Published Friday, February 05, 2010

Police ask for help in death of pedestrian

By Elizabeth Melville

The Newnan Times-Herald

Local authorities have identified the body of a pedestrian found deceased on the Newnan Crossing Bypass early Thursday as 30-year-old Curtis Rodriguez Mitchell, of Newnan.

Police officials are requesting the public’s help in piecing together what happened to Mitchell.

A passerby spotted the body in the southbound lanes Thursday at approximately 4 a.m. and alerted police, according to Newnan Public Information Officer Gina Snider. Officers with the Newnan Police Department responded to the scene and found the male unresponsive with visible injuries. There were no witnesses to what happened to Mitchell at the scene, according to Snider.

The Coweta County Coroner’s Office responded and pronounced Mitchell dead at the scene. The body was transported to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Crime Lab in Atlanta for autopsy to determine the cause of death.

“We’re working this as a vehicle homicide,” said Chief Douglas L. “Buster” Meadows. “We’re going to wait to make a determination until we get a report back from the crime lab to see if the injuries are indicative of one thing or another.”

Meadows said that investigators are trying to backtrack to determine who last saw the victim alive.

“If anybody was along that route during that time and saw anything in that area, call us,” said Meadows. “Let us write it down. We’d rather get it and not need it than need it and not have it.”

Anyone who traveled the Newnan Crossing Bypass on Thursday between 3 and 4 a.m. — particularly anyone who saw a pedestrian or an object in the roadway — is asked to call Sgt. Brent Blankenship or Lt. Tate Washington at the police department at 770-254-2355.