Police: Man dumped, hid woman’s body in Hampton
Man concealed body of York County woman, 20, after she overdosed at party in Wythe
HAMPTON — After a 20-yearold York County woman overdosed and died at a Hampton party Feb. 21, court documents say three men loaded her into the trunk of her car and dumped her about a half-mile away.
Marina Turner’s body was found four days later near a small waterway in Old Wythe — concealed behind a large bush at the end of a dead end street.
In early March, Hampton police took out warrants charging Jamarus Emanuel “Jay” Granger with “concealment of a dead body.”
Court documents say Granger, 37, of Hampton, hosted the party and appeared to be the leader of the three men who loaded Turner’s body into the trunk.
He was arrested Friday night at a mobile home park in Newport News.
The investigation began Feb. 22, when Turner’s mother, Tamra Sessa, called the York-Poquoson Sheriff ’s Office to report her daughter missing.
She told investigators that she last spoke with Turner a couple days earlier, when her daughter told her she was going to Hampton to get her car, a 2003 Cadillac CTS.
A criminal complaint affidavit filed in Hampton General District Court this week said that as investigators looked into Turner’s disappearance, a Newport News police detective got a tip that “there had been a party in Hampton and that Ms. Turner overdosed and had died” — and that Granger was driving Turner’s white Cadillac.
Hampton police Det. Steve Rodey wrote in the affidavit that he learned that the party had been at the Colonial Landing Apartments, on Kecoughtan Road in Wythe, and that he was able to watch security video from the complex.
The footage showed Turner driving into the complex about 5:45 p.m. Feb. 20, and that she and Granger walked into an apartment together.
But Turner never came out. Rodey wrote that about eight hours later, at 1:36 a.m., Granger walked out of his apartment, talking on his cellphone and “pacing back and forth.”
Then he got into Turner’s Cadillac and moved it closer to the building — with the trunk facing the apartment door.
Granger then went back into the building and came out with two others.
“He is assisted by two other (men) in carrying a large bundle of blankets which appear to be heavy,” Rodey wrote. They were “struggling with it as they walked towards the opened trunk of the victim’s car.”
“While (Granger) and the others were placing the bundle in the trunk, I was able to observe one of the subjects gripping a pair of feet clothed in black stockings, protruding from the blanket,” Rodey wrote, saying he was “able to then observe that there was a body wrapped in the blankets.”
Granger and one of those two men, as well as a woman, then got into Turner’s Cadillac and drove out of the parking lot, Rodey wrote.
The woman was carrying the shoulder bag that Turner was holding when she arrived at the apartment, the detective added.
Traffic cameras on Kecoughtan Road captured the Cadillac driving east, then turning south on Powhatan Parkway.
Four days later, on Feb.
25, a U.S. Postal Service mail carrier found the body at the end of Secota Drive.
Turner was found “partially wrapped in blankets” that matched those Rodey said he saw on the video. “The victim was also wearing long black stockings as observed on the video,” the detective added, saying the body was identified as Marina Turner’s.
The State Medical Examiner’s Office has not yet ruled on a cause and manner of Turner’s death.
“She was just one of those people that thought that the world was just a sweet place,” said Aurora Perrin, a friend of Turner’s. “She was a good person. She was a good mother; she loved her kids.”
Perrin said Turner had two boys. The friends ran into each other on Feb. 19, the day before Turner went missing. It was the first time they had seen each other in two years.
Perrin, 41, said she was on her way home from visiting her son at a hospital when she ran into Turner at a Hampton gas station. “I was sitting there playing my numbers, and she came walking out of the bathroom,” she said.
The reunion resulted in the two women exchanging numbers, with hopes of picking up their friendship where they left off.
But Perrin said it was close to midnight, and she was worried about her friend’s condition. She wanted to make sure Turner got home safe, offering to drive her home to York County.
Turner agreed to the ride, and the women ended up leaving Turner’s Cadillac outside a Wawa at the corner of Mercury Boulevard and Aberdeen Road.
The next morning, Feb. 20, Turner called Perrin to see where she had left her car in Hampton. The two were supposed to meet later that day, but never had the chance.
Granger is being held without bond at the Newport News City Jail, but had a remote hearing Tuesday before a Hampton judge and is scheduled to be in Hampton Friday.
Granger’s attorney, Ben Pavek with the Hampton Public Defender’s Office, declined to comment Tuesday.
No other arrests have been made. Virginia law says that concealing a dead body — including to “prevent detection of an unlawful act” or to “prevent the detection of the death” — is a Class 6 felony, punishable by up to five years in prison.
It wasn’t immediately clear why Turner’s body was moved. There’s a “good Samaritan” provision in state law to protect those who report accidental drug overdoses from being prosecuted in the death.
Granger has another felony charge pending against him, a drug possession case that’s scheduled to go to trial Thursday in Newport News Circuit Court.