Editor’s note: Jamie Patterson, editor and publisher of The Yazoo Herald, contributed information for this article pertaining to the manhunt in Yazoo County.
A Greenville man, who has been charged with second-degree murder by the Marion County Sheriff’s Office for a February 6 incident in Foxworth, led several law enforcement agencies on a manhunt that spanned more than a month before he was apprehended by authorities.
Trevor Hoskins, 43, of Greenville is currently behind bars at the Marion County Correctional Facility for his suspected involvement in the death of Kathy Valdez.
Deputies responded to Marion General Hospital just after midnight February 7 in reference to Valdez suffering from a head injury. Valdez’s family informed the responding deputies that Hoskins was at the victim’s house when they left. When they returned to the home, they found Valdez unconscious with head injuries, but Hoskins was no longer at the residence.
Valdez died on February 10 at University Medical Center, and a preliminary autopsy revealed the cause of death as blunt force trauma to the head.
Meanwhile, investigators attempted to contact and locate Hoskins with no success. Valdez’s death increased the urgency to apprehend Hoskins, who was put on the NCIC registry with a BOLO out for his arrest. They were able to track his phone to Yazoo County, where its sheriff’s office began searching for him.
The Yazoo County Sheriff’s Office then responded to a call regarding an erratic driver on the area of Pepper Wilson Road, according to Yazoo Sheriff Jeremy McCoy. The driver fled on foot when he saw deputies approaching, and deputies identified the suspect as Hoskins after running the vehicle’s tag.
The YCSO was joined by the Madison Police Department and the Rankin County Sheriff’s Office with their K-9 units.
“The K-9 units did some good work, but were not able to find him,” McCoy told The Yazoo Herald. “We had reason to believe that someone picked him up and dropped him off in the Benton area.”
Hoskins then allegedly placed a phone call from a business in Benton, leading investigators to search the area, according to McCoy. Hoskins was then spotted on Mississippi 16, leading to another search with K-9 units, but McCoy said the rain likely washed away the scent and footprints, allowing Hoskins to remain on the loose.
That’s when McCoy enlisted Contract Drone Service out of Madison to assist in the search, while the community was made aware of Hoskins being on the loose and in the area.
“Members of the Graball Freerun community started calling, and one resident even messaged me on Facebook,” McCoy told The Yazoo Herald. “That was when we sent our deputies out to the area. The suspect had been stopping and using people’s phones in the Honeycutt area. We believe he was trying to get to a hotel where his brother was allegedly going to pick him up.”
Law enforcement, with the assistance of the U.S. Marshals Service, were then finally able to find and capture McCoy on March 17, more than a month after the incident in Foxworth that ultimately killed Valdez.
Hoskins was then transferred to the Marion County Correctional Facility, charged with second-degree murder and given a $1 million bond. Hoskins has been interviewed by MCSO detectives, but the events leading up to Valdez’s death remain unclear. He remained in jail as of press time Tuesday evening.
The Columbian-Progress will continue to cover the case as it unfolds.
