Lowndes County Coroner identifies body found in Columbus
COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – Lowndes County Coroner Greg Merchant has identified the person found dead on the lawn of an abandoned home on Columbus’s Northside this morning.
Merchant said the deceased is 25-year-old Ashanti Jade Turner. Family members made a positive identification late this afternoon.
The Columbus Police Department is investigating after a body that was found here on Industrial Street Now, they’re looking for answers.
“We received a call in reference to a body here. When investigators responded, they found a female body in an abandoned yard,” said Captain of Investigations Terence Ware.
Alleged eyewitness accounts said that the body was actually found Monday evening. However, Ware said the police were first notified Tuesday.
Dozens of people from the local community flooded Seventh Avenue North in hopes of learning the identity of the victim, fearing the worst.
“With people out here chattering saying who it could be, we did get a name one time. They called that female and it wasn’t her. I think some more chatter was going on so as we hear this chatter, we kinda look into it and that’s how we’re able to determine if this person is that person or not,” said Ware.
Other people who saw the body before police arrived described the unknown female as an African American woman of a darker complexion with green highlights in her hair.
Ware is especially interested in speaking with the original eyewitness.
“If you have any information in reference to or basically the caller who called in, that we don’t know who it is yet. If you’re watching this then you know, kinda call us back and give us a little more detail in reference to how you know that this person was here. That would be a big help to us cause this is someone’s family member,” said Ware.
CPD has identified a person of interest in this incident as Damian Peterson. If you have any information, contact the Columbus Police Department or Golden Triangle Crime Stoppers.
