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Last updated on Monday, December 8, 2014
(BLOOMFIELD) - When murder suspect Jorrell Houldson was found last weekend, dead from a gunshot wound to the head, a revolver was lying beside the body.
Anna Rochelle, Editor of Greene County Daily World, reports that it was a stolen gun that investigators say was taken the day after Houldson's mother was murdered. The gun taken from the home of a friend of Jorrell Houldson, about a quarter mile away from where Jorrell Houldson's body was found.
Investigators say Houldson stole the gun, walked across the road into the woods and took his own life the day after his mother was murdered.
Back on October 1, within a few short hours after the body of Ruby Moon-Houldson was discovered, her son Jorrell Houldson was hauled in to the Linton Police Department for questioning by Greene County Sheriff's Detective Sgt. George Dallaire.
Two days later, a warrant was issued for Jorrell Houldson's arrest for theft of a firearm, but the public was unaware of the warrant and unaware this first criminal case was filed against him, because the case, and the warrant, were both sealed.
That case has since been dismissed and the seal lifted, making additional information about the Houldson incidents a matter of public record.
In addition, Greene County Prosecutor Jarrod Holtsclaw filed a motion on Thursday to dismiss the murder case against Houldson because he is deceased. The judge dismissed the case on Friday.
With the dismissals of these cases, earlier this week the prosecutor and the lead investigator in the Houldson cases sat down with Anna Rochelle of the Greene County Daily World to answer questions and fill in some details surrounding the Houldson incidents.
Ruby Moon Houldson was murdered on the morning of Wednesday, October 1. Jorrell Houldson was picked up, questioned, and let go.
Holtsclaw explained that during Houldson's interview, Houldson never made any admissions about harming his mother, and officers didn't have any proof that he did.
Houldson however did tell police he was involved in a marijuana deal and had used "acid" in the previous week, but that was not enough to arrest him on a drug charge; there was no corroborating evidence.
Officials say they needed to have evidence to support that suspicion or accusation and, on the day of the murder, they didn't have that and Houldson made no admissions during his interview that would allow police to arrest him, so he was let go.
Houldson was to return the next day to take a polygraph examination.
Holtsclaw and Dallaire explained that at the conclusion of initial questioning, Houldson could not go back to his home, because it had been secured and sealed by law enforcement and they were in the process of getting a warrant to search his home. They worked on the scene of the murder and Jorrell Houldson's home until 2 a.m. Thursday. The sheriff and another deputy then "sat on the house" all night for security, the search warrant was obtained and it was executed the next morning.
Following the questioning of Houldson at the police department on that Wednesday, a sheriff's deputy gave him a ride from the department to a friend's house in Linton where Houldson spent the night. He had agreed to return to the department the next day, Thursday, at noon, to be transported to the Jasper ISP for a polygraph examination. He didn't show for that appointment.
Houldson had no money, no shoes, no cell phone, no car, no weapons, no access to his home - he had nothing but the clothes he was wearing.
Early the next morning (October 2), Houldson left the friend's home stealing a dog chain or cable used to tie the dog outside. Houdlson - was gone.
He left and the information we have from that friend is that he was missing a dog chain or some type of tie out for a dog. The person said Jorrell was gone, and this tie-out was missing too.
The tie-out that was taken was never found.
On Friday (Oct. 3), officers began searching for Houdlson. That is when they received a call about a stolen gun.
According to the information in the probable cause affidavit filed in the theft case, now unsealed, the call came in around 9 a.m. Friday from another friend of Houldson's who reported a gun had been stolen from his home - he told police Houldson stole it.
This friend had a number of guns, and a gun cabinet. The two men had been lifelong-friends and he told the detective that Jorrell was the only person who knew where he kept the key to the gun cabinet.
He said there were other long guns and other property in the residence worth more money than the gun that was missing; a H&R nine-shot revolver, which had been fully loaded. The friend told police he feared Houldson may have stolen the revolver with the intent to commit suicide.
According to the affidavit, Houldson showed up at the friend's residence on North County Road 1225 West, north of Linton, around 7:30 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 2, the day after the homicide. Houldson arrived on foot while his friend was at work, but the friend's fiance was at home and let Houldson in. Houldson took a nap, then left before noon saying he would return after his friend got home from work. The fiance left for about an hour around lunchtime. When Houldson's friend got home from work, the couple left their home around 4:15 p.m. to go meet one of Houldson's sisters at Walmart. They returned about an hour later and found their back door open. It had been closed when they left. Houldson never showed back up. But the friend noticed the key was in the lock of his gun cabinet, then he discovered the revolver was gone -- it had been his great-grandfather's gun. They reported the theft the next morning, on Friday, Oct. 3.
Houldson made entry into the home, but it was sometime during that day, between lunchtime and four or five hours later.
After taking the theft report, Dallaire prepared a probable cause document and a case was filed in Greene Superior Court that day against Jorrell Houldson on a preliminary charge of theft of a firearm, a Level 6 felony. The judge specified that bond be set at $10,000 cash only and the case was immediately sealed.
At 3:18 p.m. Friday, Judge Dena Martin signed off and a warrant, also sealed, was issued for Houldson's arrest.
The judge sealed the warrant so Houldson wouldn't know police were coming for him.
Police walked the property near the friend's home because they thought Houldson might have taken his own life. They searched the outbuildings, pasture, a camping trailer and a pond on the property.
Holtsclaw said, "Keep in mind, you've got a gruesome murder of Jorrell's mother, you've got him taking this dog chain earlier in the morning, then him going into a friend's house and taking a .22 when there were other more valuable guns and things in the home he could have stolen, and the .22 was the only thing that he took."
Dallaire added, "He didn't take any extra ammunition, he just took the one gun, a little nine-shot revolver, and it was loaded."
Holtsclaw says they believed Houldson was at least strongly considering taking his own life.
Instead Houldson had gone across the road to the southwest corner of the property and into the woods to a creek that was down a steep bank about 10 to 12 feet tall and then walked down into the creek.
Police believe, because of the level of decomposition of the body, and he was wearing the same clothes as the day of questioning, Houldson committed suicide on the afternoon of Oct. 2.
The gun found by the body was the stolen gun.
The autopsy revealed Houldson died from one gunshot wound and the bullet recovered during the autopsy matched the caliber of the gun stolen.
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