Body unearthed in Dudley
By John Joyce
Published in News on April 7, 2015 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Det. Sgt. Bob Golimoski photographs the site where the body of a missing person was found buried in Dudley Monday. First Sgt. Tammy Mozingo and crime scene investigators Det. Sgt. Robert Chunn and Det. Sgt. Richard Winders work to excavate the body of the victim.
Investigators believe the body of a man found buried in a shallow grave behind a home at 111 Boykin Drive in Dudley late Monday is that of Walter Lee Jordan, 59, who was reported missing in February.
The tentative identification will have to be confirmed by the medical examiner, law enforcement officials said.
"We will have the autopsy followed up in the morning, and we will continue to investigate on what witness and suspect information we have," Wayne County Sheriff Larry Pierce said late Monday night.
Medical and dental records will be required to positively identify the body due to decomposition. The death is being investigated as a homicide.
"We feel like we will have charges coming up pretty shortly," Pierce said.
The Sheriff's Office began investigating the case after Jordan was reported missing Feb. 27. There is some discrepancy, however, between the time he was last seen and the time he was reported missing, investigators said.
"The last time we can place him anywhere is in December," Maj. Tom Effler said.
Effler said the home behind which Jordan's body was found was his last known address. Neighbors at the scene who asked not to be identified said the family living there moved out last month.
Detective Sgt. Bob Golimoski worked the missing persons case along with First Sgt. Tammy Mozingo and Lt. Ron Baker. From the beginning, none of them believed the victim simply "wandered off," although he had been rumored to often do so, Effler said.
"I want to commend these investigators for pursuing this case. The were very tenacious from very early on," Pierce said. "They just had a gut feeling this was more than a missing persons case."
Information led detectives back to the Boykin Drive home several times throughout the investigation, Effler said.
Detectives searched multiple times inside the home and around the property. But it was new information received Monday that sent them back out to the house, to the back yard, this time with the help of K-9 units.
"Really they've been working on it pretty seriously since (it was reported). Then they got out here earlier today and have been working in this spot since about 6:30 p.m.," Effler said.
The investigators, in hazmat suits and wearing masks to filter out debris and odor, stood knee deep in a hole large enough to conceal the adult male victim.
Members of the Mar Mac Volunteer Fire Department were on standby and lent the use of their fire engine's high powered lights to illuminate the dig site. At one point, the firefighters had to use a hydraulic cutting tool to cut away tree roots to help free the body.
Pierce said the body was wrapped in a blanket, which served to contain much of the evidence the district attorney's office will need to prosecute the case. He said little excavation around the burial site would be needed.
Investigators had not yet determined whether Jordan was killed inside the home or out in the yard where he was buried, but they did not believe he was killed anywhere else and the body relocated.
"We feel like he was probably killed here," Effler said.
"There are suspects in the case and their arrests are forthcoming."