http://jacksonville.com/news/georgia..._clutched_hairBRUNSWICK - Officers investigating the beating deaths of eight people at a mobile home Aug. 29 found hair in both hands of one of the victims and later took hair samples from suspect Guy Heinze Jr., search warrant records show.
That information is contained in the records of two of six search warrants Glynn County Magistrate Tim Barton issued for Glynn County police investigating the eight slayings and severe beating of a ninth victim.
Officers found the victims the morning of Aug. 29 when Heinze made a frantic 911 call saying he had come home and found his whole family dead.
The hair was found in the hands of someone identified only as victim No. 4. On Sept. 2, Barton issued a search warrant for Sgt. Brian Scott to obtain samples of Heinze' hair for DNA testing and for analysis and comparison against blood and other trace evidence found at the scene.
Glynn County Police Chief Matt Doering declined Monday to identify that victim.
The search warrant shows that officers took two samples of "cut hair'' from the kitchen and pairs of hair trimmers. When he was released from jail briefly Sept. 8, Heinze's hair was shorn nearly to the scalp as it was during a subsequent court appearance. The search warrant inventory shows officers obtained a sample of Heinze's pubic hair.
In another search warrant, investigator Michael Owens said when officers spoke with Heinze at the mobile home, he was wearing shorts that appeared to have blood on them.
It is believed to be the same clothing Heinze was wearing when he was booked into the jail Aug. 29 when he was arrested on a charge of tampering with evidence and possession of drugs, Owens said in his affidavit.
Officers took two pairs of shorts, a shirt and a pair of sandals that belonged to Heinze, the inventory shows.
Heinze, who had lived at the dwelling at New Hope Mobile Home Park, had told a 911 dispatcher his family, his father, uncle and cousins, had been beaten to death. The search warrants receipts, an accounting of everything seized as evidence, show police had a different idea of what had happened to two victims.
In obtaining a warrant to search a truck that belonged to victim Joseph West, investigator William Daras said it appeared that two people found alive had "each received a gunshot wound to the head.''
An autopsy showed that all had been beaten, which matches what Heinze told the dispatcher.
Doering would not say Heinze's knowledge of how the victims died convinced officers that he was their prime suspect.
"It did raise a question of common sense: Why would one say that unless one knew?'' Doering said.
Doering also said that Daras was simply drawing a conclusion from what he had seen and that it always falls to medical examiners to determine the real cause of death.
In their applications for the search warrants, investigators painted a grisly scene in their affidavits supporting their requests. Scott noted officers found "several bodies that were scattered about the trailer..." All noted a large amount of blood throughout the home.
But the inventory of evidence and property, detailed in more than 30 pages with 222 entries, shows a violent crime scene.
Among evidence taken was a blood-covered piece of paper from a bedroom ceiling, human teeth from floors throughout the home, hair from several spots including on the ground outside the rear door and the sleeve of a shirt stained with blood. Officers took a kitchen steak knife, a butcher knife, a broken hammer handle from the driveway and the broken butt portion of a shotgun stock.
Doering declined to comment on whether police had found the weapon used in the attack.
They also took furniture, clothing, ceiling and floor tiles, sink drains, pieces of walls and other personal belongings.
Doering would not comment on any conclusions investigators had drawn from the items seized and said some is still being analyzed.
He also said that other searches had been conducted and other evidence gathered as the result of consensual searches.
"That's also still being analyzed,'' he said.
The victims of the slayings were: Heinze's father, Guy Heinzie Sr., 45; Russell D. "Rusty'' Toler Sr., 44; Toler's children, Chrissy Toler, 22; Russell D. Toler Jr., 20; Michael Toler, 19; and Michelle Toler, 15; Russell Toler Sr.'s sister, Brenda Gail Falagan, 49; and West, who was Chrissy Toler's boyfriend.
The only survivor, Chrissy Toler's son, Byron Jimerson Jr., 3, has been discharged from a Savannah hospital and is said to be undergoing rehabilitation.
Heinze and members of Russell Toler's surviving family have said the two men were half brothers. William Heinze, who is Guy Heinze Sr.'s father, said the men were not related by blood but were longtime friends and extremely close.
Heinze remains jailed without bail on eight counts of murder.
terry.dickson@jacksonville.com (912) 264-0405
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Subject: Re: 8 Victims Slain In Georgia 
Fri Sep 25, 2009 6:57 pm
