| REPORTING OFFICER'S NARRATIVE(Brief narrative of the facts surrounding the offense and the arrest.)
At 5:48 p.m., Dispatch received a 911 call reporting a woman had collapsed at the Yoknapatawpha County Conference Center (YCCC) and Hotel at 1710 Belk Boulevard. The caller identified herself as Yvonne Boyd, events manager of the YCCC. Yoknapatawpha County Fire Department EMTs were dispatched and arrived at the scene at 5:51 p.m., according to YCFD records. Yoknapatawpha County Sheriff's Unit 225 (Officer Richard Squire) was also dispatched and arrived at the scene at 5:54 p.m.
At 6:02 p.m., R/O contacted Dispatch and requested backup and homicide investigators as a precaution. Unit 304 (Deputy F. Willits) and Unit 213 (Officer M. Arborough) were dispatched to provide backup and arrived at the scene at 6:14 p.m. and 6:07 p.m. respectively.
Reporting Investigators (R/Is) Detectives T. Armstrong and S. Murphy were assigned and proceeded directly to the scene, arriving at 6:35 p.m. Upon arrival, R/Is found that R/Os had secured the area. Environmental conditions at the scene upon arrival are as follows: Weather: Rain; Exterior Ambient Temperature 57°F/14°C; Relative Humidity: 100%; Interior Ambient Temperature 71°F/22°C; Interior Relative Humidity: 37%.
R/O Squire made the following verbal report, which is stated in summary and not verbatim.
R/O responded to the location and was met at the entrance to the YCCC by an adult female, who identified herself as Yvonne Boyd (Person 3). Person 3 directed R/O to a location known as The Yocona Room inside the facility. R/O noted there was a large crowd of onlookers present in the room.
R/O Squire further observed that YCFD EMTs B. Harcourt and N. Keller were already on the scene and attending to a woman, later identified as Diane Coates (Person 1), who lay supine on the floor on the west side of the Yocona Room. R/O Squire reported that, at 6:01 p.m., the YCFD EMTs transported Person 1 from the scene to Baptist Memorial Hospital. R/O Squire indicated that Person 1 had no visible external injuries at the time she was removed from the scene.
R/O Squire said that, after Person 1 was removed from the scene, all three of the R/Os began canvassing the witnesses at the scene for information about the incident.
After receiving the report from R/O Squire, R/Is conducted a preliminary inspection of the scene.
The Yocona Room of the YCCC was crowded with the conference attendees and employees of the YCCC. R/Os noted the names and addresses of all persons present, and spoke to each person to determine whether any of them saw or heard anything unusual preceding Person 1's collapse. Several witnesses said they had seen and/or heard an argument between Person 1 and her boss, Sandra Moss (Person 2) just prior to Person 1's collapse.
The lack of overt evidence of commission of a crime limited R/Is' inquiries in regard to this incident to basic information gathering at the time of this filing.
Upon receiving notification at 6:46 p.m. of the death of Person 1, R/Is contacted the Coroner's Office and requested a full cause of death investigation including complete autopsy.
R/Is left the location at 9:23 p.m. to notify Person 1's next of kin, Rupert Coates. As of this filing, the body was scheduled to be remanded into the custody of the Yoknapatawpha County Coroner for transport from Baptist Memorial Hospital to the coroner's office for autopsy.
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