More Details Emerge in Chickering Rd. Homicide
House fires in Jackson. If you think they are all investigated by the fire department, think again. 7 Eyewitness News asked the fire department to provide the numbers and they did. Of course, it is a question on the minds of many after a man’s body was not found until five days after his house caught on fire. An autopsy has positively identified James Divine III, 36, as the homicide victim found inside the home on Chickering Road in north Jackson. Neighbors said Divine was a good man. They call him “troubled”, but said he never caused problems; and that has those who lived near him even more disturbed by the unfolding mystery surrounding his murder. “The cause of death was multiple stab wounds, as well as blunt force trauma,” said Lt. Tyreece Miller of the Jackson Police Department. Investigators said the preliminary autopsy confirms the stab wounds killed Divine, not the fire. But neighbors are still questioning why an investigation was not conducted into the cause of the fire sooner. It was not until five days after the fire that investigators came out and discovered Divine’s body. 7 Eyewitness News requested the figures by the department and found that in the month of November, the Jackson Fire Department responded to 36 working fires, seven out of the 36 were investigated. “Mistakes do happen, it was dark, but then again everybody’s human, and even though it is a scary fact that a dead body laid there for five days,” said Rachal Wallace. According to the department’s annual report from 2010, firefighters responded to 166 working fires. The department’s Fire Prevention Bureau investigated 41 of them, which is about a quarter of the fires.
