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Prison tattoo records help Hawkins sheriff ID body found burning in Hawkins

Published December 5th, 2006 | 1 Comments

ROGERSVILLE - Thanks to some old prison tattoo records and a positive fingerprint match, the Hawkins County Sheriff's Office has identified a man found deceased and burning near Surgoinsville Saturday as Jason Drake.

Sheriff Roger Christian said Tuesday that Drake, 33, most recently had an address at 1009 Tranbarger Road, No. 5, Kingsport, but he also had ties to the Oak Ridge area.

The Kingsport Police Department and Tennessee Bureau of Investigation are now also involved in the investigation, which is being treated as a homicide, although no cause of death has been established.

Christian said he is still waiting for the results of an autopsy which reportedly took place Monday at the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville. Another key bit of information still unknown aside from cause of death is the time of death.

"We still don't know when or how Mr. Drake died, and hopefully the autopsy reports are going to come in soon and shed some light on that," Christian said. "I know the medical examiner is swamped. We've identified the guy, and the next hurdle is we've got to learn how he died.

"We can't assume that Mr. Drake's death wasn't accidental or natural until we know better, but regardless of how he died a crime has been committed by the way his body was (set on fire)."

Drake's burning body was discovered shortly after 4 a.m. Saturday on Kite Road near the Stoney Point Road intersection just north of Surgoinsville after a newspaper carrier called 911 to report what he thought was a brush fire.

Hawkins County Sheriff's Office Sgt. Greg Larkin was first on the scene at 4:22 a.m. and found what was then an unidentified black male lying in the ditch beside the road on fire. Larkin used an extinguisher to put out the fire and called for detectives.

The main clue to establishing Drake's identity was a tattoo on his upper right arm that read, "Bird man still fly."

"Through the Tennessee Department of Corrections tattoo photo records, we found an identical tattoo on a former inmate named Jason Drake," Christian said. "That's why we felt confident we knew his identity, and then we were able to confirm that through fingerprints."

Investigators believe Drake died somewhere else and was brought to the Kite Road location and set on fire.

"Now what we're going to do is start interviewing his associates and learn as much as we can about him and his movements prior to his death," Christian said.

Christian said he's asking for anyone who knows of Drake's whereabouts in the week preceding his death or anyone who may have spoken with him or spent time with him over the last week to contact the sheriff's office at 272-4848.

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He was a great friend even though i didn't know much about him, He was a great friend. Im glad he went to a better place and he is very happy now! Even though we don't know the killer or killees he is better where he is at!

vanity smith | 12/6/2006 - 11:27 PM - ( Comment

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