| REPORTING OFFICER'S NARRATIVE (Brief narrative of the facts surrounding the offense and the arrest.)
At 3:30 p.m., Dispatch received a 911 call regarding the discovery of a dead body in Apartment #102 at the Maplewood Apartments, 53 Effie Circle. The caller identified himself as Craig Albright (Person 3), the apartment manager.
Yoknapatawpha County Sheriff's Unit 209 (Officer P. Winston) was dispatched and arrived at the scene at 3:35 p.m. After confirming the presence of the body, R/O secured the scene and contacted Dispatch and requested backup and medical assistance.
Reporting Investigators (R/Is) Detectives S. Murphy and E. Parker 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 3:50 p.m. and found that R/O had secured the area. Environmental conditions at the scene upon arrival are as follows: Weather: Exterior Ambient Temperature: 75° F/ 24° C; Relative Humidity: 79%; Interior Ambient Temperature 68° F / 20° C; Interior Relative Humidity: 46%.
R/O Winston made the following verbal report, which is stated in summary and not verbatim.
R/O was met by Albright in the entryway of the apartment building. Albright led R/O to apartment #102 where there was the body of an adult female, who Albright identified as Courtney Morris (Person 1), resident of that apartment.
Inside the apartment, R/O found Mee-Yon Kim (Person 2), who claimed to be a friend of Courtney Morris.
At R/O's request, Albright returned to the entryway to direct backup and medical personnel to R/O's location.
R/O said YCFD EMTs R. Peterson and J. Bilkey arrived at approximately 3:45 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 Craig Albright and Mee-Yon Kim, EMTs Peterson and Bilkey, and himself.
After receiving the report from R/O Winston, R/Is conducted a preliminary inspection of the scene. R/Is found no signs of forced entry into the residence.
In the living room, R/Is observed a floral box containing three (3) red roses on the sofa. Three (3) additional red roses and a florist card were strewn on the floor. A silver heart-shaped locket was discovered on a coffee table.
In the bedroom of the residence, R/Is observed a lifeless human body, a female estimated to be in her 20s. Visual inspection indicated the victim was wearing a dark gray tank top with a white long-sleeved shirt over it and a pair of blue cropped jeans with a brown leather belt. The body was hanging from a closet door by a noose around the neck. Apparent contusions were visible on the forehead and around the left eye. 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 4:25 p.m. and joined R/Is at the body's location. Inspector Johnson pronounced the victim deceased at 4:28 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 noted a ligature mark circling the neck and further noted that rigor mortis was not yet observable. While she withheld an official estimate pending an autopsy, Inspector Johnson speculated the victim had been dead approximately 1 to 3 hours. 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 4:36 p.m. R/Is instructed CSU to process the entire scene according to standard procedure.
A preliminary search of the immediate area for any weapon(s) causing the injury to the victim's face met with negative results. CSU will conduct a more intensive search and report their findings.
The body of the deceased was remanded into the custody of Coroner's Inspector Luwinda Johnson and was removed from the scene at 7:56 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.
R/Is left the scene at 8:45 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.
|
