Oxford Eagle, December 6, 2002

Witnesses come forward in Avent Park Shooting case
Boys provide lead in hunt for killer

By GEORGIA FINCH
Eagle Staff Writer

Two brothers have contacted police after an appeal for information from the public about the Avent Park shooting in which Atlanta, Georgia, resident Wenzel Hitzig was killed and Oxonian Arlene Melton was injured.

Hitzig was taking photographs for a computer game he was producing when he was shot from behind on the park's main trail on November 4.

After four weeks of investigations, two local students, 15-year-old twin brothers Kevin and Peter Morris, have come forward with information the Sheriff's department have indicated may be useful in the hunt for the killer.

The boys, who attend Oxford High School, were understood to be reluctant to speak to the police for some time because they were truant from school and did not want to get into trouble.

Yoknapatawpha County Sheriff's Department Public Information Officer Elizabeth Jones said the boys, accompanied by their father, IT consultant Lennie Morris, had voluntarily spoken to detectives investigating the homicide.

According to Jones, the boys were in the area of Avent Park, on Park Drive Road west of Avent Park, when they were nearly hit by a car leaving the boundary area of the park at a great speed.

Jones said the boys had taken detectives to the location they identified on the border of Avent Park and that there was some evidence of tire tracks on the road nearby, though Jones declined to say whether the tracks could be connected to the shooting of Hitzig and Melton. Neither of the boys was able to provide a full license plate number for the car that almost ran them down, but said that the number ended in the sequence 528. The boys reported the car was a dark blue or black sedan, and they thought it was a Ford model.

Lennie Morris, 42, said his sons would be punished for skipping school, but he was pleased they had finally come forward, even if it meant getting into trouble themselves.

"Peter and Kevin are both good boys. We were very surprised to find they had skipped school," said Morris.

The Sheriff's Department asks that anyone who has information about the shooting or who saw the dark sedan in the area of Avent Park on Monday, November 4, 2002 contact them at their non-emergency number, 234-XXXX.