It starts with my initial concern for Cassie since 9-17 having known her and having daughters her age. I was functioning with heightened alert, in part because we have had a body found on our land back in the early 1990s. Angela's body was found on the east side of town in a field off Hartz See Road (we call it Pin Oak), and her clothing was found within a half mile of my house on our westside farm. Her toddler was turned loose in a third location north toward Ulm.
Sometimes when we go walking, we come back with "critter counts" about the animals we spotted. Occasionally, we find things like zebra mussel shells or spent bullet casings where neighbors have done target practice on turtles and water moccasins from the bridge. I was already to the point of not letting my most adventurous daughter out by herself -- so she left with a neighbor with phones. They were aware of Cassie missing.
To find the bags was unusual because the bridge does not have enough traffic for there to be much trash once you pass the corner of Bormann and Johnson roads. We sometimes pick up glass and plastic bottles that have floated from somewhere else in higher water; but really, there is not much dumping there. We keep it clean. We have had a stolen gun tossed from the bridge when the guy on the run didn't realize there was no way out of the private property. I remember a tall birdcage being dumped back in 1980 when the Bayou Meto went dry in a drought. LOCATION was a factor.
When my daughter's friend called me and she said "two bags packed with sheets or drapes," I told them not to touch a thing because I was already thinking body parts could have been wrapped inside. We had just had a rain on Thursday night, and an adult neighbor had taken a picture of the same spot to send to her out-of-state duck hunters. I had missed going on the organized search that morning because I worked in town until 3 p.m. I wondered if the items had been relocated from somewhere known to be in the planned areas. So TIMING was a factor.
One of the bags, a leopard print zippered duffel with exterior pockets looked just like something a teenage girl like Cassie would own. The other bag was a black and white tote with a damask pattern. Two bags with handles were chosen to dump the items (quickly) instead of a big black trash bag. A normal person could simply leave those discarded items at the curb for pickup in town. Plus there are plenty of green dumpsters in town that could have been more convenient. There is never a strong enough current to have moved those items from another more public bridge like the one on Hwy. 79 heading to Humphrey.
There was a clean blue Powerade bottle (half-full) specifically lodged in some brush roots that looked like someone could return, so we even wondered if someone could be hiding nearby. Could the drapes have been a tent? I called 911 first, as our emergency calls are having to go through the police station since the arson of the county building where the 911 center was located on September 23. I was speaking to a female dispatcher who told me all deputies were in Casscoe, so it would be a good 30 minutes for response. I told her I would stay there as long as it took to get someone there. (I think the time was 4:04 p.m. I had gotten off at 3 p.m. and girls left house when I got home. This call isn't in my phone anymore.)
I also called our nearest neighbors who actually farm closest to this location in Prairie County. Her nephew lives nearby so he and his wife came, too. We were a little perplexed that we saw a big clump of wet fur but did not smell decomposition. We thought it was a dead muskrat or two and even wondered if someone might try to cook it if they were hungry enough. We looked around for any campfire or human waste while we were waiting on the sheriff's deputy.
I didn't catch the deputy's name, but can identify his navy blue Chevy truck which is a regular vehicle around town with a couple of SO-identifying tags/stickers. He called his location into the dispatcher then slid down gravel to where the bags were. He picked up the fur which was a teddy bear. Then he picked up a couple of drape panels looking for blood. He walked around a little, called in his opinion to a supervisor (most likely at Casscoe search). Then he told us, "That's just a bunch of trash," and left. No pictures were taken, no notes were taken for a written report.
We decided if it were actually trash we needed to clean it up, but we didn't want to dispose of it in case it were needed later. A neighbor went to the farm shop for a big trash bag and only the nephew touched items while I held the bag open. My neighbor took pictures from above on the bridge as nephew picked up teddy bear, one panel at a time, etc. -- then hit the two men's shirts and toiletries from a gift set. It then crossed my mind, maybe these were things JC wanted discarded as she had just kicked him out of the home. Did BR give the bear to JC?
Or what if the bear were something JC wanted to send with Cassie if she were being trafficked off? Directions to the bridge are easy from the highway. I wondered if they might have someone come get Cassie if she were pregnant? If they didn't want her to know she were being picked up, she could be drugged and hidden in the drapes. I worried enough to contact FBI myself by email on Sunday night. That opened a direct contact for me used for a few other tips. I did a written narrative for them before they came and retrieved the items from my neighbors.
