Case closed.

Despite what my posts may seem like not much has changed at THS. We go about our daily routine. A sub is upstairs. The students don’t ask questions. They know we can’t give them many answers anyway. They know how things are. They usually know more than we do about situations going on. A student asked me today if she could borrow my computer to look for an article on Mrs. Beatty. This was my cue that there was something new. I checked at lunch. From what I gather she left a letter after the first suicide attempt. It may answer a few questions, but it raises more. The rumors seem to be true and just as bizarre as we thought them to be. It is there son that I feel terrible for. I often say that more times than not the public is only given part of the story. The full story must be something to raise an eyebrow about.

Here’s the latest…and possible last:

Beatty death case could be closed today

5/4/2007 12:52:59 AM
Daily Journal

By Lena Mitchell
Daily Journal Corinth Bureau

IUKA - Corinth police released a statement from Dorothy “Anne” Beatty saying her husband Donald Beatty’s death was accidental, but authorities say the investigation disproves this claim.

Corinth investigators expect to close the file soon - perhaps later today - on the suspicious death of Donald Beatty of Corinth.

Most questions had been answered by the time the body of his wife, Dorothy “Anne” Beatty, was found in McNairy County, where her death was ruled a suicide, said Corinth chief of detectives Capt. Ralph Dance. Anne Beatty was considered a prime suspect in Don Beatty’s death.

However, detectives in the Tishomingo County Criminal Investigation Division had laid the foundation of the case between April 9, when Don Beatty’s body was found, and April 18, when the case was handed off to the Corinth Police Department after evidence indicated Don Beatty’s death occurred in Corinth.

The Tishomingo County case remains open until Corinth closes its case file on Don Beatty’s death, said Detective Don Kirk, who with Det. Jeff Sparks led the Tishomingo County Sheriff Department’s investigation.

Kirk and Sparks revisited the scene Thursday where Don Beatty’s body was found by fishermen near the boat ramp on the north end of Scruggs Bridge, on the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway.

Fishermen who found him had not removed the body from the water, Sparks added.

Don Beatty’s body was fully clothed, but he had no identification.

“There was massive head trauma visible, which could have been accidental or purposeful,” Kirk said. “Our procedure is to treat such a death as suspicious pending further investigation.”

The effort to identify the body included identifying all unattended vehicles parked at the boat ramp and extending the search out to surrounding areas.

A late-model tan Chevy Celebrity, located across the Tenn-Tom on the south end of Scruggs Bridge, had a wallet inside with photo identification for Don Beatty. After preliminary identification by phone, Anne Beatty later identified the body in person, Kirk said.

“Due to the nature of the death - unattended - it was treated as suspicious and an autopsy was ordered,” Kirk said. “Then we proceeded to treat it as a homicide until we could determine differently.”

Kirk and Sparks began conducting interviews with the people who found the body, then other people in the vicinity at the water.

Over several days the two detectives interviewed Don Beatty’s coworkers at the Daily Corinthian newspaper, his wife and his son.

“His son gave us a (written) statement; his wife did not wish to give a statement,” Kirk said.

While the Tishomingo County detectives were widening their circle of inquiry, new developments unfolded in Corinth that changed the lead in the investigation.

Corinth police notified Tishomingo County investigators that there was a letter addressed to them from Anne Beatty.

“I don’t know if it did, but maybe our questioning of Anne Beatty caused her conscience to bother her,” Kirk said.

Kirk said that since the investigation rests with Corinth Police Department and Dance, he was not at liberty to disclose its contents.

However, Dance revealed some of the details late Thursday.

In a statement that covered four pages, Dance said Anne Beatty told of finding Don Beatty’s body on the ground outside their North Polk Street home, where he had fallen from a ladder and hit his head on some concrete blocks.

In a panic, Anne Beatty said she wrapped the body in a tarp and loaded it into a horse trailer, which she used to transport the body to the bridge.

In the written statement, Dance said, she then told of driving back to Corinth, where she loaded her bicycle into Don Beatty’s car and drove back to the bridge.

After abandoning his car, Anne Beatty said she rode the bicycle back to Corinth.

The letter came to light on April 18, Dance said.

Family members had reported Anne Beatty missing on April 17, but since her disappearance had been less than 24 hours, Dance said he followed up the next day.

A family member spotted her wandering around in a pasture behind the house, disoriented and sick.

Dance previously had called this a first suicide attempt by Anne Beatty, when she took some medicine used for her horses.

It was later in the day on April 18 when family members found the letter in that same pasture and called him out to get it, Dance said.

“I’ve gone back over everything she said in the letter about how he died and proven that he didn’t die the way she said he did, but I can’t prove what she did,” Dance said.

May 04 2007 09:10 pm | Private

Leave a Reply