Local and state officers continue to investigate the weekend shooting death of a Poplar Bluff man whose body was found at the dead end of county road in eastern Butler County.
The victim is identified as Jermaine Johnson, 32, and an autopsy performed Monday afternoon by Dr. Russell Deidiker at a Farmington, Mo., area hospital showed he died as the result of a gunshot wound to his torso, said Butler County Coroner Andy Moore.
Some evidence, Moore said, was recovered during the autopsy.
Samples, he said, were taken for toxicology analysis. Those results typically take six to eight weeks to be returned.
Authorities learned of Johnson's death at about 3 p.m. Sunday.
It was at that time the Butler County Sheriff's Department received a call from a citizen, who reported he was "seining a ditch for crawfish for bait ... (when) he discovered a body believed to be a deceased black male" on County Road 612, off of County Road 620, explained Butler County Sheriff Mark Dobbs.
Deputies, he said, responded and "observed the individual and confirmed he, in fact, was deceased.
"Soon after, I was notified, and the Butler County/Poplar Bluff Major Case Squad was activated."
Officers with the Missouri State Highway Patrol, its Division of Drug and Crime Control and Poplar Bluff Police Department responded to assist in the investigation.
Dobbs said officers believe "the incident occurred within just a few hours of the victim being found."
The body, later identified as Johnson through fingerprint analysis and based on tattoos, was found partially in the roadway and partially in the grass, said Dobbs, who indicated Johnson was found laying on his back.
"The scene was extensively processed, and there was a lot to go through and account for," Dobbs said. "On top of that, we were battling the rain."
At the same time the scene was being processing, Dobbs said, officers were putting out tarpaulins to protect the crime scene.
"It was a pretty labor intensive process with (it taking) several people to get that scene processed," Dobbs said.
The tarpaulins, he said, had to be placed quickly because the officers only had one shot at gathering evidence before any of it washed away.
Dobbs described the area where Johnson's body was found as being "an area where a lot of people go to shoot guns. We found numerous spent cartridges that had been there for a good while."
The area, which is "pretty much" farm ground, is popular for target practice.
During their investigation, the sheriff said, officers found that Johnson is not originally from the area, so he doesn't have a "long history that we can follow and a lot of acquaintances."
"We began tracing back (Johnson's) known associates, as well as acquaintances ... that do exist around here ... which led us to Demetrion (Dapree) Lafayette," said Dobbs.
Lafayette was described by the sheriff as a "person of interest that did not want to be found."
Lafayette, Dobbs said, was found at his girlfriend's home on Ella Jean Lane late Sunday night.
"He was hiding inside the residence and trying to avoid detection," Dobbs said. "Ultimately, he was taken into custody without incident. ...
"We've got him on an out-of-state Michigan parole absconder warrant."
The 30-year-old, according to Dobbs, shows a Poplar Bluff address, but "he's not a regular resident. He's from the Michigan area."
Officers believe Johnson and Lafayette were "significant traffickers of illegal narcotics, and the killing most likely stemmed from a disagreement over illegal narcotics," Dobbs said.
The "finer points of what the problem was" is what officers are trying to piece together, Dobbs said.
On Monday, the sheriff said, officers executed a search warrant on the Ella Jean Lane residence and began processing it for evidence.
"We felt it was a very productive search warrant, and we learned a lot (and) seized some key evidence," Dobbs said.
Tuesday morning, Dobbs said, officers will be "trying to follow leads and make more contact with some of the acquaintances of the victim."
Anyone with information regarding Johnson's death is asked to call the sheriff's department at 513-785-8444.