Forrest Burgess statement

YOKNAPATAWPHA COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT

Investigating Officer(s): Det. T. Armstrong, Det. S. Murphy
Incident No.: 000989-22B-2020
Case Description: Laurie Daniels homicide investigation

After his second interview with Detectives Armstrong and Murphy, Forrest Burgess gave the following statement regarding the events of December 29, 2019. The statement was sworn before a notary public at the Yoknapatawpha County Sheriff's Department.


  STATE OF MISSISSIPPI,   )
      ) ss.
  County of Yoknapatawpha.   )

COMES NOW   Forrest Burgess   being first duly sworn, under oath, and states that the following information is within   his   personal knowledge and belief:

I, Forrest Burgess, do swear that the following is true and occurred on December 29, 2019:

I drove to Memphis to get Laurie Daniels at the Memphis International Airport on December 29 when she was scheduled to arrive on the 6:48 p.m. flight from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I found out when she was coming from a phone call Laurie made to my roommate, Callie Shivers.

I was under the influence of alcohol and drugs when I arrived at the airport and went to meet Laurie at baggage claim. She became agitated upon seeing me because she had been expecting Callie to pick her up, but it was me instead. I told her that Callie couldn't show up, so she would have to ride with me if she wanted to get back to Oxford. She said she'd rather hitchhike. But somehow I convinced her to come along.

We drove south on Interstate 55. Laurie wanted me to take Highway 78 to Oxford because she wanted to be dropped off at her parents' house. I told her that she had to see my place in Coles Point, but she was not interested. We took the Sardis exit, and she became infuriated. When we arrived at my house, she fell asleep for a while because of the drugs and alcohol she'd had.

When she woke up, I served her a bowl of red beans and rice that was sprinkled with a love gris-gris I got from Dr. Yah Yah in New Orleans. The gris-gris was supposed to make Laurie fall in love with me again.

But Laurie started getting sick soon after she ate the red beans. She became so sick that I called Dr. Yah Yah to see what was wrong with the gris-gris. He told me it was not supposed to be eaten because it contained dried snake venom, which was harmful if swallowed. He said it could make her go blind, and he demanded that I take her to a hospital.

By this time, Laurie was screaming and saying that she was going blind. I couldn't stand to hear her scream, so I began taking pills and drinking. I was totally out of it, and I went to the bathtub to cut my wrists. I passed out before I could do it. I swear I was going to do it because I couldn't believe what this had come to.

When I woke up, it was dark, and Laurie was gone. I looked all around the property, even down to the lake, but she had gone. I freaked out and ran off myself. I don't know what time it was, but it was starting to get light outside. I drove around some looking for her, but I couldn't find her.

I never saw Laurie again after that, and I didn't tell anyone that I picked her up. I was scared that I had poisoned her, and that she had run off into the woods to die, possibly even drown in Sardis Lake.

Though what I did was wrong and irresponsible, I do not believe that I killed Laurie Daniels. I was only trying to show her how much I love her.

  Signature:     //Forrest Burgess  
  Address:     126 County Road 432  
      Yocona, MS 38655  

 

SUBSCRIBED AND SWORN TO (OR AFFIRMED) before me this    1st   day of   March  ,   2020  , by   Forrest Burgess  , proved to me on the basis of satisfactory evidence to be the person(s) who appeared before me.

      //Mary W. Hassen  
    NOTARY PUBLIC FOR MISSISSIPPI
  My Commission Expires:     August 11, 2021  

 


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