
David Whitehead told police that the chicken most likely came
from his coop. "I recalled missing a chicken several weeks back,
but I always thought it was the coyotes," the Taylor farmer said. "In
a situation like that, you never consider that a crime is involved."
The finding of the head comes amid burgeoning rumors that other
body parts have been found this month in the neighboring counties
of Calhoun and Panola.
"I think the cops just don't want everybody to get keyed up over
this so they're not talking," said Tim Hillman, a Batesville resident. "But
there comes a time when we need to know whether or not we should
keep our kids locked up in the house."
PIO Jones would not comment on the alleged discoveries of other
body parts, saying only, "the department has mounted an intense
investigation into this matter and will release more information
as it becomes available. We must balance the public's need to know
with the department's need to solve this case."
|
