Incident Report - Homicide

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

At 11:14 p.m. on December 16, 2019, Dispatch notified Reporting Investigators (R/Is) Detectives T. Armstrong and S. Murphy to respond to the location of a hit and run at 107 Pearidge Road, Kudzu Kove Development where a possible homicide had been discovered by YCSD personnel.

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 11:36 p.m. and found that YCSD Officers Winston and Vittel had secured the area.

Environmental conditions at the scene upon arrival are as follows: Weather: Rain; Exterior Temperature: 42°F/6°C; Relative Exterior Humidity: 89%; Interior Crime Scene Location Temperature: 79°F/26°C; Relative Interior Humidity: 40%.

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

Winston was dispatched to the scene in response to a reported hit and run incident (Ref. Incident # 006111-16L-2019).

Upon arrival, he observed a damaged mailbox and mailbox post at 107 Pearidge Road.

He proceeded to the complainant's residence at 110 Pearidge Road, where he was met by adult female identifying herself as Bonnie Duncan, the 911 caller.

Winston took Duncan’s report and then went to the front door of the residence at 107 Pearidge Road to contact the occupants.

Receiving no response to repeated attempts to contact, Watson looked through a window and observed an unresponsive female on the floor.

Winston promptly called for backup, and when Officer Vittel arrived at the scene, the officers cleared the location, then requested EMTs and detectives be dispatched to the scene.

Winston said YCFD EMTs R. Peterson and J. Bilkey arrived at approximately 11:20 pm and after confirming the victim deceased, withdrew from the scene.

Winston further stated that to the best of his knowledge, the following personnel had occasion to enter the crime scene are and must be documented by CSU personnel: EMT Peterson, EMT Bilkey, Officer Vittel, and himself.

After receiving the verbal report from Officer Winston, R/Is conducted a preliminary inspection of the scene.

In the living room of the residence, R/Is observed a lifeless human body, a female apparently in her 20s, lying on the floor adjacent to an artificial Christmas tree.

Visual inspection indicated the victim was wearing a red and green short-sleeved shirt with a black belt with gold buckle at the waist, green and red tights, and red slipper-style booties. A string of Christmas tree lights and a strand of red tinsel and green holly garland were draped over the body. The end of the garland was in the victim’s left hand.

A dark red stain was visible on the upper left torso of the victim’s shirt. A puddle of unidentified dark liquid was visible on the floor north of the victim’s left arm and west of the torso. A second puddle of unidentified dark liquid was visible on the floor beginning approximately 6 inches south-southwest of the top of the victim’s head. Reddish stains were visible on the palm and fingers of the victim’s left hand.

A chef's style knife with an approximately 7-inch blade and an approximately 5-inch handle was on the floor north of the victim’s left arm and west of the torso and the puddle of unidentified dark liquid.

The victim was lying in a supine position with the head to the south. The right arm was extended perpendicular to the body to the northeast. The left arm was perpendicular to the body to the southwest and bent at an approximate 90° angle at the elbow with the hand toward the south. The right leg was fully extended to the north. The left leg was bent at the knee at a 45° angle to the west.

R/Is delayed further inspection of the body until the arrival of the Coroner's Inspector.

R/I Armstrong took a cell phone photograph of the victim’s face and went outside the residence to show it to Duncan, the neighbor and 911 caller. Duncan identified the victim as Caroline Jordan, owner and occupant of the residence at 107 Pearidge Road.

R/I Murphy conducted a visual inspection of the interior of the residence, observing multiple beer bottles, beer cans, empty cups, and bowls of potato chips, pretzels and other snacks all around the living room, dining room and kitchen. Inspection of other rooms in the residence revealed no indications of disturbance.

R/Is examined the perimeter of the residence and found no signs of forced entry.

Coroner's Inspector Luwinda Johnson arrived at the scene at approximately 11:45 p.m. R/Is escorted her to the body's location. Inspector Johnson pronounced the victim deceased at 11:49 p.m. by tactile observation that the victim did not have a palpable carotid pulse or any other signs of heartbeat or respiration.

Inspector Johnson noted that the body was still warm to the touch and that rigor mortis and livor mortis were not yet evident. While she withheld an official estimate pending an autopsy, Inspector Johnson speculated the victim had been dead approximately 2 to 4 hours.

Inspector Johnson visually examined the body and observed a penetrating wound below the left collarbone near the sternum. Inspector Johnson noted no other obvious wounds at the scene but declined to speculate whether the penetrating wound was the cause of death. She 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.

R/Is instructed CSU to take fingerprints from the area and also blood samples found on the victim’s left hand and the knife for analysis and to process the entire scene according to standard procedure.

R/Is left. Before leaving the scene at 12:50 a.m., R/Is 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.

Body of the deceased remanded into the custody of Coroner's Inspector Luwinda Johnson. Deceased was removed from the scene at 3:30 a.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.

 N/A