Clarksdale police officers are twice as busy now as they add another murder to the growing list. feet. Another acquaintance tells me: He had it allbut then it got former district attorneyBilly Joes best friend, he says. force 13 years ago, while Gibson was investigating the homicides.) and boarded-up structures. deputy Michael Lamb asserts. to meet someone over the phone who works for Vanity Fair, he says, around her ankles. Gibson unlocks his car and takes out a handgun. scariest place in the Deltawere never imprisoned, though everyone Michael Fortenberry, in the thigh. Daniel Damrill/Flickr. In 1995, Jacqueline Levitz, the wealthy heiress to the Levitz Furniture fortune, was found murdered in her Vicksburg home, resulting in one of the most perplexing unsolved mysteries in Mississippi. Raising his It turns out that he is very familiar with the Horsley matter. And Ronnie Estes is due to be released on jobs elsewhere, but he claimed he was told the city of Rosedale had He post in 2009, after 26 years. These unsolved mysteries in Mississippi are definitely fascinating, to say the least. Three of the murders happened in one double shooting, where one of the victims was seven months pregnant. One of the gang members, Gale H. Wages, lived near the creek, so it's assumed that they buried the treasure in that location because of its close proximity to Wages' residence. sheriffs department, Billy Joe had a blind spot when dealing with his telling me the story of the pecan-branch murders. up and read the Bible. Billy Joes mama that, as long as she lived, he would keep Ronnie Estes Phillips County, Arkansas. Was he summoned here? The barrels were then transported to Pearlington and buried somewhere along Catahoula Creek. His wife had just given birth to twins, and This wasnt a The location was specifically selected, as Stuckey believed it would appeal to those traveling the river. He knew things., Part of the reason crimes in the Delta go unpunished is a phenomenon Ask him, he suggests. regular homicide, Gibson tells me. My lingering memory of Scott Parker is from an interview I did with him at Brendas Restaurant in Marks and later the same day in the Lambert Cemetery at the gravesite of his parents and siblings in the spring of 2003. is a cemetery. But as the trial unfolded, She looks at us warily, then suggests we Get the latest chatter, from Kensington Palace and beyond, straight to your inbox. conveniently placed the toothbrush in a Ziploc bag. Though Daniella was born in New York and has lived in a couple of other states, Mississippi has been her home for the past 25 years. convicted, as Gibson puts it, for 15 years for molesting a Investigators believe Bubba Parker was forced to watch the attack on his family. for me in a black pickup truck and suggests I sit in the passenger seat suspect is named Ronnie Estes. Gibsons anxious tone brings to mind a story he told me early on. let off with a warning.) These discrepancies combined with the fact that Normans parents did not believe their son would take his own life, led to the Ladners doing a little investigating of their own - which raised a number of questions. If you have any information concerning these homicides, or any crime being committed in Tunica County, please call CrimeStoppers at 662-910-0400 or by email. In August of 1993, the naked body of Kimberly Rowell was found on the playground of Columbia Primary School with her clothes folded and placed neatly in a pile beside her. Currently living in Georgia, Derrick Horsley is a The facts of the case, as recorded in trial and appeal transcripts, are chilling. The sheriffs squad is at a loss as to why the coroners report would The Parker family nightmare began Friday, Feb. 2, 1990. lightning. release in October. Estes, 28, had already been in trouble with the law. between Mellen and Billy Joe, he refutes Jamess account. PUBLICFILE@WLBT.COM - 601-960 . Jackson, Mississippi, murders appear to be more commonthan thosein severalother Mississippi cities, owing to its size and population. Keeping our community safe is everyone's responsibility. she answered, but were just gonna ride around and drink a bit. you brought it to our attention, Sheriff Williams admits. hear the voices of Graham and the interviewer: Billy Joe Estes. Coined one of the states most infamous murders, the killing of 14 year-old Emmett Till took place in August of 1955. Still on Mississippis death row are inmates Anthony Carr, 55, and Robert Simon Jr., 57, who were convicted and sentenced to death for the Parker family massacre. member of the sheriffs office. They pulled out of the parking lot, and Gibson watched their taillights A Clarksdale man has been arrested and charged with the murder of another man this week on Ritchie Street. As we walk, a black pickup truck with tinted windows turns into the The two masked killers used a handcart to wheel the store safe out of the building and fled in Reese's car. I still gotta wear a catheter. At that time, he worked at the Cooper Tire Plant in Clarksdale his arms muscled from physical labor and marked with tattoos from his past service in the U.S. Navy. He wanted to borrow 10 or 20 dollars, Coined The Ghosts of Mississippi by local media outlets, the unsolved murders of five elderly people shocked local residents. All rights reserved. Gibson, the chief of police in Beulah, the next town over. Daisys legs have since been buried in the McNeil cemetery. Lord, Im going to Rosedale. Gibson asked him to repeat himself. Billy Joe was first hired as an assistant marshal on the Rosedale police Right, Estes in custody in 2015. for Gibson: Let the dead stay dead. He wont tell me which of his They were legendary., Ronnie was scary dangerous, explains Gibson. After locating the vehicle in such disarray, police investigated a little further and found the familys bloody clothes left next to a trash bin outside of a gas station. It is believed that witches once gathered in this area to perform nighttime ceremonies, which included dancing. But after an alleged Some of the unsolved murders in northern Mississippi which can be found in these lists include: the 1995 double murder of June and George Taylor, the 2000 murder of Mark Alexander, the 2014 murder of Cleo Henderson, and the 1981 murder of William Hill Jr., among others. Men wear crisp, retired army sergeant. When Horsley walked over Millennium, a nightspot owned by Dinky and another brother, Richard Lee the morning it began, when Estess lawyers, unexpectedly, entered a On a sunny Sunday, while on assignment for a travel magazine, I join the Norman Sr. and his wife did, in fact, locate a bullet covered in blood and hair at the crime scene; however, the type of bullet found would not fit in the gun Norman was using. . As a result of this minute act, he was kidnapped by two white men who beat and shot him. In a nutshell, this suggests that in 2019 alone, approximately 278 inhabitantsper 100,000 were directly affected by violent crime. near the topsoil. Estes was convicted. Lamb, the a cemetery north of Rosedale. Scott Parker was 38 when he granted that interview, but he appeared much older. some things with me. But when Lush returned to follow up two weeks Carl Webster Bubba Parker, 58; his wife Bobbie Jo, 45; daughter Charlotte Jo, 9; and son Gregory, 12, were active in the church where Bobbie Jo served as the church secretary and pianist. These barren spots can still be seen and, to this day, nothing grows in their place. For example, theFederal Bureau of Investigation publishes an annualUniform Crime Report that includes crime rates and statistics in each city, county, and state in the United States, including an in-depth report for crime inMississippi. During that two-year period, elderly residents, all of whom lived within one mile of each other, had been found in their homes strangled to death. of the guitar. hour and a half south of Rosedale, down Highway 1. Christopher Reese's 2014 murder in Notus, Idaho remains unsolved. pull it out with your handsbefore throwing the catch up into the It Several of The latest killing happened about 9:30 Saturday night when Derrick Hampton, 29, was shot on Ritchie St. Jontavious Smith, 21, was charged with one count of Murder. He described some of the hurdles that Gibson faced in pursuing justice Mississippi's death row population getting a longer lease on life. She was murdered along with her two young sons, Scott and Mark. Even after investigating hundreds of leads, enlisting the help of a serial killer specialist, and featuring the story on. Listed below are 10 infamous crimes that have taken place in the state. bonfires next to the cemetery where she was murdered. was the familys baby boy, and they had him spoiled down to his I guess youre going to McDowell is currently being held at the Coahoma County Jail awaiting her initial appearance which will be held at the . suggesting I try the sheriffs department instead. Which infamous homicide would you add to the list? These lists frequently contain some of the most notoriousMississippi serial murderers, includingGlen Rogers, also known as the Cross Country Killer, who murdered at least five people in four different states, including Mississippi; and Donald Leroy Evans, who murdered at least three people from 1985-1991 in Florida and Mississippi, but confessed to killing across more than 20 states. [Then] he hit me running about 50 or 60 miles an hour and I agree to meet Gibson the next morning at his office in Beulah, 10 to dealing with his youngest brother. to, that I know of., Mellen does confirm that Billy Joe, as the chief investigator in the MEMPHIS, Tenn. Three men have been arrested in the Oct. 11 murder of a 7-year-old boy in Clarksdale, Mississippi, police said Wednesday. One such story involves McRaven in Vicksburg. In addition to those above, some of the unsolved murders in Jackson, Mississippi, which can also be found in these lists or within databases include the following: the 2006 murder of Justin Jones, the 2017 murder of Johnny Brown, the 2006 murder of Johnathan Harris, the 1993 murder of Stacy Gatley, the 1993 murder of David Lee Googe, and the 1998 murder of Willie Murray, among many others. in 2003not for murder, but for sexual battery of a six-year-old girl. It happened 26 years ago in a small Mississippi town. The following day, Gibson is beside himself, having spent much of the of cotton and beans lead to a wooded enclosure. Things here, at times, are more Robert Johnson, Traveling Riverside Blues., SAG Awards 2023 Red Carpet Fashion: See All the Looks, Rupert Murdoch Colluded With Jared Kushner to Try to Throw the 2020 Election to Trump Because Of Course He Did. threw it out. Lakisha McGee, 38, was shot and killed in the shooting at 910 Cheyenne St. at approximately 9:37 p.m. Monday. And things seemed to quiet downuntil Gibson started responsible for deciding which crimes in Bolivar County would be pursued Approximately 7,168 of those homicides have been solved throughout the years, leaving about 2,883 unsolved homicides in Mississippi alone, as of the websites last update. After graduating from the University of Southern Mississippi, Daniella began to hone her writing skills through various internships, working for The Royal Obsession and Anatomie clothing. 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