Search for missing woman ends as ghost hunters find body

Published 11:06 am Monday, June 29, 2015

A body of a woman in her late 60s with trauma to the head has been found at the old Kuhn Memorial State Hospital.

A body of a woman in her late 60s with trauma to the head has been found at the old Kuhn Memorial State Hospital.

Vicksburg police have identified the body found at the old Kuhn Memorial State Hospital on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard as Sharen Wilson, 69, of 2502 Drummond St., who had been abducted from her home late Saturday night.

Vicksburg Police Chief Walter Armstrong said her body was sent to the Mississippi State Crime Lab in Jackson for an autopsy.

Vicksburg police Capt. Sandra Williams said police have two men in custody in connection with the death, but they have not been charged.

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The body was discovered around 7 p.m. by a group of ghost hunters.

“There was some people over at the hospital ghost hunting and they stumbled upon the body, and they took off and reported it to the Warren County Sheriff’s Office,” Armstrong said.

Warren County Coroner Doug Huskey confirmed the cause of death as homicide, but declined to release the woman’s name.

Vicksburg police earlier Sunday were searching for a 69-year-old Vicksburg woman missing from her house on Drummond Street.

The house showed signs of a disturbance and police began investigating.

Vicksburg police Capt. Sandra Williams said the investigation into the woman’s disappearance began when dispatchers received a call from the Leland Police Department in Washington County after officers there stopped two men for careless driving and a car tag check showed the car was registered to Wilson. The car had not been reported stolen, she said.

She said Leland police called Vicksburg after they found “forensic” evidence, but would not specify what type.

Leland Police Chief Billy Barber said two men were arrested during the traffic stop Sunday morning.

One of the men told police they abducted Wilson and dropped her off in a wooded area in Sharkey County, causing authorities to organize a search in Sharkey County, but Williams said the man’s statement was a ruse designed to prevent police from finding where she had been left.

“The gentleman that we had with us that had been arrested in Leland was to show us where he had let the lady out of the vehicle, but that never panned out,” Armstrong said. “We ended up canvassing several turn roads up there in hopes to find her, but we didn’t.” We don’t believe that he was being truthful, we believe he was lying the whole time and we only came back to Vicksburg when we heard that a body had been found.”

“We’re in the process of trying to identify her and perhaps that will happen tomorrow,” Armstrong said Sunday night.