With little progress being made by Sunday, January 3, 2021, a Mississippi Highway Patrol helicopter joined the search for Stacks but yielded no results.īy Sunday, January 10, nighttime temperatures in the Tallahatchie River bottom had dropped to a seasonably typical 32 degrees or below, reducing the likelihood of survival for anyone not properly clothed or sheltered.īy the end of the month, and no sign of Jessica, the focus of the search turned into a recovery effort and specially trained cadaver dog teams joined in the search. The tracks then turned north some distance toward Highway 30, but disappeared into water standing in a crop field. Investigators tracked someone, presumably Stacks, about 100 yards west up the river bank toward County Road 46. Only a single boot was found, a lady’s size six or seven.Ī coat believed to have been similar to one Stacks had been wearing was found near the single boot. Before the boot was found, Baggett had told law enforcement officers Stacks had cut the top off of the boot because it was rubbing on her leg. Oddly, a breaker fuse, about three inches long was found, stuck in a crevice of the tree.Ībout 50 yards from the tree, investigators found a single green LaCrosse-type rubber boot with the top cut off. Some small limbs had been cut off of the tree. Nearby they found a tree that had been cut or chopped on with some kind of sharp instrument. Near that spot, investigators found a place where someone had sat down on the ground for a period of time. They were joined in the search by more than 30 members of a task force of people certified by the National Search and Rescue Association (NSRA).īaggett showed searchers the spot where he said Stacks left the boat on the north bank of the river. Heat-seeking drones were put in the air, working a grid pattern over the flooded river and river bottom in the attempt to find Stacks, as well as boats, ATVs, and local public safety officials on foot searched for Stacks. On Saturday, January 2, 2021, extensive search and rescue resources were brought together from around the state, and an exhaustive search for Stacks started at daybreak. It is unclear why so much time elapsed before Stacks was reported missing.Ī search was started immediately that night, and search and rescue resources were gathered for an intensive search. Someone, it is not clear who did retrieve Baggett. Baggett said he called his son on a cell phone to come to pick him up. Jerry Wayne Baggett would like us to believe that he let Jessica out of the boat shortly after leaving shore to wade to the shore and to leave his company.īaggett told public safety officials that night that, some time after putting Stacks out on the right bank, he landed the boat and got out of it on the left bank of the river some distance downstream. Why so long after? It was cloudy and dark that morning, and because of the rain, the river was more dangerous than usual. On Friday, New Year’s Day 2021, 10 p.m., well over 12 hours after Stacks and Baggett were said to have put the boat in the Tallahatchie, Union County law enforcement was informed that Stacks was missing. Baggett said he let her out of the boat on the right (north) bank of the river.Īs if this is not suspicious enough, the days after her disappearance, make the entire situation even more suspicious. He said Stacks asked to get out of the boat a short distance after they put in. The skies had cleared a short while after the time Baggett said they launched the boat into the more dangerous than usual river. Rains had swollen the Little Tallahatchie and the current was swift.ħ. Improvised objects, possibly including a small flat shovel, were apparently to be used to control the boat.Ħ. The small boat had no motor and no proper oars or paddles. He said Stacks gave her cell phone to Stinson, so he could be called to pick them up later when they wanted to end their excursion on the river.ĥ. Bagget told public safety officials that Willie Stinson, a Union County resident, assisted him and Stacks in putting the boat into the river. The CR 46 bridge is approximately a mile and a half from the Poolville store.Ĥ. Jerry Wayne Baggett later told Union County law enforcement officers that, not long after they left the store, he and Stacks put a small boat into the Little Tallahatchie River at the County Road 46 bridge.
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