JPD: Officers erred in 911 response

Jackson police officers responding to a 911 call early Tuesday in which a woman had been killed mishandled the case, Chief Lindsey Horton said.

Horton told The Clarion-Ledger that the two officers, whose names were not provided, failed to thoroughly check the property from which the call had originated. Had they done so, they would have found the body of 67-year-old Helen Ruth Harrion.

Instead, one of Harrion's family members discovered her body behind her Kingsroad Avenue home about 11 hours later.

She had been beaten, strangled and shot in the face, according to Hinds County Coroner Sharon Grisham Stewart. The victim's neck also had been broken, Grisham Stewart said, and it appears she might have been sexually assaulted.

Harrion had called Jackson dispatchers at 2:23 a.m to report a prowler, according to a 911 tape obtained by The Clarion-Ledger. When the officers arrived eight minutes later, nobody answered the door, and they left.

"They should have made contact with the complainant," Horton said. "They should have made contact with her to make sure of her of her welfare. But they did not do that."

Horton said the officers will get a "behavior modification" so they never made that mistake again.

"We have a practice and policy in place," he said, "and in this occasion I think they did not follow that."

Even if officers had located Harrion's body upon responding to the 911 call, they would not have been able to save her, Grisham Stewart said.

"Death occurred around the time of the injuries," she said. "She would not have lived."

Investigators continue to search for a suspect or suspects in the homicide, which is the 38th in Jackson this year.

Residents so far have provided numerous leads, Horton said, and several seem promising. It's possible that Harrion knew her attacker, he said, based on the nature of the injuries and the fact that nothing appears to have been taken from her home.

"There's no sign of a burglary," he said. "We do not know why (this happened), and we're trying to connect all the dots."

Anyone with information can call Crime Stoppers at (601) 355-TIPS (8477).

Contact Emily Le Coz at elecoz@jackson.gannett.com or (601) 961-7249. Follow @emily_lecoz on Twitter.