VAIDEN – The family of Katrina Hemphill of Vaiden, who died from multiple stab wounds on Dec. 13, wants to know why it’s taking so long to find out who is responsible for her death.
Hemphill, 48, was a floor nurse at Greenwood Leflore Hospital, and her husband works on construction projects for Malouf Construction Co. He was working in Memphis at the time of her death.
Hemphill’s sister-in-law, Rose Hemphill Harris, said Katrina Hemphill usually stopped by her house and visited on Wednesdays before going home and normally went to Bible study at her church on Wednesday nights. That particular one, she said she was tired and not going to church, Harris said.
“Somebody knew her schedule,” she said. “She hardly ever missed church.”
She evidently surprised an intruder, who killed her. Nothing was taken from the home, Carroll County Sheriff Jerry Carver said.
“Evidently she came in and interrupted someone before they took anything,” the sheriff said.
Harris said her family had heard more “on the street” than from Carver’s department. She said a meeting this week with the sheriff was not satisfactory to her.
“They didn’t tell us nothing,” she said. “They have a bunch of people working on it. It seemed like to us they were patronizing us. We want more communication – to make us feel like it’s being worked on. We think they know who did it.”
Carver said he had a meeting Wednesday with the family to explain what has been done in the investigation, and he is confident all is being done that can be done.
“We have over 80 pieces of evidence that have been submitted to the crime lab. They are in the process of working on it,” he said. “When you get to this point, we can’t do anything but wait for their results.
“They work at their own speed. We have to take it one step at a time, and when we get enough evidence, we can act,” he said. “We expect DNA to show whether it was a male or female, and maybe there will be a match on file.”
Carver said he believed most of the family was satisfied after the meeting that the department is doing all it can to find the killer. The investigation is being handled by the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation and by Carroll County investigator Lee Taylor.
“The MBI came in and collected evidence and photographed everything. The body was sent for autopsy,” Carver said. “We have stacks of stuff we’ve subpoenaed.”
Harris said people around town loved her sister-in-law.
“They cry when I talk to them,” she said. “Vaiden’s so little. It looks like somebody ought to know something.”
