Incident report

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

At 2:18 p.m., Dispatch received a 911 call regarding the discovery of a bag of clothing along Shady Grove Road off MS-6 in Sardis. The caller identified herself as Natalie James and said she would return to the scene of the discovery and wait for an officer to arrive.

Reporting Officer (R/O) was dispatched to the scene and arrived at 2:23 p.m. and was flagged down by an adult female, later identified as Natalie James, at a location approximately 500 feet south of MS-6, behind the Dollar General located at 75 Shady Grove Road.

Natalie James said her minor daughter, Opal-Marie James, age 13, had made the discovery while walking to Dollar General. R/O requested permission to discuss the discovery with Opal-Marie directly, and consent was given.

Opal-Marie said in summary and not verbatim:

Opal-Marie was walking down Shady Grove Road with her dog, Lester, when the dog became focused on something in the ditch alongside the road. When Opal-Marie was unable to get her dog out of the ditch, she went down to investigate.

Opal-Marie saw a large plastic bag imprinted with the logo and name of the local bookstore, Square Books. She looked inside the bag, thinking there might be books inside. Instead, she observed several items of clothing.

She started to remove the clothing when she noticed what she described as red-brown stains on the items and saw that at least one item appeared to be torn. Believing the stains could be blood, Opal-Marie became alarmed and dropped the bag.

Opal-Marie then ran home with her dog to tell her mother what she had found. Upon hearing her daughter's story, Natalie immediately telephoned 911 and reported it.

After hearing Opal-Marie's story, R/O asked her to identify the specific location where she discovered the bag. Opal-Marie pointed to the bag and said she believed it was in the same place that she had dropped it earlier. R/O examined the bag briefly and confirmed Opal-Marie's preliminary observations.

R/O then contacted Dispatch to inform them he had confirmed the 911 report. Dispatch requested that R/O secure the scene and remain there with the complainants until a CSU unit arrived to take the bag and its contents into evidence and to process the area.

CSU arrived on the scene at 2:52 p.m. After conducting an initial assessment of the scene, CSU collected fingerprint exemplars from Natalie James and Opal- Marie James, and then R/O escorted the Jameses back to their residence.

R/O then returned to the scene to provide assistance to the CSU team as needed. R/O observed CSU's inventory of the bag's contents and noted the following items inside the bag:

• One (1) ladies long-sleeved shirt, stained and torn
• One (1) men's t-shirt, stained
• One (1) pair men's blue jeans, stained
• One (1) plastic bag imprinted with the words "Thank You" and a yellow smiley face, stained
• Two (2) pairs disposable gloves, stained

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.

YCSD Detectives T. Armstrong and S. Murphy were notified of the incident for follow-up.

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