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REPORTING OFFICER'S NARRATIVE (Brief narrative of the facts surrounding the offense and the arrest.)
At 6:35 p.m., Dispatch received a 911 call regarding a dead body at the address of 148 S. Empire Court, Oxford MS. The caller identified herself as Lee Merryweather. Yoknapatawpha County Sheriff's Unit 209 (Officer P. Winston) was dispatched and arrived at the scene at 6:43 p.m. Upon discovery of the body at 6:45 p.m., R/O notified Dispatch and requested backup and medical assistance. Reporting Investigators (R/Is) Detectives T. Armstrong and S. Murphy were assigned and proceeded directly to the scene. At R/Is' request, Coroner’s Inspector L. Johnson and a CSU team were notified to respond to the scene. R/Is arrived at the scene at 6:55 p.m. Upon arrival, R/Is found that R/O had secured the area. Environmental conditions at the scene upon arrival are as follows: Weather: Exterior crime scene location; Ambient Temperature: approximately 52°F/11°C; Relative Humidity: approximately 31%.
R/O Winston made the following verbal report, which is stated in summary and not verbatim. R/O was met inside the home of victim. Merryweather led R/O into the kitchen to the body of an apparently dead adult male, later identified as Victor Jennings (Person 1). At R/O's then called for backup and Crime Scene Tech Unit. R/O said YCFD EMTs R. Peterson and J. Bilkey arrived at approximately 7:01 p.m. and, after confirming the victim was deceased, withdrew from the crime scene. R/O Winston further stated that, to the best of his knowledge, the following personnel had occasion to enter the crime scene area and must be excluded by CSU personnel: witness Lee Merryweather, EMT Peterson, EMT Bilkey and himself.
After receiving the report from R/O Winston, R/Is conducted a preliminary inspection of the scene. R/Is observed blood spatter in the kitchen of victim. The dishwasher was next to the victim and open. Broken paring knife handle laying next to body.
In the kitchen are of the home, R/Is observed a lifeless human body, a male apparently in his late 40’s. Visual inspection indicated the victim was wearing a blue pajama top, blue pajama bottoms, a white terrycloth bathrobe with blue stripes and brown slippers size 11. The victim was lying on his back with left arm folded over his chest and his right arm along side of his body. The victim’s head pointing north. The right leg was bent at knee and the left leg pointed straight to the south.
Further visual inspection revealed the chest area of the victim's shirt appeared to be saturated with blood. R/Is delayed further inspection of the body until the arrival of the Coroner's Inspector.
Coroner's Inspector Luwinda Johnson arrived at the scene at approximately 7:01 p.m. and joined R/Is at the body's location. Inspector Johnson pronounced the victim deceased at 7:15 p.m. by visual observation that the victim was not breathing and by tactile observation that the victim did not have a palpable carotid pulse. Inspector Johnson visually examined the posterior of the body and observed a stab wound to the chest and speculated that the apparent cause of death were those wounds. Inspector Johnson also noted an impression on the neck and indicated that further details would be available in the official autopsy report. After Inspector Johnson completed her initial inspection of the body, she stayed with the CSU team to ensure integrity of the body, while the team took photographs of the scene and performed preliminary analyses, until the body could be removed from the scene without affecting other evidence.
CSU arrived at the scene at approximately 7:12 p.m. R/Is instructed CSU to take samples of possible blood, paring knife handle, and hair found under the body for analysis and to process the entire scene according to standard procedure.
CSU will conduct a more intensive search and report their findings.
R/Is left the scene at 7:35 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.
At the station, R/Is interviewed witness Lee Merryweather. (interview transcript attached).
Body of the deceased remanded into the custody of Coroner's Inspector Luwinda Johnson. Deceased was removed from scene at 8:01 p.m. and transported to the coroner's office for autopsy.
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. |
