Campus Police Departments Partner to Solve Multi-State Case
STARKVILLE, Miss. — The Mississippi State University Police Department is helping close a significant case of credit card theft after collaborating for nearly two years with several jurisdictions to pursue a suspect across multiple states.
MSUPD detective Brad Massey said the case began in 2009 when a wallet was taken from a locker at the university’s Sanderson Center, according to a university press release.
In Colorado recently, officers of the U.S. Marshals Service captured the suspect, identified as a transient named Roger Kornegay. Now in federal custody, he is facing a federal parole violation, as well as other charges in Mississippi, North and South Carolina, and Nebraska.
Massey said MSU investigators tracked the suspect and linked him with similar crimes at the University of Mississippi and other college campuses around the South.
According to the detective, the suspect twice broke into Sanderson lockers to steal wallets containing personal credit cards. When the theft victims reported the crimes, police tracked transactions made or attempted with the stolen credit cards, he added.
Police obtained video footage of the suspect at store locations and matched the identity to footage of him entering and leaving the Sanderson Center – the student recreation facility and home of the recreational sports department – as well as other locations.
“Law enforcement agencies from several states pulled together,” Massey said. “We pooled resources to identify this suspect in a pretty significant credit card scam that entailed many jurisdictions across the country.”
MSU Police Chief Georgia Lindley said the closure of the case is a success for her department.
“I am extremely proud of the MSU Detective Division for bringing this complicated case together. This criminal has preyed on campus communities all over the United States for several years,” Lindley said.
Massey said the local case is considered closed, pending a court hearing.
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