Investigatige Narrative For A Murder

INVESTIGATIVE NARRATIVE

HOMICIDE: LINDSEY GEORGE

Incident #: 011507

Report Date: May 28, 2007

Investigating Detective: Jonathan Smith

INVESTIGATIVE NARRATIVE

LINDSAY GEORGE (DECEASED) &YAMINAH SMITH

I received a call from dispatch at 12:01am to report to 349 Ahoskie-Cofield rd. Ahoskie, NC. There had been a phone call to 911 from Mr. James White, who was the neighbor to the residence. I arrived at the scene at 12:05am. I radioed to dispatch that I had reached the residence of 349 Ahoskie-Cofield rd. I described the residence as a one-story brick house with black shutters. There were no other cars in the driveway. As I approached the front door, I noticed that the door was not only cracked open but there was evidence of forced entry. I yelled out "Ahoskie Police Department is anybody home." I began to enter the residence. I noticed that the table in the living room had been knocked over and a drink spilled. I continued to walk through the house with my weapon drawn in case the perpetrator was in the house.

I walked to the bedroom and noticed the body of a male lying on the floor of the bedroom. I called it into dispatch and requested back up. The victim had a bullet wound in his head. He was wearing some red sweat pants and a red and white jersey. His shoes were all white. He was bald-headed and had minimal facial hair. There was an all black short-barreled shotgun on the bedroom floor in close proximity to the victim. There was blood splatter on the walls, the floor and the bed. There were bullet holes in the bed which appeared to be made by a shotgun. I requested emergency medical services on the scene and also the medical examiner so we could get permission to remove the body and start the investigation once the person is officially pronounced dead.

(I turn into the investigator at this point.) I immediately began to secure the scene by taping off the area where the specific items of evidence were known to be, along with the lines of entry into and exit from, the scene. Officer Ramono arrived on the scene at 12:20am along with the remainder of the investigative team. I then determined the outer perimeter of the crime scene and had it taped off. I began to do a scene walk-through to identify valuable and/or fragile evidence and determine the initial investigative procedures for a systematic examination and documentation of the scene and the body.

It was now time to start searching the scene and collecting evidence. I noticed a fresh boot print in a small muddy area that was pointing towards the house but it was on the opposite side of the yard than the driveway. The location of the footprint was photographed as part of the general scene and then with a scale. To cast an impression of the boot print two pounds of dental stone was measured into a Ziploc bag and nine ounces of water was added to the dental stone and then massaged it together in the closed bag for five minutes. The dental stone was poured beside the boot impression and allowed to flow into the impression. It was labeled on the back and then removed after 30 minutes. The mold was placed in the proper chain of custody. I headed towards the front door to collect evidence from the door that appeared to be kicked open. A couple of partial boot prints were on the front door six to eight inches to the left of the door knob. These prints were photographed as part of the general scene and then with a scale beside them. A traditional black powder was used to develop latent prints on the door knob of the front door. The tip of the brush was gently placed into the wide-mouthed powder container and lightly tapped to allow excess powder to drop away. The entire door knob was dusted until the prints began to show and then the brush strokes followed the contours of the ridges until the prints were fully visible. The prints were placed into the proper chain of custody. I then stepped into the first room of the house. I noticed that the table had been knocked over but there was no blood evident in this room. I had photographs taken of the room and of the table with a scale to mark its exact location. The table was dusted with traditional powders for latent fingerprints. The fingerprints were placed in the appropriate chain of custody.

I then headed toward the bedroom where the body was found. There was a 12-gague shotgun shell located 4 inches in the room on the floor 6 inches away from the floor board. Pictures were taking with a ruler beside it. The shotgun was located about four inches from the bed at the barrel end and against the dead body at the other end. The short-barreled shotgun measured 27 inches. Photographs were taken of the shotgun with a ruler. We retrieved prints off both the shell and the shotgun with cyanoacrylate. The shell and the shotgun were both placed in a portable superglue fuming chamber. Cyanoacrylate was heated in this high humidity chamber. As the fumes condensed, they developed white-colored prints on both the shotgun and the shell in about 10 minutes. A .45 caliber casing was n the bad half-way under the cover. Pictures were taken of this casing with a scale. It was also placed in the fuming chamber and produced a partial print. All three of these items were then labeled and turned over to the proper chain of custody.

Fresh