09-24-2010, 03:46 PM
Friday Sep 24, 2010
WHY??
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A spokeswoman for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said Friday that the state medical examiner’s office could reveal next week how a soldier allegedly killed his girlfriend and her two children.
Kristin Helm said a preliminary autopsy report should be completed early next week but the full report probably won’t be revealed for at least 10 weeks.
Army recruiter Matthew Perkins, 30, is accused of killing Stephanie Hershman, 26, and her sons, 3-year-old Jathan and 1-year-old Jaylon, in Manchester.
“It usually takes them about 10 to 14 weeks to get the full and completed autopsy results because there’s a lot of lab work ... to be done,” Helm said.
Police said Perkins of Tullahoma, formerly of Paducah, Ky., told someone Wednesday night that he had killed the family, and the person went to police.
Perkins, who also served in Afghanistan and Iraq, is charged with three counts of first-degree murder and is being held in the Franklin County jail on a $6 million bond.
His arraignment was set for Sept. 28. As of Friday, he had not been assigned a public defender, according to the Coffee County public defender’s office.
Police believe the Hershmans were killed Sunday. Perkins is accused of stuffing their corpses into plastic garbage bags and hiding them in a closet for days.
Helm said TBI’s violent crimes response team was dispatched to help because of the gruesomeness of the crime and was combing through evidence to try to discover, among other things, a possible motive.
“At this point in the crime lab, what we’re doing is trying to put together all the pieces of the puzzle, examine every piece of evidence that was left at the crime scene to give the district attorney general a solid case in order to prosecute,” she said.
Army records show Perkins enlisted in 2000 as an infantryman out of Murray, Ky., and served in Afghanistan from April 2004 until April 2005 before a tour of Iraq, from August 2006 until October 2007. He has been a recruiter in Tullahoma since July 2008.
WHY??
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A spokeswoman for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said Friday that the state medical examiner’s office could reveal next week how a soldier allegedly killed his girlfriend and her two children.
Kristin Helm said a preliminary autopsy report should be completed early next week but the full report probably won’t be revealed for at least 10 weeks.
Army recruiter Matthew Perkins, 30, is accused of killing Stephanie Hershman, 26, and her sons, 3-year-old Jathan and 1-year-old Jaylon, in Manchester.
“It usually takes them about 10 to 14 weeks to get the full and completed autopsy results because there’s a lot of lab work ... to be done,” Helm said.
Police said Perkins of Tullahoma, formerly of Paducah, Ky., told someone Wednesday night that he had killed the family, and the person went to police.
Perkins, who also served in Afghanistan and Iraq, is charged with three counts of first-degree murder and is being held in the Franklin County jail on a $6 million bond.
His arraignment was set for Sept. 28. As of Friday, he had not been assigned a public defender, according to the Coffee County public defender’s office.
Police believe the Hershmans were killed Sunday. Perkins is accused of stuffing their corpses into plastic garbage bags and hiding them in a closet for days.
Helm said TBI’s violent crimes response team was dispatched to help because of the gruesomeness of the crime and was combing through evidence to try to discover, among other things, a possible motive.
“At this point in the crime lab, what we’re doing is trying to put together all the pieces of the puzzle, examine every piece of evidence that was left at the crime scene to give the district attorney general a solid case in order to prosecute,” she said.
Army records show Perkins enlisted in 2000 as an infantryman out of Murray, Ky., and served in Afghanistan from April 2004 until April 2005 before a tour of Iraq, from August 2006 until October 2007. He has been a recruiter in Tullahoma since July 2008.