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- YOKNAPATAWPHA COUNTY SHERIFF'S
DEPARTMENT
Incident Report
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- Investigating Officer: Det. T. Nelson
Incident Reported: 11/8/97, 9:41 p.m.
Incident Address: SR 7, 1.2 miles S of 9W
junction
Victim's name: Charles Lamar
Age: 47
Address: 122 Tara Circle, Oxford, Mississippi
Suspects: None
- Description of Incident:
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- Dispatch received a call at 9:41 p.m. from a motorist
with a cell phone, who said there was a "car explosion"
in a cotton field on route 7. The motorist said there
appeared to be someone trapped in the vehicle. A fire and
paramedic unit were dispatched to the scene and arrived 5
minutes later. I received a call at home from Capt. Pete
Day of the Water Valley Fire District at approximately
9:47, informing me that the occupant of the vehicle was
Charles Lamar.
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- I proceeded directly to the scene. The fire had been
largely extinguished. The vehicle was resting upside
down, approximately 100 feet from the roadway. Initial
estimates by coroner's officer Dawn Hargreaves are that
the car swerved off the roadway, down the embankments,
into the culvert, flipped over, and ignited. Corn stalks
in the area surrounding the vehicle had been burned, with
the total damage to the field estimated to be about 1/3
acre.
-
- Sheriff Lamar was being extracted from the vehicle as
I arrived. He was pronounced dead by paramedics, who said
he had been behind the wheel and wearing his seatbelt at
the time of the collision.
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- Lamar's wallet was in his pocket. Other items in the
vehicle were damaged, but registration papers, pencils,
and eyeglasses were extracted from the glove compartment.
Officer Hargreaves and her team will make a detailed
report on their salvage of the vehicle under separate
cover. Initial investigation of the roadway showed no
skid marks or other evidence suggesting involvement of
another vehicle. Officer Hargreaves and her team will
make a detailed investigation and report the results
under separate cover.
-
- Investigation: I spoke with Heidi Massalam, who
called dispatch from her cellular phone. She said she was
heading north on Highway 7 toward Oxford when she spotted
"a glow in the distance, I was sure it was a fire, I
thought maybe someone had a bonfire or something." As she
approached the scene of the collision, Ms. Massalam,
seeing a vehicle was involved, pulled over and used her
cellular phone to call 9-1-1. Ms. Massalam said she
hadn't encountered anyone else on the road after passing
through Springdale.
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