Incident report – object found

Lori Schultz (Person 1) phoned the sheriff's department main number at 10:05 p.m. to report she had discovered an unusual object in the residence of Monica Drum (Case # 003016-16F-2024). Dispatch contacted the on-call detective. Reporting Investigator (R/I) Detective Erin Parker was assigned and proceeded directly to the Drum residence.

R/I arrived at the scene at 10:22 p.m. and was admitted to the residence by Schultz.

Schultz showed R/I the object in question: a statuette on the desk in the home office. The 15' X 12' office had one window and contained a cherry wood desk and chair, a fold-out sofa, a floor lamp, a bulletin board near the desk, and a desk lamp. The room was cluttered with miscellaneous newspapers and old correspondence. Schultz said that was the condition she found the room in and said Drum "always had a problem with neatness."

The statuette was in the rear right corner of the desk, behind the desk lamp and a book titled "Meditations for Women Who Do Too Much," and directly next to a Sands casino coffee mug containing pens and pencils. The area immediately around the statuette was coated with dust.

The statuette is Naaman fine porcelain from Israel and measures roughly 5.75" high, 5.5" wide, and 2" deep. It depicts three figures in silhouette. What appeared to be a safe deposit key was attached to the underside of the statuette with transparent packing tape. There was no label on the key.

When asked to describe how she came to be in Drum's residence, Schultz said she was the executor of Drum's will and had come to Oxford to go through Drum's personal belongings. Schultz said she planned to ship most of Drum's property to Drum's parents in Ohio and give away to friends and relatives only the items specified in Drum's will.

Schultz said she had been working for about an hour on the items in Drum's office when she noticed the statuette was unstable and picked it up to look at it. Schultz said she contacted the Sheriff's Department immediately after spotting the key because "I knew there was something funny about it. Monica never did weird stuff like that."

Asked about the statuette's possible significance, Schultz said she had never seen it before but was "pretty sure it has to be" a souvenir item from when Drum's parents went to Israel. Schultz said Drum herself had never been to Israel but had always wanted to go.

When asked whether Drum had ever mentioned the key or any kind of upcoming trip to Israel, Schultz said she'd never heard anything about the key, and the key was not mentioned in Drum's will. Schultz added that Drum hadn't discussed anything related to money lately but had talked about maybe taking a vacation in the summer, though she didn't say where.

R/I took the statuette and key into evidence and asked Schultz to notify the Sheriff's Department if she found anything else unusual or unexpected in Drum's residence.

R/I also notified Schultz that she would need to come into the Sheriff's Department the next day for a formal interview at a time to be determined. Schultz indicated she would be in town for several days and would be available for an interview at the detectives' convenience.

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