Brown’s office broken into

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation has broadened its investigation of a terroristic threat made against Barrow County’s human resources director after someone broke into her office over Thanksgiving.

Sheriff Jud Smith said the holiday burglary of Norma Jean Brown’s county office may have been an inside job because her door was locked, no one outside of the Human Resources Department has a key and there was no forced entry.

Asked if that meant the burglar could have been someone working for the county government, Smith responded, “It could be construed that way.”
The sheriff said he received a call from Brown at about 11 a.m. Monday and asked a deputy to respond.

Deputy Richard Weed went to Brown’s office to take a report and then called for a crime scene investigator who took photos and dusted for fingerprints.

“This is a crime scene,” Smith said. “We took photographs and will put them in a file and turn it over to the GBI and let them include it in their file. We are taking photographs of stuff that was moved and touched.”

The incident occurred sometime between 3 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 25, and 8 a.m. Monday, Nov. 30. Brown first noticed that her window blinds, which she keeps open, had been closed.

“She stated that she then noticed that a picture book of her children had been opened to a page containing photographs of all of her children and laid face down on a side desk,” states Weed’s report of the incident.

A candle also had been placed on the floor of her office and a framed newspaper article about Brown also was on the floor and face down, the report states. The only items missing were Brown’s notary public stamp and a computer disc of photographs, according to an incident report.

For more information, see the Dec. 2 issue of the Barrow Journal.