On August 30, 37-year-old James Crisp walked into the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office in Mississippi to confess to the killing of Roger Taylor of Sulligent, Alabama, who disappeared in 2019. Crisp, who was struggling with drug addiction at the time, has since come to faith and become a minister at God’s House of Hope, the Christian recovery center where he received court ordered rehabilitation treatment.
“James Eric Crisp walked into my office, of his own free will, and confessed to having killed Mr. Taylor,” Monroe County Sheriff Kevin Crook told WCBI. “By his own testimony he got saved three years ago, was in a recovery center—we sent him there—he is now a teacher and preacher in that program.”
Crisp confessed to killing the 48-year-old Taylor on March 10, 2019 during a “physical altercation” and disposing of the body. Taylor’s truck was discovered in Monroe County a couple of days after he was reported missing.
While the case had gone cold after police were unable to find Taylor’s remains or any other substantial evidence, Crook said that Crisp “began to come under heavy conviction about the incident.”
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Taylor’s daughter, BreAnn, told The Independent that while Crisp and her father did not have a close relationship, Crisp had joined the search party when Taylor went missing in 2019.
“He helped me look for my dad,” BreAnn said. “He knew when he was helping me look for my dad what he had done.”
Shortly following Taylor’s disappearance, Crisp was arrested on drug charges.
BreAnn expressed that she had treated Crisp “like he was a member of my family. Even after he was in prison, I picked him up from a bus station so he didn’t have to spend the night [there] when he got out of prison.”
Eventually, Crisp turned his life around, overcoming his addiction and becoming a minister at God’s House of Hope. His story of recovery was featured in a report by WCBI in 2021.
Nevertheless, BreAnn is not convinced that Crisp is entirely remorseful.
