Gloucester VA Links and News: NewsChannel 3

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Search warrant affidavit outlines how police found body buried behind Surry Co. home

Posted on: 4:18 pm, June 25, 2013, by Doris Taylor

Surry County, Va. – A search warrant affidavit explains what led police to the home where they dug up a body this weekend in Surry County.

A call from a Wilson, North Carolina man named ted Amundsen is what tipped police off to start digging behind this home, according to the search warrant affidavit.

It states that Amundsen developed a relationship with Jennifer Sawyer.

It says nothing about a romantic relationship, just a ‘relationship.’

She told him that her husband Jeffrey sawyer murdered a man, and that it’s still unsolved.

Police interviewed Jennifer and she told investigators that she witnessed her husband shoot a man only known as “David Tyrone” back on January 1, 2006 after a New Year’s Eve party, according to the affidavit.

She goes on to tell police that Jeffrey then put the body in a sleeping bag and buried it in the backyard of their home.

The affidavit says she has lived in the home since it happened.

Surry court records show that Jeffrey sawyer is currently behind bars for sex crimes involving a child.

Police tell NewsChannel 3 they have a suspect, but will not release the name and are planning to interview him soon.

Today, neighbors told us Jennifer Sawyer lives at the home with her six children, but police say she’s currently staying with relatives.

“It didn’t seem to be a terribly well-functioning household. And then he went away and we found out he had been incarcerated. We were always looking out for the children,” says a neighbor.

“He was a tall, strong man. He put up birthday things for his children to play on in the backyard. I think he may have had a bit of a short fuse,” the neighbor responded when asked about Jeffery.

Police say they have wrapped up digging, and don’t believe they’ll find more body parts.

They say they did find teeth remains, so they’ll try to use dental records, but will most likely use DNA to identify the body.

http://wtkr.com/2013/06/25/exclusive-search-warrant-affidavit-outlines-how-police-found-body-buried-behind-surry-co-home/ Link back to WTKR original story.

Saturday, June 15, 2013

Decomposed body found in Newport News shed

Posted on: 8:55 am, June 14, 2013, by Becca Mitchell and Jackie Morlock, updated on: 07:23am, June 15, 2013

Newport News, Va. – The badly decomposed body of a white male was found in a shed on Friday morning in Newport News.

The shed sits behind a house on 36th street just a few houses down from where Darren Turner lives.

“It’s been empty for quite some time. I mean you’ll see an older gentleman coming in and out like usually early in the morning or real late at night,” says Turner.

Turner thinks the man was homeless because he saw him climb through the window a few times.

A sign on the front door shows the house has been condemned since February and a large pile of clothes was right in front of the shed where police found the body.

“She fed him when he was hungry, helped him out every way she could,” says Tike Panags, a family friend.

Tike Panags says he’s friends with the family of the man who stayed in the house and that the man often stopped by his mom’s restaurant on 35th Street.

Police have not identified the body yet-

But Panags tells NewsChannel 3 the man’s sister called him the other day saying her brother had been missing since last Thursday.

He says she then asked him to go check on him.

“I came here yesterday about 3 o’clock and I knocked on the door, and I saw the window was broken over there and then I saw the condemned sign and no sign of him,” says Panags.

Police and forensics teams cleared the scene a little after 10 a.m. Police say the DNA tests will need to be done to identify the body because of how badly it was decomposed.

http://wtkr.com/2013/06/14/decomposed-body-found-in-a-newport-news-shed/ Original site link, WTKR news.