A skull, an elbow, one hand, ribs, a right toe, the left leg, and a foot bone.
According to Thursday’s testimony from a Davenport police crime scene technician, those scattered remains were all that was left of 10-year-old Breasia Terrell when she was found near a pond in rural Clinton County on March 22, 2021.
The crime scene technician, Sgt. Kristopher Mayer, offered the testimony during the first day of Henry Earl Dinkins’ trial in front of Judge Henry Latham. Dinkins is accused of abducting and killing Breasia and faces charges of first-degree kidnapping and murder.
She disappeared July 10, 2020 while spending the night with her younger brother at the apartment Dinkins shared with his girlfriend, Andrea Culberson. Breasia’s younger brother is Dinkins’ son.
Dinkins originally was to face a jury in a change-of-venue trial in the Linn County Courthouse in Cedar Rapids. The trial moved back to Scott County after Dinkins opted for a bench trial earlier this week.
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Scott County Attorney Kelly Cunningham and assistant prosecutor Liz O’Donnell called four witnesses Thursday. Mayer was the third to take the stand, and he described the evidence investigators marked at the scene where Breasia was found. Besides the skeletal remains, Mayer said two bullets were found, portions of a shirt, and shoes were located near a small farm pond roughly two miles north of DeWitt.
‘Everyone sounded normal’Mona Varela was the second witnessed called Thursday, and the former day shift report taker at the Davenport Police Department described the morning of July 10, 2020, when Breasia’s mother, Aishia Lankford, called to report her daughter missing.
Under direct questioning by Cunningham, Varela said the 10-year-old may have first been considered a runaway, but that characterization didn’t last long when Lankford told Varela that Breasia wouldn’t run away.
Varela testified Breasia spent the night at Dinkins’ apartment and Dinkins was on his way to the police station to report the girl as missing. Varela reached Dinkins by phone.
“He said he changed his mind, and he wasn’t on his way, but that Breasia is a good kid who never gets into trouble,” she testified. “Dinkins then tried to put his son on the phone, and I explained to him that I didn’t want to speak with his son. He put the phone to his son, and his son said a few things.”
Valera said she called Culberson to tell her to stay at the apartment, because police were on their way. Valera said Culberson was reluctant to give her the apartment number and testified she was growing concerned about the situation, because there seemed to be “red flags” appearing during the phone calls.
Valera then called Dinkins back, and he told her he was headed to the apartment.
One of Dinkins’ attorneys, Chad Frese, cross-examined Valera, repeatedly asking why she called Dinkins back when she only had one phone conversation with Lankford and one with Culberson. When asked if Dinkins was polite, respectful and sounded normal while one the phone, Valera responded “yes.”
Through questioning Valera, Frese also established that Lankford never expressed concern during the call that Dinkins had anything to do with Breasia’s disappearance.
Valera then added, “To me, that’s what was so alarming. Everyone was sounding normal.” Under redirect from Cunningham, Valera added that people dealing with the possibility of a missing child don’t sound “normal” during their calls.
A ‘lack of details’
Geoffrey Peiffer, a sergeant in the Davenport Police Department, was the first witness called Thursday. He was one of the officers who responded to the report that Breasia was missing.
He testified that he was called to the Jersey Meadows apartment complex at 2744 E. 53rd Street after another officer responded to a report of a missing child on July 10, 2020.
Peiffer learned the missing child was Breasia, and she had been spending the night in apartment No. 8 with her brother, Dinkins and Dinkins’ girlfriend.
According to Peiffer, the first officer told him the case did not feel like a “typical missing kid incident.” It became clear Breasia was gone from the apartment for a significant amount of time, Peiffer testified. Davenport police began canvassing the area, including unoccupied apartments and garages in the complex.
“This incident was clearly not like any other we had experienced, due to the lack of details,” Peiffer testified.