A final autopsy report issued by the state medical examiner’s office has ruled 34-year-old Nashieka Dobbs’ death an accident, leading to a lesser charge for a man originally charged with her murder.

The report lists blunt force injuries to Dobbs’ left leg and pelvis, as well as acute methamphetamine intoxication as her causes of death, Lowndes County Coroner Greg Merchant wrote in a text to area media members on Thursday.

Dobbs’ body was discovered Nov. 20 at the former Sanderson Plumbing facility near the corner of Peach Street and Seventh Avenue North after she was reported missing nine days earlier.

Merchant said the blunt force injuries are consistent with a fall from a distance likely greater than 10 feet, but it’s unclear how they occurred.

“There is nothing obvious around the site … where she could have fallen from that distance,” Merchant told The Dispatch on Thursday. “That’s kind of the investigation right now is to locate where that could have happened. … There’s a possibility that the injury happened somewhere and she died elsewhere and was moved there.”

The injury occurred prior to her death, Merchant said, though it is unclear how long before or even when Dobbs died.

Dobbs was last seen alive with her boyfriend Jamar Hughes on Nov. 6 before she was reported missing by her family on Nov. 11.
Hughes, 40, who lives near the old Sanderson plant, was arrested and charged with Dobbs’ murder on Nov. 20, shortly after her body was discovered.

Following the final autopsy report, that charge will be downgraded to desecration of a corpse, according to Bryan Moore, public information officer for Columbus Police Department.

The updated charge stems from evidence suggesting Hughes moved Dobbs’ body without reporting it to the police, Moore said.

The evidence leading to the initial murder charge was the position of Dobbs’ body, her visible injuries and a statement from Hughes to police claiming “he had poisoned her,” Moore told The Dispatch on Thursday.

The next step in the investigation will be determining how the blunt force injuries came about, Moore said.