EC-02: Sheriff Mayfield

Many many thanks go out to Jim for this one. The details he gave me were amazing! Man's a genius! Thanks, Jim--Maer

From Irina DiSanti’s encounter reports

Personal observations  = (parenthetical remarks)
Direct statements        = in bold.
Anything of note          = italicized.

Thursday, 21 Jul 2011

Where: Adams County Sheriff Department, 306 State Street, Natchez MS
Who: Sheriff Chuck Mayfield
What: Welcome interview, letter of introduction, regularization of licenses
When: Thursday, 21 Jul 2011, 1430 hrs, local time; ASAP arrival in Natchez
Why: To introduce myself in person and deliver Letter of Introduction by Gerald Grierson, Lt., NYPD; declare intent to investigate the legitimacy of The Franklin Agency; to offer help in any investigation, future or current; to apply for any needful licenses as a PI and as gun owner, to legalize CCW use; to cultivate Sheriff and department as a resource and an ally; to offer myself as a resource and ally

Physical description:
Caucasian, male, 6’-0”/6’-2”, 220-240, Grey on blue.

Demeanor:
Measured, thoughtful, gracious. Has an accent. Speaks in short, clipped phrases. Observant.

• (Saw him sizing me up, looking for possible weapons.)
  
  

Professional:

• He’s a graduate of Ole Miss.
  
• Likely worked in DEA (followed drug case to NYC, met Grierson during) in the past.
• Recently elected Sheriff of Adams County (2010).
  
• See the ACSO webpage here.
• Had a FB page. Since taken down and Google Cached: See the cached FB page here
  
• (Link to FB found during a simple Google search under Mayfield’s name)
  
• Has a suspicions RE: The Franklin Agency.
  
  
  

In interview of 21 Jul 2011, Sheriff had this to say about TFA:

• "Paper work was sent in registered from Montana, all discussion through registered mail. Never had a formal visit from one of the agents here in the office. What is this agency all about?"
  
• Mayfield’s notes: indicate that TFA founded in Natchez Mid Jan 2011/Early Feb
  
• (Is this part of the front man duties TFA needs out of me? To meet the Sheriff and other officials? Why?)
  
  

When I announced my intention to investigate TFA, Sheriff visibly relaxes and states:

• "You're asking all the right questions. Same questions I had. Best thing I can ask you to do for me, to help out my department, is be patient. This ain't New York, and folks down here take it slower."
  
• (At which point he starts writing out a list on yellow legal pad, speaking as he writes)
  
• "There are a few crimes that Franklin might or might not be involved in, but these are what my department's working on, and each one of these are sensitive; IF you poke into any of these, please keep me abreast of what you find, and I'll give you what details we uncover:
  
  

Over the last six months, there have been four murders that seem somehow related. Victim outside, not near their house, multiple stab wounds, needle pricks, exsanguinated."

• (Four murders? Apparently related. Serial killer?)
  
• (Exsanguination is a weird COD. Is it motive, MO, or signature?)
  
• "Doctor Murphrey killed inside his house, Helter Skelter style. Occult overtones. Few things taken, to make it look on the surface like a botched robbery. No apparent connection to the string of recent outside murders."
  
• (What things taken? Was the house tossed to look for something or to hide what was done? Was Murphrey the M.E. for the first four vics? What kind of occult overtones? Any sketchy occult people in the area? Have they been questioned?)
  
• Mayfield’s notes: reveal Murphrey was killed in mid-February, before the four vics.
  
• (Is his death related to the other four? If so, how? Why? Was he the first? Was he the practice victim for the run of the four? The MO is different in body placement and MO. Why?)
  
• Mayfield’s notes: The four vics were killed roughly 1/mo with the first of the four starting in April.
  
• Mayfield’s notes: Murphrey was a surgeon at Adams Co. General Hospital. Previously was Oxford University surgeon, was reassigned to Natchez.
  
• Mayfield’s notes: Strange symbols on the mirrors and the absence of blood were what made him think occult. Most of the occult activity known in the area is bored teenagers, and the owner of the Cabbage Rose.
  
• (Absence of blood figures in Doc’s death, too. Is this the link to the other four? The missing blood?)
  
• (The Cabbage Rose--I was there in visit of 24-26 Jun 2011. Met Caroline Thibideaux.)
  
  

• "Dreama McCullen, librarian. Missing persons report. Current theory is suicide; she was reported to be very depressed lately. Her habits had changed recently; her laptop showed lots of late, late night online activity. Sensitive, because of recent murder string."
  
• (How long has she been missing?)
  
• (What was the content/personsinvolved in the late night online activity?)
  
• (Have her phone records been pulled? Her internet records, her financials?)
  
• (Online scams—any recent activity of such in the area?)
  
• (Was anything missing from her residence—evidence that she packed to go on a trip,maybe to meet someone from online?)
• (She was reported as being depressed. By whom? How depressed? Any theories as to why? Did she have any evidence of a sudden departure from her usual behavior? Is she on depression medication? If so, who is her prescribing physician? What was she taking and how long was she taking it?)
  
• ( Does she have any enemies? Does she have any close friends or confidantes? If so, are they willing to talk to the police or anyone the police would call in as a consultant?)
  
• Mayfield’s notes: Her behavior seems to have changed gradually, but caused concern with her coworkers and what few friends she had. No sign of disturbance at her home, no sign of packing. Her luggage is still in the hall closet at her house. Online activity seems to have been Singles Chat rooms. Most posts recently at that site have been with EagleFeather42. Warrant issued to MeetMe.net for records of who the member is. No known enemies, no close friends other than her brother and sister in law. The sister in law in the one who let deputies into her home.
  
  

• "Report phoned in, anonymous tip, about an attack last night behind the post office. Caller was a man, apparently middle aged, refused to identify. This morning, investigating officer reported blood and torn up grass, sign of a struggle but no body. Other cases, body was left at the scene. Caller claimed to have rescued the victim but refused to name said victim."
  
• (When was the call logged in?)
  
• (How do you know it was a middle aged male?)
  
• (Is there a transcript of the call available?)
  
• (Has the crime scene been processed or is it still being worked on? Is it possible to see the crime scene herself or read the CS reports and findings?)
  
• (Have you canvassed the area for other eyewitnesses?)
  
• (There was blood on the scene. That implies injury. Have the hospitals got any patients recently admitted with injuries that might fit the MO of the other victims? If so, can we see them? If not, where and by whom is the victim being cared for?)
  
• (Has anyone turned up missing, someone who didn’t show up for work and cannot be found?)
  
• (Perhaps this latest victim is not being cared for at home or in the hospital but somewhere else by strangers and cannot leave. Perhaps the Good Samaritan is tending the victim?)
  
• (But why not go to the hospital and leave the victim anonymously? That doesn’t make sense. Besides, we only have the word of a person—sight unseen—making a call to the police CLAIMING the victim was saved. How do we know that this is the truth? What if the caller was the killer laying a false trail to hide the fact he was successful?)
  
• Mayfield’s notes: Call logged in at 3:15am, the dispatcher decided the voice was male, and SOUNDED middle aged to her. Scene behind post office still cordoned off with yellow tape. So far, no witnesses other then anonymous call.
  
• Mayfield’s notes: Camera at Post office showed a large black woman in one frame. Only other camera in area is ATM camera at bank across the street. No suspicious activity there during time frame.
  
• (The camera was painted over at the crime scene. This woman must have been taken BEFORE the spray paint covered lens.)
  
• Mayfield’s notes: No one checked in massive blood loss at any hospital within 75 miles. No new missing persons report, but still fairly fresh case. Reason we're following up is the amount of blood and signs of struggle at the scene; originally dispatched deputy just to be thorough. It very well might be that the killer called it in; other scenes of crimes fitting this MO haven't had the blood and signs of struggle of this attack.
  
• (True. All the other victims, including the Doc, were exsanguinated. Again, why?)
  
  

RE: Doc’s murder different from others + possible motive of PO attack.

• ( The Doc’s murder was different from the others. Is this because the murder was done by a different party altogether? Or is it evidence of the killer changing his MO? Or continuing evolution of his MO? What if the killer has escalated his violence, what if his MO is still evolving? It’s not enough to hack the victim to pieces and exsanguinate him or her in one go. What if he wants to keep his victim alive for a bit? Now he’s escalated to kidnapping AND murder. Both of which are capital crimes but now they’re compounded. Murder during a kidnapping is more serious than either crime alone. If the victim is still alive, we have some time to recover the victim before being killed … but God, there’s no evidence to support that this is the case. Yet.)
  
• (Will Dreama McCullen show up as that kidnapped/kept alive victim?)
  
  

Similarities of victims and crime scene:

• Mayfield’s notes: In general, nights of little to no moon, USUALLY during rain, other than doctor, all bodies left outside. The previous corpses outside were left in woods behind houses outside of town.
  
  

Of the Post Office attack:

• Mayfield’s notes: Of weather during attack of 21 Jul 2011-- Local weather report: 2:30 am, raining heavily. By 3am, rain had stopped.
  
• (Dispatch call logged in at 315am. Assuming the caller and rescuer were the same and assuming caller made call after attack and rain had stopped at 3am and victim was safe somewhere, what is distance circumscribed by a 15-30 minute radius of Post Office by foot? by car? Can I limit the caller to this area?)
  
• Mayfield’s notes: Two blocks from scene, behind a florist shop, there are recent tire marks as if a driver pulled away far in excess of the posted 15 mph limit.
  
• (Were photographs taken of the tire marks? Was the tread pattern visible?)
  
• (Could this car be the rescuer’s or the attacker’s)
  
• Mayfield’s notes: Nearby, there are signs of a very deep imprint of a high heel in the grass in another median in the same parking lot, but unable to determine when the print made; suspect that night, or rain would have washed it entirely away.
  
• (Could this have been left by the black woman from the PO camera feed? Are her shoes visible in the camera feed?)
  
• (How heavy would a person have to be to leave that deep a heel mark?)
  
• (Could it be a person carrying something heavy? Why assume the heel mark was made by an unencumbered person? Why assume the heel mark was made by someone encumbered?)
  
• Mayfield’s notes: Blood at scene is mix of several different blood types, like someone took of the blood of several people and shook it in a beaker to splash around.
  
• (There’s that damned blood again. Only … different blood types? I didn’t see any occult symbols painted on the Post Office’s walls, like at Doc’s house, that might account for it—if for instance the symbols are painted in blood other than the victim’s … wait. What am I trying to say here? If you’re going to kill someone in a bloody fashion, why take extra blood along to paint on the walls if you’re going to have blood from the victim on hand? That makes no sense. Although if you did bring extra blood, where would you get it? A blood bank? A blood bank would have all blood types—A, B, AB, and O. Mayfield’s notes say the blood at the scene was several types mixed together. Why? How?)
  
  

 ***

At which point I had to stop and think on this a minute. Where was I going with my parenthetical? Something was nagging at me from the back of my head but I couldn’t make it come forward.

From the top, then:

1. Doc, killed Helter Skelter style, strange symbols on mirrors, absence of blood, exsanguination
2. 4 vics: bodies left outside houses, in woods, exsanguination.
3. Murders on nights little or no moon, usually during rain.
4. Attack at Post Office during downpour. Some blood evidence found at site, some of it damned odd. Cannot tell if exsanguination was goal of attack or if was a by-product of attack because victim lived and cannot be found.

Of the five murders, exsanguination was the common element. Of the one attack, blood was shed, possibly violently based on the violence done to the grass and the soil, but amount of blood is undetermined because of the rain.

Wait.

If the attack at the Post Office was the MO—outdoors, rain, bloodletting—then the places where the bodies were found in the woods, was there evidence of blood there too?

At which point I called the Sheriff (1655hrs):

Irina DiSanti:"Sir, the notes you gave me say the bodies were exsanguinated. Where did the blood go? Was it at the crime scene? Were the bodies drained inside the victim's residence first? Say in the tub? Or a sink? If so, were the traps examined? If there was no evidence of that amount of blood anywhere at the scene or in their domicile, and assuming that the victim wasn't killed somewhere else and then moved to the scene, then where did the blood go when it left the body?"

(There is a short pause on other end of the line)

Sheriff Mayfield:"That's true, CSI for each of the cases of interest determined that death occurred somewhere other than scene of discovery. Victims were mostly bled out before apparently finished off with low velocity spatter short blade stab wounds."

At which point I thanked him and released the call.

 ***

• (Where was the blood going? The victims were mostly bled out before being finished off.)
  
• (Stab wounds evident by spatter and apparent condition of bodies. If you’re using knives and hatchets to bleed a victim out, what were the needles that made the needle pricks used for? Unless you ripped open someone’s jugular vein with a needle, the hole made would be too small to bleed out someone, even if you made a hundred of those holes.)
  
• (Were the needles used to introduce something INTO the victim, like people getting inoculated against disease? If so, what? Something to throw the toxicology reports off? Why?)
  
• (God, I could be at this all night without getting anywhere.)
  
  

An addition from the Sheriff’s notes RE: the murder string:

• Mayfield’s notes: All this started about the time Franklin Agency opened. The strange amount of money being thrown around, new to the area, outsider, all the mystery... and that Walker guy is reputed to "act mighty funny" by the few natives who've met him at local B&B, grocery store, and the Historical Society he bought Longwood from.
  
• (How much of this is wounded regional pride? How much is circumstantial evidence? Is it correlation? Or causation?)
  
  

One last addition from the interview:

• "Also, the usual; lost pet, neighbor disputes, some domestics. Working on a theory tying all the listed ones together. Any leads you get, keep me in the loop. Check in with ME, not the department. Like I said, I got a theory, and it involves serious money. One thing same here as in New York. If money is involved, you got to keep the investigation close."
  
  
  

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