| REPORTING OFFICER'S NARRATIVE (Brief narrative of the facts surrounding the offense and the arrest.)
At 8:04 a.m., Dispatch received a 911 call regarding the discovery of
human remains buried in the supporting foundations of the Rebel Club seating
area of the Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on the Ole Miss campus. The caller
identified himself as Donnie Nicholson, supervisor for ADS Concrete Placement
Company, currently involved in renovating the stadium..
Unit #216 (Officer Kennon Winters) was immediately dispatched to the
scene. Detectives Armstrong and Murphy were contacted at home and assigned
and proceeded directly to the scene. Coroner's Inspector Luwinda Johnson
was notified at R/I's request to respond to the scene. Reporting Officer
(R/O) Winters arrived at the scene at 8:21 a.m. At R/O's request, Unit
#221 (Officer Maria Richards) was dispatched to the scene to provide backup
and assistance and arrived at 8:28 a.m.
Reporting Investigators (R/Is) arrived at the scene at 8:32 a.m. and
found R/Os Winters and Richards had secured the area. Environmental conditions
at scene upon arrival are as follows:
Weather: Clear; Ambient Temperature: approximately 70o F / 21o C; Relative
Humidity: approximately 68 percent.
FINDINGS:
R/O Winters made the following verbal report, which is stated in summary
and not verbatim, upon R/Is arrival. R/O Winters stated he was met at
the Hemingway Stadium construction area by a man identifying himself as
911 caller Donnie Nicholson. The witness directed R/O Winters to the location
of the remains in the construction zone on the east side of the stadium
below the Rebel Club area of the stands. Mike Velasquez, who discovered
the remains, was present. R/O Winters visually verified the discovery
as being human remains and secured the scene, called for backup and detained
the witnesses. R/O Winters reported that no one has touched the remains
and further stated that to the best of his knowledge, the following personnel
have had occasion to enter the crime scene area and must be excluded by
CSU personnel: Witness Mike Velasquez, witness Donnie Nicholson, R/O Richards,
and himself.
After receiving the report from R/OWinters, R/I Murphy contacted Dispatch
regarding the status of the Coroner's Inspector and the Crime Scene Unit.
Dispatch indicated the Inspector's ETA was approximately 35 minutes and
CSU's ETA was approximately 30 minutes.
R/Is conducted a preliminary inspection of the scene. The body was buried
near the support structures for the stadium seating and wasn't immediately
visible. The ground underneath the stadium foundations was a mixture of
concrete, earth and dry fill consisting of coarse gravel and sand. Witness
Velasquez reported he had been using an excavation machine to get down
to a depth of at least 12 feet so new foundations could be poured to support
expanded seating on the upper deck of the stadium.
R/Is then proceeded to the location of the body inside the construction
pit. R/Is observed partially revealed skeletal remains at a depth of about
6 feet. The skull was clearly visible along with two arms bound at the
wrists with remnants of an unidentified material. The skeleton was resting
approximately 4 feet to the south of the central supporting column of
the higher Rebel Club seats.
Coroner's Inspector Johnson arrived at the scene at 9:09 a.m. After
studying the remains in the pit Inspector Johnson instructed Velasquez
to empty the scoop of his digging equipment on the ground. Johnson sifted
through the mixture of earth and dryfill and found several bones which
appeared to be the bones of a leg. Johnson identified the fibula, tibia
and patella from the lower part of the leg and the femur from the upper
leg. She observed a break on the femur which had knitted together and
which was in her opinion ante-mortem. The patella was fractured and had
a severe depression in the center and both the tibia and fibula showed
fractures. Inspector Johnson speculated that the fractures were possibly
peri-mortem or post-mortem, but withheld an official estimate pending
a complete autopsy. Inspector Johnson requested that a specialist team
be assigned to recover the remains in order to preserve as much evidence
as possible. Unidentified fragments of clothing were also collected and
were bagged to prevent contamination. Inspector Johnson indicated that
a forensic anthropologist would be required to assist in determining the
age, sex, race, height, cause and manner of death, and time of death of
the individual. A forensic odontologist will be asked to prepare a report
on the ante-mortem and post-mortem dental records to assist in positively
identifying the remains.
R/Is proceeded on a visual inspection of the stadium vicinity. The stadium
lies in the south-eastern area of the university campus. Access to the
stadium is primarily from the north entrance, but could be from any side.
Each side has locked gate access but there is no permanent night time
security. University security patrols the area routinely. R/Is will produce
diagrammatical evidence showing location of found remains in the stadium
area, and stadium area within campus.
Following preliminary inspection of the scene, R/Is interviewed witness
Mike Velasquez at the scene. Interview transcript is attached to this
report.
R/Is organized the attendance of a specialist team to excavate the remains.
Dispatch advised an ETA for excavation team would be approximately 2 hours.
R/Is left the scene at 2:40 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 17:26 p.m. and transported to the coroner's office
for autopsy. A preliminary autopsy report is expected within fourteen
days of this report. Because of the nature of the remains additional forensic
reports are also to be made available in the same time frame, but an early
assessment will be made as to the sex and age of the body to assist police
in identifying the victim.
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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