Police looking for clues in two unsolved deaths|[09/22/07]
Published 12:00 am Saturday, September 22, 2007
The shooting deaths of two Vicksburg people that occurred separately within the last year remain unsolved, but not forgotten.
Vicksburg police continue to look into the homicides of James Buie and Amanda Yevette DeVaul. However, Jeff Merrit, an investigator with the Vicksburg Police Department, said their work is in need of assistance.
“We’ve gone as far as we can go in both of these cases,” Merrit said. “We’ve interviewed absolutely everyone possible and examined all the evidence, but nothing has developed.”
Rewards are being offered to anyone with useful information, he said. The number to call is 601-636-2511.
Buie, a longtime taxi and towing company operator in Vicksburg, was shot once in the abdomen early June 27, at the Kar-Kleen Car Wash on Hope Street, which is near Clay Street. He had apparently stopped to clean his car when he was approached, robbed and shot.
Buie died July 14 at University Medical Center as a result of the gunshot wound. He was 52 years old and had five children. Because Buie’s fatal wound occurred during a robbery, Mississippi law allows for a prosecution leading to a death sentence.
DeVaul was found dead Nov. 26, 2006, at her 807 Second North St. home. The 20-year-old had been shot once in the chest.
“No consistencies for suicide were apparent in her autopsy,” Merrit said. “We’re sure this is a homicide we’re investigating.”
Since DeVaul’s death, five other homicides, excluding Buie, have occurred in Vicksburg. Suspects in all have been arrested and face murder charges. Four of the cases will be examined by the October Term of the Warren County Grand Jury:
* Willie Fitzgerald Sanders, 36, in the May 5 stabbing death of William Mayer, 36, at Waffle House on East Clay Street.
* Matthew Nash, 28; Anthony Trevillion 30; Alonzo Trevillion, 34; Armond Trevillion, 27; and Rufus Armstrong, 27, in the June 17 shooting death of Justin Maurice Harris, 25.
* Antonio Hicks, 28, in the Aug. 17 shooting death of Leroy Barnes, 31.
* Jason Jeobori Davis, 21, in the Sept. 2 shooting death of Thaddeus Jeffery, 21.
Herman Green, 23, who is accused in the May 27 shooting death of 19-year-old William Wade, will have his case examined by the Grand Jury in January 2008.