Post by Scumhunter on Dec 30, 2023 9:43:36 GMT -5
(Above photo credit: Mississippi Coast Crime Stoppers website)
From wlox.com:
PASS CHRISTIAN, Miss. (WLOX) - A five-year-old murder case still has the full attention of Pass Christian police. The Kenneth Charlot murder rocked the community in 2018 and still weighs heavy on the hearts of family and friends.
“We’re less than 9,000 residents and everyone knows everyone in this community,” Pass Christian police chief Darren Freeman said.
“I saw what I thought were mannequin legs parts, and then at second look, I realized it was a body,” said Eary Murray, the man who found the body.
“We’re a small community,” Charlot’s sister Gabrielle Malley said. “We don’t usually have these things going on in Pass Christian -- murders and stuff like that.”
“It’s definitely not something that this community is used to,” stated investigator Austin Langfitt alongside Detective Sargeant Ryan Henry with the Pass Christian Police Department.
“We’re trying to make the public aware of this cold case, whether it’s five years old, two years old, twenty years old,” Lori Massey with Mississippi Coast Crime Stoppers said.
In a wooded area of Gulfport off 29th Avenue, you’ll find several homeless camps, dilapidated houses and discarded items.
It’s also where Eary Murray found Kenneth Charlot’s body five years ago. Eary says he’d been shot in the head.
“He had underwear and a t-shirt,” Murray said. “He was in almost a fetal position on his back. His legs were up, his arms were up, his shirt was pulled up. You could see where they drug him across the road.”
Charlot’s death has mystified family, friends, and law enforcement. He was 60 years old -- a simple man with a set routine.
“He only wore white t-shirts, Fruit of the Loom t-shirts, Levi’s jeans, and white Chuck [Taylor] high-tops,” Malley said.
By every account, Charlot was a good man whose family came first.
“He’s that favorite uncle,” Malley said. “He lived here in this house, and one of the rooms in the house had video games and twin beds. When nieces and nephews came over, they could play video games.”
“He was just mischievous,” his other sister, Debra Malley said. “That’s the only word. He mostly hung around with family. It was seven of us. This house was built after Katrina by the Mennonites when they came in.”
His sisters say Charlot experienced some of the happiest moments of his life inside the Seal Avenue home. Pictures of family adorn the halls, but these walls tell a story of joy and agony. Gabrielle Malley says she believes this is where her big brother was killed.
“There was blood in the kitchen,” Malley said. “I think he was taken from the house in his car.”
It was unusual for Charlot not to answer calls from his siblings, so family members went to the house. They immediately knew something was wrong. Water was dripping underneath the home. All the doors were locked, but they found blood.
“Mr. Charlot wasn’t home and his vehicle was also missing from the home,” according to investigator Langfitt and Detective Sargeant Henry.
Inside, the bed sheets were missing and blood was leading out of the house.
“We believe the body was moved,” investigator Langfitt and Detective Sargeant Henry said. “We don’t believe it occurred where he was found.”
“My assumption was they got him out of the car -- be it the trunk, the backseat, wherever he was -- and drug him across the street into the woods, but they didn’t try to hide him,” Malley said. “These people saw him just walking past.
The day before his body was discovered, police found Charlot’s car on fire near 43rd Avenue in Gulfport.
Even with that news, his family held onto hope he’d be found alive until a call from Gulfport police.
“The chief called me and asked if I was home, and he said, ‘I need to come talk to you,’” Debra Malley said. “I still didn’t think he was going to tell me what he told me.”
“They found his body,” Malley said. “I had a bit of a meltdown, a bit of a meltdown, a big meltdown for me. It wasn’t anything that we thought because he doesn’t have a record or trouble.”
Charlot befriended 44-year-old Cornell Smith, who lived just down the street. Several days after Charlot’s murder, Smith was charged with aggravated assault -- accused of attacking his own sister-in-law. Jail records show in 2016 Smith was charged with armed robbery and home invasion. Before that, Smith did time on a manslaughter charge in connection with the death of a missing Long Beach man.
“They were friendly because he had a background, and we would mention that to him, but his feelings were he paid his debt to society, so he didn’t see any reason to hold that against him,” Malley said.
Smith is currently in a Florida prison for aggravated child abuse and kidnapping. In January, WLOX’s Jennifer Lott wrote Smith a letter asking to to visit to investigate his relationship with Charlot. Smith sent word through prison officials he didn’t want to talk about Charlot.
“No one has been cleared or ruled out, I can say that 100%,” Chief Freeman said. “It’s just a matter of getting witnesses to come forward and provide us information.”
“It’s something that’s impacted the community, something that has been big in the department, something that’s very serious that we’re just trying to get to the bottom of,” investigator Langfitt and Detective Sargeant Henry said.
“We’re hoping, especially like in the Charlot case, did the killer, killers tell an acquaintance something? Did they tell a sibling? Did they share it with someone they worked with?” Massey asked. “These are things we would like to know.”
“You’d have to put yourself in our shoes. If it was your family member, you would want someone to come forth and say something, but nobody has,” Malley said.
If you have any tips or information, call the Pass Christian Police Department at 228-452-3300 or Mississippi Coast Crime Stoppers at 877-787-5898. It’s important to note Crime Stoppers is not law enforcement. You can give them any kind of tip and stay completely anonymous. Crimestoppers pays up to $2,500 on any felony crime including homicide. You could get that cash reward for information that could lead to a conviction.
www.wlox.com/2023/02/23/wlox-revisits-cold-case-murder-kenneth-charlot/?outputType=amp
Thoughts? As of today’s posting date (December 30th, 2023), Kenneth’s case is sadly still listed as an unsolved homicide on Mississippi Coast Crime Stoppers:
mscoastcrimestoppers.com/sitemenu.aspx?P=unsolved&ID=523&PageNum=1
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