Michael Timothy Byrd, 45, of Bentonia, Mississippi, was found dead at his home off Dover Road on the evening of April 9, 2025. Deputies initially responded to a report of a self-inflicted gunshot wound around 6 p.m., but investigators soon reported several discrepancies between the scene and the account given by a man who was present, former Yazoo City Police Chief James Durwood Jay Winstead.

Authorities say evidence at the scene and other investigative findings led them to treat the death as a homicide rather than a suicide. A court affidavit filed after Winstead’s arrest on April 11, 2025, alleges Byrd was shot with a Smith & Wesson .44 magnum during the commission of a robbery and that $36,000 in cash taken from Byrd’s safe was later hidden behind the glove box of a Jeep Wrangler. Winstead, 50, was charged with capital murder and initially had bond set at $1 million.

What details about Byrd’s last hours or the movements of others that evening are still unclear to readers with information?