Why is the Hattiesburg, Mississippi area so murdery, by episodes?

Hattiesburg calls itself the Hub City. Several railroads crossed here and lumber and railroad work drove the growth. The 2022 population was given as 45,806. A civil engineer founded the place in 1882 and named it for his wife. It was incorporated about two years later with roughly 400 residents. Forrest County, area code 601.

The Hattiesburg area's tally is modest and slow: three murders in two episodes, spread across two towns and two decades. Episode 94 is a single killing in Petal, six miles from the centre, on 14 October 1995. The woman grew up in the town and studied at the university in Hattiesburg. She was living in a trailer in Petal with her husband and two young sons.

Episode 286 carries two victims, from March 2004, in Hattiesburg itself. It opens with a 29 year old from Kansas, a methamphetamine user, and a Kansas inquiry into the couple as possible manufacturers that was close to producing warrants. The count is two entries, from a railroad town and the small towns within a short drive of it.