Former Constantine Reserve Police Officer Charged
Raymond McCann, a 46 year old resident of Constantine, Michigan was arraigned April 19, 2014 on felony perjury charges stemming from an investigation conducted by an MSP cold case team. Police have stated that McCann has been a person of interest in the murder of Jodi Parrack since the beginning of the investigation in November, 2007.
11-year-old Jodi was reported missing at about 7 pm by her mother, Valerie Carver, when Jodi failed to return home by 5:30 pm from a friend’s house. The fifth grader was last seen at about 4:45 pm, wearing jeans and a T-shirt and riding a silver Mongoose bicycle.
Her body was found later that same evening by her mother. Former Constantine reserve police officer, Raymond McCann, repeatedly suggested that the search party look for her in a local cemetery. According to an affidavit, it was only McCann who suggested searching the township cemetery on the night Jodi disappeared.
Within hours of Jodi’s body being found, McCann was being interviewed by the Michigan state police. At the time authorities felt that McCann was not being upfront with them. The investigation has continued for years now, and the current charges are based on alleged false statements McCann made in September 2012 while testifying under a prosecutor’s investigative subpoena.
According to an affidavit, when McCann was asked how it would be possible for Jodi Parrack’s DNA to be on his person, or for his DNA to be found on her, McCann testified that the DNA transfers may have come from his pulling Jodi’s mother away from her daughter’s body after she was found dead in the Constantine Township Cemetery. Also, when asked how Parrack’s DNA could have been found in his pickup truck, McCann said that Carver had given him a hug that night as she sat in his pickup truck to get warm, and thus shed her daughter’s DNA into his vehicle.
However, further investigation proved that both of these statements are untrue and neither of these events occurred. Constantine Police Chief Jim Bedell has said that authorities believe that McCann is hiding something. The alleged false statements by McCann are just some of the many averments that MSP Detective Trooper Bryan Fuller listed in his affidavit.
McCann was arraigned on the perjury charge on Saturday in St. Joseph County District Court. He is being held in the county jail on a $225,000 cash/surety bond pending a hearing on evidence against him May 1.