Incident report

REPORTING OFFICER'S NARRATIVE(Brief narrative of the facts surrounding the offense and the arrest.)

At 3:46 p.m., Dispatch received a 911 call regarding a dead body in a swimming pool at 604 College Hill Road. The caller identified herself as Rachel Moody, personal chef employed at the residence.

Yoknapatawpha County Sheriff's Unit 209 (Officer P. Winston) was dispatched and arrived at the scene at 3:53 p.m. Upon verification of the presence of a body at 4:02 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 4:26 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: Fair; Exterior Ambient Temperature: 90°F/32°C; Relative Humidity: 60%.

R/O Winston made the following verbal report, which is stated in summary and not verbatim.

R/O was met at the entrance to the home by an adult female who identified herself as Rachel Moody (Person 3). Moody led R/O through the home to the back patio and pointed to an adolescent female floating on a rubber raft in the swimming pool. Moody identified the female as Alyx Byrns (Person 1).

R/O observed what appeared to be blood in the swimming pool water around the raft. R/O said when the female on the raft did not respond to voice commands, R/O used a pool skimmer to pull the raft to the side of the pool. Upon closer inspection, R/O observed that the female did not appear to be breathing or to have a pulse and exhibited no signs of life.

R/O then secured the scene and reported the situation to Dispatch.

At R/O's request, Moody returned to the entrance of the home to direct backup and the medical personnel to the patio.

R/O said YCSD Unit 213 (Officer M. Arborogh) arrived at approximately 4:06 p.m. and provided backup and assistance in securing the scene.

R/O said YCFD EMTs R. Peterson and J. Bilkey arrived at approximately 4:08 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 documented by CSU personnel: witnesses David Gregory (Person 2) and Rachel Moody (Person 3), EMT Peterson, EMT Bilkey, Officer Arborogh and himself.

After receiving the report from R/O Winston, R/Is instructed R/O Winston and Officer Arborogh to transport Person 2 and Person 3 to YCSD headquarters for interviews.

R/Is then conducted a preliminary inspection of the scene. R/Is noted fragments of broken glass, clear in color, on the patio between the residence and the swimming pool.

On a rubber raft floating at the edge of the pool, R/Is observed a female, apparently in her teens, in a supine position with the head pointing in a westerly direction. Visual inspection indicated the victim was wearing sunglasses and a two-piece turquoise blue swimsuit with yellow string ties.

The victim's legs were bent at the knees with the right leg extending over the northeast side of the raft and the left leg extending over the southeast side of the raft. The right arm was bent at the elbow with the right hand holding a knife and resting on the lower abdomen. The left arm was in the water perpendicular to the left side of the body.

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 4:57 pm. and joined R/Is at the body's location.

Inspector Johnson pronounced Person 1 deceased at 5:09 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 observed two incised wounds to the left wrist and arm and speculated that these wounds may have contributed to the cause of death. Inspector Johnson further noted an odor of ethyl alcohol in the area of the victim's face but could not say whether alcohol was a contributing factor in the cause of death. Inspector Johnson 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 the 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 5:12 p.m. R/Is instructed CSU to take fingerprints from the area and also blood samples found on the victim’s right hand and knife for analysis and to process the entire scene according to standard procedure.

R/Is left the scene at 8:36 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.

R/Is returned to YCSD headquarters to interview witness David Gregory, a pool maintenance man, and witness Rachel Moody, the Byrns family's personal chef.

The body of the deceased was remanded into the custody of Coroner's Inspector Luwinda Johnson. The deceased was removed from the scene at 7:24 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.

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