CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (CLARKSVILLENOW) – The family of Justin Sawyer, who went missing on Dec. 17 and was killed as part of a robbery, is organizing a search on Saturday, Feb. 6, after detectives working the case said they have exhausted all leads in finding his body.
Angela Belcher, Sawyer’s aunt, who lives in Atlanta, Georgia, told Clarksville Now the family plans to come to Clarksville to begin their search for the 20-year-old’s body.
Belcher said the volunteer group, including anyone who wants to help, will organize on Saturday at 7:45 a.m. in front of Dick’s Sporting Goods on Wilma Rudolph Boulevard, and the search will begin at 209 Pyle Lane in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, where Sawyer’s body was last seen, according to court records.
“If anyone stumbles upon some blankets wrapped up, please look at it. If it’s something along the road, there were blankets. He is wrapped up in blankets, we do know that,” Belcher told Clarksville Now.
Investigation so far
The joint investigation between the Clarksville Police Department and Kentucky State Police resulted in the arrests of three men: Dawuan Davis, 20, of Clarksville; Marquell Devont’e Sims, 22, of Oak Grove; and Gene “Doug” Henry, 36, of Oak Grove.
Both Davis and Sims were charged with robbery, kidnapping (with serious physical injury) and assault at the beginning of January. Sims was released from the Christian County Jail on Wednesday, Jan. 20, with an ankle monitor, pending results from the grand jury hearing. Davis’ case was also sent to the grand jury, however, he remains incarcerated at the Christian County Jail.
Henry was charged with abuse of a corpse and tampering with physical evidence, and he was released on his own recognizance awaiting his hearing.
Both law enforcement agencies said they were aware of the planned volunteer search.
“I spoke to (Sawyer’s) mother and the aunt yesterday about all of this, and they were inquiring if they could do a search effort, and I told them that’s fine if they want to do that on their behalf, but of course there’s trespass laws they have to abide by just as we do. You know, we have to get a search warrant to enter peoples’ property unless we have probable cause to do so,” Detective Brandon McPherson of KSP told Clarksville Now.
Clarksville Police Detective Tanner Pew said most of the search will be taking place in Kentucky.
“We’ve already searched several places in Clarksville and in the Oak Grove area,” he said.
Recovery efforts
Since the arrests, the joint investigation between the KSP and CPD has not turned up any solid leads on where Sawyer’s body might be.
“We’ve searched everywhere that we have even had a hint of where he may have been or stopped. And we’ve interviewed witnesses, made arrests and things like that. But up to this point, we’ve exhausted our searches and we’re waiting for the next possible lead to come in,” McPherson said.
“We’ve searched fields and woods, we’ve used cadaver dogs, we’ve drained a swimming pool even, and I can’t tell you exactly all of the places that we have searched, but we’ve searched a lot of areas,” he said.
Similar searches have been done in Clarksville. “We’ve done several searches with cadaver dogs for the past several weeks,” Pew said.
Both detectives said they’re waiting on the return of search warrants sent to a cell phone company for location pings on where Davis might have travelled on the evening of Dec. 17.
Timeline
According to the arrest warrants of those involved, on Dec. 17 at around 5 p.m., Sawyer was shot twice in the legs. After Sawyer drove himself, Davis and Sims to the Shell gas station on Kentucky Route 115 in Oak Grove, Davis and Sims moved him to the backseat of the car. Davis then got in the driver’s seat of Sawyer’s car and left the station.
While sitting at the traffic light to turn onto Route 115, Sims got out and walked across the street to the Pilot gas station. Davis left the Shell station, and detectives from both the CPD and KSP confirm that he got onto Interstate 24 headed eastbound towards Clarksville.
“At some point, he went to a lot of different places,” McPherson said.
“We believe once he left the gas station, he went to Clarksville, but we still haven’t proved that he has,” Pew said.
Some time later, the court records state, Davis arrived at 209 Pyle Lane in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, McPherson said. It is unclear how much time lapsed between Sawyer’s car leaving the Shell station and Davis’ arrival at Pyle Lane.
According to Henry’s arrest warrant, he told KSP investigators that Sawyer was dead when he helped Davis move Sawyer’s body from the back seat of his car to the trunk at the location on Pyle Lane.
It is unclear where Davis went next, but Sawyer’s car was found in Cartersville, Georgia, some time later.