| REPORTING OFFICER'S NARRATIVE(Brief narrative of the facts surrounding the offense and the arrest.)
At 4:11 p.m., Dispatch received a 911 call reporting a dead body behind the Yoknapatawpha Acres Nursing Home on Belk Boulevard. The caller indicated the body was located outside the facility in the service and delivery area on the east side of the building. The caller identified herself as Lynette Martinson (Person 2), a nurse at the nursing home.
Yoknapatawpha County Sheriff's Unit 209 (Officer P. Winston) and an EMT unit were dispatched to the location.
Reporting Officer (R/O) Winston arrived at the scene at 4:18 p.m. After confirming the presence of the body, R/O secured the scene and contacted Dispatch to request backup.
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 4:34 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: Cloudy; Exterior Ambient Temperature: 77°F / 25°C; Relative Humidity: 66%.
R/O Winston made the following verbal report, which is stated in summary and not verbatim.
R/O entered the facility's parking lot from Notting Hill Road and proceeded to the service and delivery area, where he was met by Martinson, who was waiting on the access road behind the building. Martinson led R/O to a dumpster approximately 25 feet north of that location to the body of an apparently deceased adult male, who Martinson identified as nursing home employee Jerry Shaw (Person 1).
At R/O's request, Martinson exited the immediate area but did not depart the premises. R/O asked Martinson to instruct employees and residents to stay clear of the area and to direct sheriff's department personnel and EMTs to his location.
R/O then secured the scene and cleared the area, finding no other persons present in the vicinity.
R/O said YCFD EMTs R. Peterson and J. Bilkey arrived at approximately 4:31 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: witness Lynette Martinson, EMT Peterson, EMT Bilkey and himself.
After receiving the verbal report from R/O Winston, R/Is conducted a preliminary inspection of the scene.
R/Is observed discarded paper, food wrappers, beverage containers, and food items in the area surrounding the dumpster.
Immediately east of the dumpster, R/Is observed a lifeless human body, a male estimated to be in his 30s. Visual inspection indicated the victim was wearing blue scrubs. The body lay in a supine position, with the head towards the northeast corner of the dumpster and the feet towards the southwest corner. The left arm was at an approximate 45º angle to the body and resting on the curb east of the body. The right arm was at an approximate 90º angle to the body, bent slightly at the elbow and partially underneath the wheeled dumpster in the gap between the bottom of the container and the asphalt.
The right knee was bent approximately 90º at the hip and 130º at the knee. The left leg was essentially straight. R/Is observed residue on the sole of the left shoe visually consistent with what appeared to be discarded food immediately southeast of the left foot.
R/Is further observed what appeared to be a large contusion on the right side of the victim's forehead but noted no other immediate signs of injury. 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 4:45 p.m. and joined R/Is at the body's location. Inspector Johnson pronounced the victim deceased at 4:48 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 or any other indications of heartbeat or respiration.
Inspector Johnson visually examined the body and noted a second apparent contusion at the nape of the victim's neck. Inspector Johnson noted that rigor mortis was not yet evident and that blanching livor mortis was observable on the posterior of the body. While she withheld an official estimate pending an autopsy, Inspector Johnson speculated the victim had been dead for approximately 30 to 60 minutes.
Inspector Johnson indicated that further details would be available in the official autopsy report. After completing her initial inspection of the body, Inspector Johnson 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 4:58 p.m. R/Is instructed CSU to process the entire scene according to standard procedure.
A preliminary search of the immediate area for potential weapon(s) that caused the injuries to the victim met with negative results. CSU will conduct a more intensive search and report their findings.
R/Is left the scene at 9:05 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 the Yoknapatawpha County Sheriff's Department to interview witness Lynette Martinson, who had previously been transported to that location.
The body of the deceased was remanded into the custody of Coroner's Inspector Luwinda Johnson. The deceased was removed from the scene at 8:36 p.m. and transported to the coroner's office for autopsy.
Evidence was 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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