Warrants detail suspect’s movements on night Breasia Terrell disappeared in Davenport

DAVENPORT — Breasia Terrell, 10, vanished from a Davenport apartment nearly a year ago.

Remains of her body were discovered in a DeWitt pond in March, and Henry Dinkins, 48, of Davenport, was charged with her kidnapping and murder by early May.

Warrants returned to Scott County District Court this week outline what happened the night Breasia disappeared, and how the investigation proceeded until her remains were found.

Dinkins, the father of Breasia's 8-year-old half brother, called 911 the morning of July 10, 2020, to report Breasia missing.

He told dispatchers she was missing from his apartment when he woke up, and that she had never run away or been in trouble.

The warrants show Dinkins, a registered sex offender, was busy the night of July 9 into the early hours of July 10.

Dinkins’ son and Breasia were to spend the night in apartment the night the girl disappeared. Dinkins’ girlfriend, Andrea Culberson, was there, too.

Culberson told investigators the three were in the apartment when Culberson fell asleep between 11 p.m. and midnight. She woke up around 3 a.m. and found Dinkins and Breasia gone.

Surveillance video

Surveillance video from those hours show a red Chevy Impala, matching the description of a car that Dinkins was known to have access to, drove to and from a motor home on Schmidt Road in Davenport. The motor home is registered to Dinkins' sister and is the address he used on the sex offender registry.

The Impala went to the trailer at 2:13 a.m., then left and headed south, at 2:29 a.m. The car returned at 2:31 a.m. and left again, heading to Credit Island at 2:49 a.m.

Culberson said she tried to call Dinkins at 3 a.m., but he’d left his cellphone in the apartment.

At 3:31 a.m., Dinkins is seen getting out of the Impala on a surveillance camera at a Kwik Shop in Davenport. The car also was seen on multiple surveillance cameras early that morning heading north to Clinton County and within the city limits of Clinton.

At 7:04 a.m., Dinkins was shown on store surveillance video buying two bottles of bleach at a Walmart in Clinton, leaving the store at 7:09 a.m.

A little after 7 a.m., Culberson texted Dinkins, asking where he was. He came home later that morning, picked up his cellphone and left, saying he was going to look for Breasia. He called 911 sometime in the morning of July 10, and at noon, arrived at the police station in the Impala.

Search warrants

Several search warrants were conducted July 10 after that.

• A warrant to search Dinkins’ cellphone, a black Samsung phone, was signed by a judge at 1:15 p.m.

• A warrant to search the motor home was signed by a judge at 2:21 p.m.

• A search warrant requesting DNA swabs from Dinkins’ mouth and under his fingernails, and pictures of Dinkins' body, was signed by a judge at 5:26 p.m.

• A search warrant requesting penal swabs from Dinkins was signed at 6:53 p.m.

• At some point July 10, a search warrant was executed on Dinkins’ Impala.

The warrants were executed that day.

Davenport police found a black digital scale with marijuana residue and 0.6 grams of a pink powder that tested positive for cocaine in the motor home, and an ax and cleaning supplies in the trunk of the Impala.

Blue light shone on the ax showed what officers believed to be blood.

Dinkins’ 8-year-old son, Breasia’s half brother, told police he went to Credit Island with his dad the morning of July 10. They also went to the motor home, where his dad pulled out a big knife and wiped it down with bleach. He then put the knife in the trunk of the Impala and the pair returned to the trailer.

Nearby video verified the boy was with Dinkins at the trailer. With that confirmed, police sought a second warrant on the motor home and found a machete on top of the refrigerator that matched the description the boy had given.

Other warrants conducted later included a warrant to retrieve DNA samples from several white T-shirts with possible blood stains found in a black Dodge Challenger pulled over for unrelated reasons.

Warrants also were sent to the company that owns Google, requesting GPS information to locate two Moto E60 phones, because two empty phone boxes had been found in the Impala.

The Dodge Challenger was searched in late July 2020, and the Google warrants were answered in September. The Google warrant was the first to include information about Dinkins’ whereabouts on the night of July 9-10.

Breasia’s family and other community members were searching for Breasia regularly while the investigation was underway.

Dinkins was arrested July 11 for a sex offender violation and publicly named a person of interest in Breasia’s disappearance July 14. He has been held in jails in Scott or Clinton counties since then.

On March 22, two fishermen found Breasia’s remains in a Clinton County pond. Davenport police confirmed the remains were Breasia in a news conference March 31.

On May 5, Dinkins was charged with first-degree murder and kidnapping. Scott County Attorney Mike Walton said Dinkins shot Breasia to death.

Dinkins has pleaded not guilty to the charges. His next court date is Jan. 25, and his jury trial is scheduled to begin Feb. 14.