A preliminary autopsy report says a woman whose body was found last week in a Walthall County stream died of drowning, but authorities are treating the case as a homicide, Sheriff Duane Dillon said Tuesday.
Dillon said he is awaiting toxicology reports on the victim, Kelly Ann Erwin, 44.
“Although the cause of death is listed as drowning, we’re going stay on the safe side and investigate this as a homicide at this time,” he said.
Dillon said Erwin’s body has bruising in several places, adding that some of the bruising is not consistent with an attack.
“There is trauma to the body, but it’s difficult to determine if the trauma is the result of a fall,” the sheriff said.
“We’re waiting to see if the toxicology report will indicate if there was anything in her blood that may have caused her to fall or do something that might have caused the bruising,” he said.
A group of men checking on a deer stand in woods off Lee Chapel Road in rural southeast Walthall County discovered Erwin’s body on Dec. 29 while crossing a bridge. She was lying face-down in about three feet of water in the unnamed stream that passes under the bridge.
Erwin, of New Orleans, had been missing since Dec. 10, when she was last seen in the area of Coppers Ford Road, which is near where her body was found.
