Man's head found on Jackson porch
A woman had her family members walk her up the street from her home Saturday morning — past the crime scene tape and inquisitive reporters. Just away.
She said she just had to go somewhere else. There was a severed head just sitting on her neighbor's porch. She didn't know whose head it was, but she couldn't stay either way.
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Other neighbors gathered and dispersed intermittently, and none of them wanted their name or face in media reports of the incident.
"Someone's sending a message," one man said. "Why else do you do that?"
The head, Jackson Police Department spokesman Cmdr. Tyree Jones said, was that of a young black male who has not yet been identified.
The cause of death, he said, appeared to be "severance."
A badly burned body was later discovered in a wooded residential area off Green Street near the corner of Grand Avenue — about a half-mile to a mile away. A resident using the road had spotted the body, Jones said. While the body was that of a black male, and it's likely part of the same case, confirmation is still awaiting autopsy results.
After the initial crowds had cleared, the steps had been washed off, and the police were packing up, a man got out of a car that had pulled up. He wouldn't identify himself, but told reporters he lived in the home where the head was found. He was clearly shaken, and didn't want to talk about whether he knew the victim.
"What do you think about all this?" a reporter asked.
"I think it's another funeral to go to. Every Saturday, we have another funeral. It's every week," he said.
Authorities said they got the call at 9:19 a.m. When they got to the scene, they found the remains on the stairs of the home at 1536 Deer Park St.
When coroner Sharon Grisham Stewart arrived, she didn't have to stay long. Without the rest of the body, her part of processing the scene went quickly.
Asked if the message that was possibly being left could have been gang-related, as there are gangs whose signatures include decapitation, Jones said it's too early to speculate on motive.
"It's senseless, and it's tragic, and it's sad," he said.
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If you have knowledge of this crime, please call JPD at 601-960-1234 or Crime Stoppers at 601-355-TIPS (8477). Send a text to 847411 and enter "JPD," followed by your tip information, then press "send." You may also submit a tip online by clicking on the web tip link on the homepage of the Central MS Crime Stoppers website, or submit your tip information from a mobile device or any other computer by going to www.P3tips.com.
Contact Therese Apel at 601-961-7236 or tapel@gannett.com. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter.