TYLERTOWN – The skeletal remains of a Long Beach man killed in1998 were uncovered Saturday by law enforcement authorities actingon information from a prison inmate.

The remains of Brian Davis were dug from a deep grave in sometimber land in rural Walthall County west of Highway 27 near theLawrence County line, said Walthall County Sheriff Duane Dillon.Davis was killed around April 1998.

The inmate who provided the information, Eddie Bourgeois of theSouth Mississippi Correctional Facility, has been charged withcapital murder and is presently being held in the Walthall CountyJail, the sheriff said.

Bourgeois is being held in the county jail, pending furtheraction in the murder case. His case will go before the grand juryin December.

A warrant has been issued for a third man, Cornell Smith, who iswanted for questioning. Smith was living in Long Beach at the timeof the murder, but authorities believe he has since moved to someother Mississippi coastal town.

“We don’t have any reason to believe now that any more(suspects) are involved,” he said.

The remains uncovered Saturday have not been scientificallyidentified, Dillon said. But because of the nature of theinformation provided and other circumstantial clues, authoritiesfeel fairly certain of the preliminary identification.

“We found some items on the remains that we believe Davis waswearing at the time,” he said. “We believe he was killed and buriedthere.”

The murder stems from a case that began in Long Beach in1998.

Davis, Bourgeois and Smith are believed to have conducted anarmed robbery there, possibly one that Bourgeois was convicted oflater, Dillon said. Bourgeois was serving time at the SouthMississippi Correctional Facility on an armed robberyconviction.

“We think they were all involved in an armed robbery and Davismay have been killed to keep him from talking to the police,” thesheriff said. “We believe the killing happened over something thathappened on the Coast, but took place here.”

The sheriff’s office was approached by Long Beach detectivesabout three years ago to cooperate in the case, he said. Thedetectives told him a member of the suspect’s family had someproperty in Walthall County, and Davis may be buried there.

“We made a search of the 40-acre wooded area at that time, butdidn’t find anything,” Dillon said.

The property was searched again in April 2001 by cadaver dogs,but they again came up empty.

“We felt by reviewing their case, they definitely had a lot ofreason to believe it could have happened here,” he said.

Recently, Dillon said, they received more information and beganrequestioning suspects in Davis’s murder. Information received fromBourgeois led them to the four-foot deep grave Saturday.

“The information we got from him led us to where the body was,”he said.

Dillon said he appreciated the assistance of the Department ofPublic Service’s Violent Crime Unit, the Mississippi Highway Patroland the district attorney’s office.