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2007 Norman, Latesha 11-13-2007
Topic Started: Nov 20 2007, 02:03 PM (98 Views)
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Jackson State University Student Missing
By J. Samuel Cook-Dormoh
Black College Wire

As Jackson State University students, parents, and alumni geared up to celebrate the annual Capital City Classic football game Saturday, family and friends of Latasha Norman gathered Friday to pray for her safe return during a candlelight vigil.


jsums.edu
Missing student Latasha Norman
Norman, 20, of Greenville, Miss., has been missing since Nov. 13, just one day after her ex-boyfriend, Stanley Cole, was arrested for allegedly assaulting her in the parking lot of a restaurant. Cole, 23, was arrested for the crime and is scheduled to appear in Pearl City Court in Pearl, Miss. on a simple assault charge on Nov. 29.

According to a statement on the in JSU Web site, Norman "is of medium-brown complexion, stands approximately 5 feet 2 inches tall and weighs between 115 and 120 pounds. She was last seen wearing a white shirt and blue jeans."

Stephen Wells, a detective with the Jackson Police Department's Special Victims Unit on Monday, Nov. 19, told Black College Wire the investigation was underway but had not turned up a suspect.

"The case is ongoing. We're still in the initial stages of it," Wells said. "Of course, there's not much to work with, but we've accumulated as much information as we can."

According to an article published in the Clarion-Ledger, Danny Bolden, Norman's father, admitted that the relationship between Cole and Norman had been rocky.

"She's been trying to break it off with him," Bolden stated in the article.

Jackson State University officials confirmed that Cole is also a student at the university, but due to federal disclosure guidelines, no further information could be released.

Anthony Dean, director of university communications, said JSU's police department is highly trained and that campus security is the university's chief concern. Cole said that no arrests have been made and that there are very few details available.

"All I can tell you is the case is being investigated by [the JSU police department] in conjunction with Jackson Police Department's Missing Persons division," Dean said.

Jackson State University has had few incidents of violence in the past two years. According to the Office of Postsecondary Education Campus Security Statistics Web site, JSU had two incidents of aggravated assaults in 2006 and five in 2005. The city of Jackson, however, has seen a dramatic increase in its crime level in recent years. According to CityRating.com, Jackson's rate for all violent crimes is 1.52 times the National Average. The murder rate is 3.24 times the National Average.

Anyone with information regarding Latasha Norman's whereabouts is asked to contact JSU's police department at (601) 979-2580 or the Jackson Police Department at (601) 960-1210.



J. Samuel Cook-Dormoh is a recent graduate of Alcorn State University and a regular contributor to Black College Wire.

Posted Nov. 19, 2007

http://www.blackcollegewire.org/news/071119_jsu_missing/
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Mississippi Police Find Missing Student's Body, Charge Ex-Boyfriend With Murder
Thursday, November 29, 2007

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Nov. 29: Stanley Cole, former boyfriend of missing Jackson State University student Latasha Norman walks into Pearl Municipal Court.
Nov. 29: Stanley Cole, former boyfriend of missing Jackson State University student Latasha Norman walks into Pearl Municipal Court.
JACKSON, Miss. — The ex-boyfriend of a missing Jackson State University student was charged with murder Thursday after leading police to her decomposed body in the woods off a quiet Jackson street, authorities said.

The discovery of Latasha Norman's body was a tragic ending for an accounting major who worked on the school newspaper and ended up the focus of a story that grabbed national attention.

Norman's ex-boyfriend, Stanley Dwayne Cole of Greenville, was charged with murder after being interviewed by detectives on Thursday, said Jackson Police Sgt. Jeffery B. Scott.

"Investigators were able to locate the body based on information developed in the course of the interview," Scott said.

Scott said Cole had hired an attorney, but did not know the lawyer's name.

Friends described the 20-year-old Norman as a quiet and serious student. She was last seen alive after leaving an afternoon class Nov. 13.

Her body was found Thursday off Brown Street in north Jackson near some old tires and a faded blue tarpaulin, callously discarded among empty beer bottles and other road side trash.

Brown Street is a sparsely populated road about a mile west of Intestate 55 near Tougaloo College, a historically black private school in this capital city. It was not clear how long the body had been there.

RelatedStories
Mississippi Police Chief Says Missing Student Ignored Due to Race Norman, who is also from Greenville in the Mississippi Delta, had been the target of attacks in the weeks before her disappearance, authorities said.

Cole had been charged with simple assault for allegedly hitting Norman. And someone had slashed Norman's car's tires and removed the vehicle's license plate.

Authorities identified Norman's body "based on evidence recovered from the crime scene and from forensic evidence," Scott said.

Brown Street residents gathered down in front of an apartment complex and a small community center with faded pink walls as investigators removed the body.

"This is scary," said 37-year-old Denise Lewis. "This is unusual for this area. It's the first time they've ever found a body here that I'm aware of."

A university spokesman had no comment Thursday on the arrest or discovery of the body. The disappearance caused an outpouring of emotion on the 7,900-student campus known as "Mississippi's Urban University," where classmates have held candlelight vigils and urged the community to help find Norman.

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