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PAGE 6A
BARROW JOURNAL
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2008
Public Safety
REPORTS ON CRIMES. WRECKS. FIRES & COURTS
Found body still not ID d
By SUSAN NORMAN
A forensic anthropolo
gist's study of the bones of
an unidentified man found
murdered Nov. 16 in Barrow
County has helped narrow
down the time of death and
has provided a general idea
of his age.
“(Dr. Rick) Snow gave us
an age range. He said the
victim was probably between
20 and 50. He was defi
nitely a male, of an unknown
race. We don't know when
he died, but (Snow) feels like
he'd been dead for at least
Three adults
Auburn police have arrest
ed three Auburn residents in
a case involving the alleged
statutory rape of a teen girl.
Monquez Nathaniel
Morton of 411 Breanna Ct.
was charged with statutory
rape and two counts of con
tributing to the delinquency
of a minor.
Martha Audrey Hensley
of Mt. Moriah Road was
charged with five counts of
contributing to the delin
quency of a minor and four
counts of enticing a child for
indecent purposes.
Billy Glenn Lewis II of Mt.
Moriah Road was charged
with five counts of contrib
uting to the delinquency of
a minor.
Auburn Police Lt. Danny
Kearns said that the case
is still under investigation
and that more charges are
pending.
two to four days,” said Jim
Fullington, special agent in
charge of the Georgia Bureau
of Investigation District 11
Office in Athens.
The information gathered
to date has enabled the GBI to
rule out a few missing people,
Fullington said.
He said the GBI now is
attempting to create a compos
ite of the victim’s face based
on the bones and other body
parts. The GBI will release
to the media a photograph of
the model to see if a member
of the public recognizes the
face statutory
OTHER ARRESTS
Auburn police also arrest
ed eight other people in unre
lated incidents Nov. 1-8.
Those arrested by the APD
and their alleged offenses
included:
•Christopher Daniel Brady,
17, of 186 Parks Mill Road,
Auburn, burglary.
•Jonathan Lee Brady, 23,
of 186 Parks Mill Road,
Auburn, burglary and party
to a crime.
•Anthony Dewayne Dodd,
28, of 120 Benson St.,
Lawrenceville, burglary.
•Kenneth Anthony House,
21, of 1370 6th Ave.,
Auburn, theft by receiving
stolen property.
•Steven Anthony House,
43, of 211 Windy Hill Ct.,
Jefferson, violation of pro
bation.
•Kaira Leran Rucker, 22B
E. Williams St., Winder, pos-
victim, he said.
The man’s body was dis
covered in woods behind
an abandoned house at 998
Atlanta Hwy.
The condition of the body
was so poor that investigators
initially could not tell the vic
tim’s gender.
Some news agencies
have reported that the body
was burned and that a bul
let was found at the scene,
but Fullington has refused to
confirm or deny that, saying
some of the information in the
media has been incorrect.
rape charges
session of marijuana with
intent to distribute and fail
ure to stop at a stop sign.
• Janey Vorasith, 19, of 192
Bernice Dr., Lawrenceville,
battery and consumption of
alcohol by a minor.
•Charles Edward Wood
III, 17, of 1782 Wynfield
Lane, Auburn, drugs to be
kept in original container.
INCIDENT
REPORTS
During the same period,
Auburn police responded to
the following incidents:
•a harassment com
plaint at a home on Atlanta
Highway.
• a criminal trespass com
plaint at a home on Main
Street.
•a domestic dispute at a
home on Carter Road.
•a domestic dispute at a
home on Hickory Ridge
Trail.
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Local man helps uncover fraud ring
By SUSAN NORMAN
A Bethlehem man who made
the winning bid at the auction
of contents in a Suwanee stor
age unit last week purchased
far more than he bargained
for.
Inside the four boxes in
Unit 1006 at the U-Store-It on
Lawrenceville-Suwanee Road
on Dec. 2 was a cache of sto
len or counterfeit documents
from an identity theft ring
with victims from California
to Florida.
The recovered evidence
includes stolen checkbooks,
drivers licenses, Social
Security cards, credit cards,
health insurance cards and
multiple notepads filled with
detailed personal information
about the victims - their Social
Security numbers, home and
work numbers, home address
es, dates of birth, mothers'
maiden names, victims' eye
colors and even so-called
security questions.
“It’s amazing to me just
how many lives they had in
those boxes,” said the win
ning bidder's wife, Jessica,
who agreed to an interview,
but asked that her last name
not be disclosed.
U.S. Secret Service agents
and U.S. Postal inspectors
are assisting Georgia and
California law enforcement
agencies in an investigation
that is “going to stretch well
across the United States,”
said Detective Sgt. Shane
Edmisten of the Suwanee
Police Department's Criminal
Investigation Division.
“We had a table full of iden
tification cards and another
table full of checkbooks. The
checkbooks were from all
over the country,” he said.
While some of the driver’s
licenses and credit cards
are counterfeit, the Georgia
licenses left behind by the
criminals are authentic.
“We determined those driv
ers licenses are, in fact, real
Georgia drivers licenses,
which means they were sto
len,” Edmisten said.
Most of the wallets belong
ing to Georgia women were
stolen from their purses while
they were at work. One vic
tim's items were stolen while
she was in labor at an Atlanta
hospital.
“So it’s apparent that the
people who took these items
were office creepers or hospi
tal creepers. They don’t take
the whole purse and it is sev
eral hours before the victim
realizes her wallet is missing,”
Edmisten said.
Some of the checkbooks
belong to Florida victims, he
said.
“They were brand new
boxes still sealed from the
check (printing) company. So
that’s mail theft going on as
well.”
Jessica said this was her
husband’s first storage unit
auction. He went with a friend
who had picked up $20,000
in six months by bidding on
storage unit contents, sight
unseen, and selling whatever
was salvageable on eBay or at
flea markets.
John bid on two units. Inside
one unit were a tow bar, some
steel cans and unused moving
boxes that now are for sale on
eBay. In the other unit were
the four boxes.
The couple used a family
member's truck to pick up
everything from both units
late that evening.
“That’s when we started
looking through the boxes
to see what we got,” Jessica
said.
“My husband had told me
that he had seen some credit
cards and IDs. I told him we
could send them back. I was
thinking if they were for a
household of people, it would
cost us about $1.50 to mail
them.”
But as she and her husband
dug through the boxes and
pulled out scores of driver's
licenses, checkbooks and
credit cards, they knew some
thing was wrong.
“There were too many IDs
from too many states for it to
be right,” Jessica said.
The couple called the B arrow
County Sheriff’s Office.
A deputy came to their house
that night and after looking
at some of the evidence told
the couple that the case was
outside his office's jurisdic
tion. He recommended that
they take the evidence back to
the storage business and call
Suwanee police.
The couple agreed to do
that.
But, first, Jessica sorted out
the evidence.
In the first box she put items
that would be found in a wal
let - driver’s licenses, credit
cards. Social Security cards
and the like.
In the second box, she
placed the checkbooks.
In the third box, she placed
the notepads with the victims’
personal information.
Jessica said the handwriting
on the notepads was neat.
“It was legible, very neat
and orderly. I felt like whoever
did this, they knew what they
were doing. They would have
three different people on one
page. And beside all of that
other information, they would
have ‘good’ or ‘no good,'”
she said.
“I guess that was ‘good' as
far as their credit or whether
they could get anything out ol
(an account).”
Jessica filled the fourth box
with envelopes and mail taken
from victims' mailboxes.
Some of the mail was from
U.S. Post Office boxes, she
said.
Also in that box went drug
store photographs apparently
taken for passports, as well
as five H&R Block envelopes
with victims' tax returns, she
said.
The information in the
boxes belonged to people
residing in California, Illinois,
Kentucky, Maryland, Florida
and Georgia, Jessica said.
To make sure police aggres
sively pursued the case,
Jessica and John immediately
contacted an Atlanta televi
sion station and invited a news
crew to meet them at the stor
age unit in the early morning
hours of Dec. 3.
“Sometimes when the media
is on things, police work a lit
tle faster and harder,” Jessica
said. “We felt this was some
thing serious that really need
ed to be worked on.”
After interviewing the cou
ple, the news crew called the
Suwanee Police, who respond
ed quickly.
“When they saw what was
going on, they were imme
diately on the radio calling a
detective. The next day, we
were on every single news
channel. Then I knew how
serious it was,” Jessica said.
Two fired over inmate hanging in Jackson
Two employees of the Jackson County Jail
have been fired following an internal investiga
tion into a recent inmate hanging of a Winder
man. Inmate Ricky Finch, 50, Winder, died after
hanging himself at the Jackson County Jail after
having been arrested in Arcade. He had been
put into a “segregation cell” and a 15-minute
watch cycle after he indicated to officers that he
wanted to harm himself. He was found around
9:30 p.m. that night hanging in the cell by a pair
of socks.
“As a result of the Sheriff’s office internal
investigation, two jail employees have been
terminated from employment for failing to fol
low proper procedures that are in place for these
type situations and not physically checking
inmate Finch every 15 minutes as indicated in
file documentation,” said Major David Cochran
of the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office. “The
discrepancies in the physical checks were dis
covered after a review the security tapes.”
Fired by the JCSO were Radford Stanley Jr.
and Donald Shane Brown. Stanley has appealed
his termination to Sheriff Stan Evans, who will
hear the matter next week.
Cochran said the Georgia Bureau of
Investigation had not yet released its findings
in the matter.
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