Dave Lawrence

Former SLED lieutenant Dave Lawrence testified on Day 27 about joining the trip to Alabama after a Mississippi interview and helping coordinate the recovery scene after Jones directed officers to the bags. He described preserving the scene, seeking aerial documentation and a perimeter search, and limiting the opening of the bags to identifying apparent human remains while preserving their contents.

During resumed direct examination, Lawrence described the end of the recovery work and the return to South Carolina. After the court required the prosecutor to rephrase a question, he said that in 30 years he had not encountered children left in such a remote area or been called upon to open garbage bags to identify children's remains; he also said he had seen many dead bodies during his career. The court admitted and published a recovery-site video and photographs of the five numbered bags.

On cross-examination, defense counsel questioned Lawrence about his limited polygraph work, a brief conversation with Timothy Jones, Sr. and Julie Jones, and the defendant's participation in reviewing maps. Lawrence said polygraph examinations were a very small part of his SLED work and that he did not use the equipment brought to Mississippi. He agreed that the sparse rural setting would have made locating the children difficult without Tim's help, and he did not adopt a broader characterization of the family members' willingness to answer further questions.