Thursday May 21,
2015
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Daily Corinthian
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• Corinth, Mississippi • 16 pages • One section
Vol. 119, No. 118
One critical, another Investigators seeking answers jailed after stabbing BY JEBB JOHNSTON jjohnston@dailycorinthian.com
A Corinth man was seriously injured in a stabbing Tuesday night, and a suspect has been charged. Detective Del Green said the Corinth Police Department responded to a call of a stabbing at about 8:20 p.m. at the Wilson Street Apartments. Officers found the victim, Michael
Decker, with a wound to the upper left side of the abdomen. Charged with aggravated assault in the stabbing is Jeremy Jerome Walker, 28, of 16 Wilson Street, Apt. 3. He was in custody Wednesday afternoon with bond at $10,000. Green said the suspect left the scene in a Ford Expedition, and the knife believed to be used in the assault was found
in home deaths
in an overgrown lot on the east side of the apartment complex. Officers stopped the suspect’s vehicle near South Parkway and Proper Street. The suspect had bloodstained clothing and was taken into custody without incident, Green said. The victim was in critical condition at Magnolia Regional Health Center early Wednesday, he said.
BY JEFF YORK For the Daily Corinthian
A gruesome discovery of two bodies Tuesday morning in a trailer has left law officers in McNairy County searching for the next of kin of the deceased and looking for answers. An alert postal carrier in Bethel Springs noticed the mail had backed up and the yard had not been tended to lately at the Murray School Road house of Neil Dunn, 84, and Milly Dunn, 91. The mail carrier contacted the McNairy County Sheriff’s Department, and Sheriff Guy Buck was the first one to respond to the scene. The sheriff gained entry into the rear of the home, which had been secured prior to his arrival. “I’ve never seen anything like this situation with a double natural death,” said Buck. “The TBI told me they had worked a similar situation with a mother (caregiver) and her son, but it was a first for me.” Buck said Neil Dunn’s death has been estimated to have happened around the first half of April and Milly Dunn’s death happened over two weeks ago. The sheriff is unsure whether the two were married or brother and sister. A search for family members of the two people had come up empty as of mid-afternoon Wednesday, according to the sheriff.
Family and school officials gather to remember Ben Shipman in a special tree planting ceremony.
Students honor fallen classmate BY KIM SHELTON kshelton@dailycorinthian.com
Graduation is bittersweet this year as the Kossuth High School class of 2015 prepares for a traditional rite of passage, remembering all the while that one other senior should be walking with them. Described as a well-rounded young man with a gentle heart and promising future, Ben Shipman’s life was tragically cut short in March of 2014 after injuries he sustained in an automobile accident on his way
home from school resulted in his death. A member of the Kossuth Aggies High School band since the 8th grade, the talented drum major was ranked second in his junior class and is remembered for his many hours of community service and dedication to his band. The 17-year-old was recently honored along with 11-year-old Andrew Loyd during the planting of two October Glories dedicated to their memories. Both boys were honored in separate
Grant will benefit school counseling
ceremonies. The purchase of the trees was made possible thanks to a generous donation from Modern Woodmen to the Administrative Office for landscaping. “Modern Woodmen is so active in our community and we are very thankful for this thoughtful donation. We are honored the administrative office chose to remember him in such a special way,” said Ben’s mom, Trina Shipman. “The tree
BY JEBB JOHNSTON jjohnston@dailycorinthian.com
The Corinth School District is getting a large grant designed to produce betterbehaved students. The district’s trustees on Monday accepted an Elementary and Secondary Counseling Grant of $932,698 for a three-year program from the U.S. Department of Education. The grant program is aimed at helping schools establish and expand counseling programs. The Corinth School District will focus specifically on improving student behavior and reducing the amount of time teachers spend on disciplinary issues at the elementary school level. “That’s where it really needs to begin with a focus on positive behavior intervention,” said Superintendent Lee Childress. The funding will allow teachers to get positive behavior intervention training and provide an additional counselor and the addition of several types of curriculums. Middle school teachers and counselors will also have some involvement. The board also accepted an
Please see SHIPMAN | 2
District boosts graduation requirements BY ZACK STEEN zsteen@dailycorinthian.com
The number of required class credits for county students will increase for the 2015-16 school year. Alcorn School District Board of Education members voted recently to raise the number of Carnegie units required for graduation from 25 to 27 credits. “After several meetings with principals, we decided that because of the amount of units students are bringing with them from middle school we felt that it would not be too difficult for students to obtain 27 credits in the least bit,” said Superintendent Gina Rogers Smith. The new requirements will take effect with the incoming group of freshman in August.
In other news: ■ Finance Director Kimberly Woodard brought some good news to the board meeting. “I am estimating the district will spend about $70,000 less in gas and diesel costs this year when compared to last years fuel expenses,” she said. “That is great savings for the entire district.” Woodard also reported April fuel numbers. “We purchased 500 gallons of gas at an average of $1.97 per gallon and 9,100 gallons of diesel at an average of $2.15 per gallon for a total cost of $20,543,” the finance director said. ■ The board received three bids submitted by local banks for the school district’s depository for the years 2015-18.
Buck said the law officers checked the home to make sure no one else was inside and then began a death investigation. The district attorney’s office and medical examiner Dr. Drew Eason were contacted by his department. The sheriff said early thoughts were that Milly Dunn suffered from dementia or Alzheimer’s and did not know what to do when Neil Dunn died. “It did appear that she had tried to take care of him after his death,” said Buck. “It was hard to tell much because their bodies were both in an advanced state of decomposition.” Sheriff Buck said through an ID found in the house that Neil Dunn had worked in the City of Memphis Schools System in some capacity for 28 years before retiring. The sheriff’s search for answers discovered that Milly Dunn had lived in Arizona at some point from identification found in the home. Both bodies were sent to Memphis for an autopsy by a state medical examiner. The sheriff expects a preliminary autopsy report within 10 days and a complete autopsy report would not be completed for three months. Buck said he did not know what would happen to the deceased after the autopsy if no relatives are found during the investigation.
“We have been with Trustmark Bank and even though their interest rates aren’t great, I believe it would be in our best interest to continue using their services,” said Woodard. “The interest rates at the other banks were a little better, but the fees they were going to charge us would not have made much difference.” The district also received bids from Bancorp South and Farmers and Merchants Bank. ■ Two donations were approved. Kossuth Middle School will receive a $500 donation from Modern Woodmen and a $717.30 donation from the Box Tops for Education. The next meeting is set for June 8 at 5 p.m.
Innovative High School Grant of $112,525 from the Mississippi Department of Education in support of the Cambridge program and a $5,000 grant to provide additional laptops and instructional materials at the Juvenile Detention Center. In other business, Childress updated the board on the results of the Third Grade Reading Summative Assessment, which 95 percent of the district’s students passed. While local students fared well, he wants parents to keep in mind that a passing score on this test does not necessarily mean the student is a proficient reader. “It means they just met what the state established as the third grade benchmark saying they were ready to do the majority of fourth grade work,” said Childress. “We won’t get scores back to know a true proficiency level until we get the PARCC testing back. While yes, these are good results, we are interested in proficiency.” Retesting for those who did not pass the reading assessment was on Wednesday. Students must pass the assessment in order to be promoted to fourth grade.
25 years ago
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Senior citizens gather to celebrate Older Americans Month at the Bishop Center. Alcorn County Human Resource Agency Director Terri Czarnecki welcomes seniors for a day of fun and education.
Longtime Northeast Regional Library Director Elizabeth Cromwell retires. Cromwell began with the library in 1977 and became director in 1980.
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