The family of an elderly woman who was brutally attacked in her home in 2014 still wants answers involving her case.
They said they are not satisfied with the investigation of the attack and the police department’s communication with them.
But Police Chief Jeff Curtis said his detective division has throughly investigated any and all leads with the case. He said they have simply “hit a brick wall.”
Lanie Roberts, daughter of Jeanelle Fratesi, has been very vocal in the pursuit of justice involving her mother’s attack in August of 2014 inside her Barnwell Street home.
Her mother allowed a man to use her phone outside her home when he forced his way inside and violently attacked her.
“She suffered from a broken bones in her face and nose,” Roberts said, in previous interviews. “But her most damaging injury was bleeding to her brain.”
After the suspect attacked their elderly mother, he fled the scene with her ring and cell phone before observant neighbors attempted to enter the home.
Roberts said thanks to the concerned neighbors, her mother’s life was saved.
“She was spared from more critical harm or even death,” she said.
No arrests have been made in connection with the violent attack.
Roberts has attended several city council meetings and made contact with local leaders concerning her mother’s unsolved case.
But she said she has seen no progress.
“It has been two years since my mother’s attack, and there has been no progress,” Roberts said this week.
Roberts had a meeting with Curtis, who assumed his role as police chief s few months after her mother was attacked, on Sept. 9, 2015.
“The meeting did not begin well, but I felt at the end we had an understanding of where we all stood,” Roberts said.
Roberts said she was under the impression that Curtis and his investigators would ask the Mississippi Bureau of Investigations to assist them and they would thoroughly investigate the phone records of the victim’s stolen cell phone.
Roberts said she is still shocked that she personally obtained those phone records. She said they were not collected the police department following her mother’s attack.
“We obtained pertinent evidence from the caller log of the land line,” Roberts said.
Roberts said she uncovered a phone number that was called five times around the time of her mother’s attack. She believes those calls were made by the suspect.
Roberts said she also spoke with a representative from CSpire to recover numbers and usage from her mother’s stolen cell phone.
Despite her frustration, Roberts said she delivered the phone record evidence to the police department.
“We found numbers called to and from the land line and from the cell phone before, during and after the assault,” Roberts said.
Roberts said she hoped the meeting with Curtis would prompt a quick response to those phone records.
But she said she hasn’t heard from anyone from the police department in almost a year.
“Chief Curtis never called me back after that meeting,” she said. “I haven’t received a call, an email, a letter, nothing.”
Curtis said he understands the family’s frustrations. But he said the case has been thoroughly investigated by his staff.
“This is a case that happened before I became chief, and the detectives told me that they had hit a brick wall,” Curtis said. “The phone numbers supplied led to dead ends. I contacted assisting agencies. I reassigned other detectives in the hopes of bring ing new light into the case.”
Curtis said he told Roberts he would call her if his staff uncovered anything new.
“If there was anything new, I would reach out and immediately call her and let her know,” he said. “And we are still trying to look for new leads. A case is not put in the drawer and never opened again.”
Curtis said he has only two to three detectives within his investigation division. They are typically assigned 15 cases on average within a week.
“I understand the frustrations of the family,” he said. “We are doing everything we can with our limited resources, manpower and caseloads.”
Curtis said he also encourages the family to contact his department if they would like.
“I wish we could solve every case in our community,” he said. “And some information we can’t release to the family because it may determine the outcome of the case.”
Roberts admits she has no hope in her mother’s case being solved. She said she has lost faith in the local police department.
“I don’t expect justice anymore,” she said. “This lawlessness will be allowed to run rampant.”
