| REPORTING OFFICER'S NARRATIVE (Brief narrative of the facts surrounding the offense and the arrest.)
At 6:36 a.m., Dispatch received a 911 call reporting the discovery of human remains at the Lamar Park lake in Oxford. The caller identified herself as Shannon Bower.
Yoknapatawpha County Sheriff's Unit 225 (Officer R. Squire) was dispatched and arrived at the scene at 6:41 a.m. After confirming the presence of possible human remains, R/O notified Dispatch and requested 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 7:39 a.m. and found that R/O had secured the immediate area. Environmental conditions at the scene upon arrival were as follows: Weather: Mostly cloudy; Ambient Temperature: 68°F / 20° C; Relative Humidity: 100%.
R/O Squire made the following verbal report, which is stated in summary and not verbatim.
R/O was met by witness Shannon Bower at the Lamar Park Arrival Plaza near the south parking lot off Country Club Road. Bower escorted R/O to the southeast area of the Lamar Park lake. Bower directed R/O to an object at the edge of the lake, just north of the pier at the southeast corner of the lake.
R/O observed a partially open plastic bag containing what appeared to be human remains. R/O noted a strong odor of decomposition coming from the bag. R/O then secured the area and called for backup. Yoknapatawpha County Sheriff's Unit 207 (Officer D. C. Baxter) and Unit 239 (Officer R. Winfield) arrived at the scene at 6:58 a.m. and 7:03 a.m., respectively.
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 Shannon Bower and himself.
After receiving the report from R/O Squire, R/Is conducted a preliminary inspection of the scene. R/Is observed a large, heavy-duty trash bag on the east shore of the Lamar Park lake, approximately 32 feet north of the pier at the southeast corner of the lake. The bag contained multiple items wrapped in brown paper and secured with brown twine. The paper was wet and torn on one of the bundles, revealing portions of two human feet. R/Is could not determine the contents of the other paper-wrapped bundles without disturbing the evidence.
CSU arrived at the scene at approximately 8:20 a.m., and Coroner's Inspector L. Johnson arrived at 8:30 a.m.
Inspector Johnson visually examined the bundles without removing the remaining paper or twine and speculated, based on shape and size, that the bundles contained legs and arms from an adult, most likely a male given the size. Inspector Johnson further speculated that the hands were not included in any of the bundles, but said she could not be sure until the evidence had been processed and the bundles could be unwrapped.
R/Is instructed CSU to collect the package and pack it in ice for submission to the Yoknapatawpha County Coroner's Office in accordance with instructions from Inspector L. Johnson. R/Is additionally instructed CSU to process the area surrounding the package according to standard procedure.
A preliminary search of the area, including along the lake shore, revealed no additional evidence. CSU will conduct a more intensive search of the area and report their findings.
R/Is left the scene at 9:45 a.m. to interview witness Shannon Bower, who had been transported to the Yoknapatawpha County Sheriff's Department. Before leaving, R/I Murphy instructed CSU to secure the scene prior to leaving that day if processing was not complete at that time. 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.
Evidence was remanded into the custody of Forensics Officer T. R. Douglas for transport to the Yoknapatawpha County Coroner's Office for analysis. Any additional evidence found to be submitted directly to the MCL. 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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