| REPORTING OFFICER'S NARRATIVE(Brief narrative of the facts surrounding the offense and the arrest.)
At 7:38 a.m., Dispatch received a 911 call reporting the discovery of a dead body at the Yoknapatawpha County Conference Center (YCCC) at 1710 Belk Boulevard. The caller identified herself as Yvonne Boyd, events manager at the YCCC.
Yoknapatawpha County Sheriff's Unit 222 (Officer S. Vittel) was dispatched and arrived at the location at 7:44 a.m. After confirming the presence of the body, Reporting Officer (R/O) Vittel 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 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 8:17 a.m. Upon arrival, R/Is found that R/O had secured the area. Environmental conditions at the scene upon arrival are as follows: Weather: Clear; Exterior Ambient Temperature: 85°F / 29°C, Relative Humidity: 62%; Interior Ambient Temperature: 70°F / 21°C, Relative Humidity: 34%.
R/O Vittel made the following verbal report, which is stated in summary and not verbatim.
R/O entered the YCCC through the main entrance and was met by an adult female who identified herself as Yvonne Boyd (Person 3). Boyd escorted R/O to Meeting Room 10 where Jake Hemphill (Person 2) was standing outside the door. Boyd and Hemphill remained in the corridor while R/O entered the room.
On the floor in the northwest corner of Meeting Room 10, R/O observed the body of an adult male, who Boyd and Hemphill identified as Douglas Reed (Person 1). At R/O's request, Boyd exited the area and returned to the main entrance to direct backup and medical personnel to R/O's 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 8:02 a.m., and after confirming the victim was deceased, withdrew from the crime scene.
R/O 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 Yvonne Boyd and Jake Hemphill, EMTs Peterson and Bilkey, and himself.
After receiving the verbal report from R/O Vittel, R/Is conducted a preliminary inspection of the scene. The YCCC meeting room measures 75 feet x 50 feet. Entrance is via an interior corridor south of the room.
Inside Meeting Room 10, tables and chairs are arranged facing the north end of the room. In the northwest corner of the room, R/Is observed a lifeless human body, a male estimated to be in his late 20s to early 30s, lying on the floor. The victim was on his left side with arms bent at the elbow and legs bent at the hips and knees.
Visual inspection indicated the victim was wearing khaki pants, a white shirt, and brown shoes. The front of the victim's shirt had a large stain that appeared to be blood.
CSU arrived at the scene at approximately 8:31 a.m. R/Is instructed CSU to process the entire scene according to standard procedure.
Coroner's Inspector Luwinda Johnson arrived at the scene at approximately 8:49 a.m. and joined R/Is at the body's location. Inspector Johnson pronounced the victim deceased at 8:56 a.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 observed what appeared to be a gunshot wound to the chest. Inspector Johnson noted that rigor mortis was well-established and livor mortis was observable on the left side of the body.
While she withheld an official estimate pending an autopsy, Inspector Johnson speculated the victim had been dead approximately 8 to 12 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 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.
R/Is interviewed the witnesses Boyd and Hemphill in a nearby meeting room at the YCCC. Transcripts are currently being processed.
Upon completion of the interviews, R/Is returned to Meeting Room 10 and were notified by Forensics Officer T. R. Douglas that a preliminary search of the immediate area for potential weapon(s) causing the injuries to the victim met with negative results. CSU will conduct a more intensive search and report their findings.
Body of the deceased was remanded into the custody of Coroner's Inspector Luwinda Johnson and was removed from the scene at 11:45 a.m. and transported to the coroner's office for autopsy.
R/Is left the scene at 1:30 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.
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.
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