Clues still scarce in slaying

Jellico resident Camille Jones wants something for Christmas that you can’t buy at Walmart.
She’d like an answer to the question of who killed her grandson, Duane Jody, and another man a little more than 11 years ago here in Whitley County.

“Somebody some where knows something. Maybe their conscience will kick in,” she said during a recent interview with the News Journal.

“It’s been 11 years, but 11 years is like 11 days when something like this happens. There is no closure. Never. Closure is just a word used for lack of anything else to describe bringing the case to justice.”
No one has ever been convicted in the slayings.

On Nov. 24, 1997, Jody and Robert D. Williams were killed at a residence on 4239 Tidal Wave Road.
Police say Williams and Jody were in the wrong place at the wrong time, and that the alleged motive apparently involved a drug deal gone bad where the supposed buyer, who was one of the men charged, didn’t pay for 160 pounds of marijuana and instead hired a hitman to go from Tennessee to Kentucky to kill the seller, a man identified in court as Tim Morgan. The hitman went to the wrong address though.
Morgan lives at 4229 Tidal Wave Road.

Morgan was sentenced to 16 years in federal prison earlier this year for dealing drugs in Whitley County.
Kentucky State Police Detective Colan Harrell testified during a 2000 hearing that Morgan showed deception when asked on his polygraph test – taken three days after the shooting – whether he participated in any way in the death of Williams and Jody and whether he shot either man.
Harrell also testified that Morgan wasn’t charged, however, because there was nothing, outside the test, to indicate he did it.

Polygraph or lie detector tests are inadmissible evidence in court because of reliability problems.
At one point nearly two years after the slayings, two Tennessee men were indicted for murder in connection with the killings, but the charges were dismissed in July 2001 after two key witnesses in the case recanted their statements.

Jones describes her grandson as a “good kid, who had a rough life.”
She said Jody worked for Morgan, who had a legitimate business of hauling junk for people, cleaning out basements, landscaping and various other tasks.
Jones said Jody was visiting Williams, who was renting the trailer from Morgan, on the evening of the shooting.

Jones said she believes that the crime scene was cleaned up before police were called, and that her grandson’s vehicle was moved before authorities arrived at the scene as well.
Ed Roberts, Jody’s uncle, said it’s important to the family that the people actually responsible for the killings are found.

“I’d rather them never find out who killed those boys than to get the wrong people for it. I’d rather them get the right people, no matter how long it takes,” Roberts said.
Jones said she just wants people to know that the case is still open, and there has been no closure for the family.

She admits that it won’t make a gigantic difference to her, but that she would like some resolution for her daughter and granddaughter.

“Anybody that was aware of anything, they need to go to the authorities,” Jones said. “This has been a nightmare we have all lived with.”

Harrell, who investigated the case, said that it is still under investigation.

“Right now there are no new leads that have come into play,” he noted Tuesday morning.
Harrell said that anyone with information about the case is encouraged to call state police at (606) 878-6622.