The Lamar County Sheriff s Office has charged James Henry Elrod III with two counts of murder for the April 26 deaths of a 38-year-old woman and a 53-year-old man in northwestern Lamar County.
The deceased are identified as Ronald Edward Hostetler Jr., 53, from Paris and Cassie Mullens Head, 38, from Wright City, Oklahoma. Our thoughts and prayers go out to both families in their tragic loss, Sheriff Scott Cass said.
Deputies were dispatched to a deceased person call on April 26 in northwest Lamar County, where two bodies were discovered, Cass said. Detectives learned a vehicle was missing from the residence belonging to the family of the deceased man. Detectives also learned that James Elrod III and Carylon Lynell Elrod were living at the home, and they were missing.
SEVIERVILLE â Keep Sevier Beautiful will be holding a Battle of the Litter on Saturday, May 1, from 9 a.m.-12 p.m.
âThis first annual Battle of the Litter is a great opportunity for our community to come together to help keep Sevier County clean and beautiful all while supporting their local police departmentsâ said Executive Director, Lisa Bryant.
The Battle of the Litter is a competition between, Sevier County Sheriffâs Office, Sevierville Police Department, Pigeon Forge Police Department and Gatlinburg Police Department to see which department can recruit the most volunteers to pick up the most litter here in Sevier County. The lucky department will take into possession Keep Sevier Beautifulâs first Golden Litter Award.
SEVIERVILLE â A Knoxville man is heading to prison for 25 years after pleading guilty to firing at 10 Knox County Sheriffâs deputies who were closing in on his hotel room in Kodak.
Richard James Smith, 32, of Knoxville, was set to face a jury Wednesday on 10 counts of attempted murder. Instead, court officials said he accepted a plea agreement Tuesday afternoon in which he pleaded guilty to all 10 charges.
The 25-year, concurrent sentences were the maximum Smith could receive for the crime, Assistant District Attorney Ron Newcomb said.
âWe certainly appreciate the investigative work of the Sevierville Police Department and the assistance of TBI and the Sevier County Sheriffâs Department, as well as the cooperation of the KCSO and owners and staff of the Days Inn,â he said.
Mrs. Cope was born Feb. 8, 1931 at Jellico, Tennessee.
She was preceded in death by her parents, James and Ruby Effie Baker Fuson; brother, Joe Fuson and sister; Laura Fuson Martin.
Mrs. Cope was preceded in death by her husband of sixty-eight years, Rev. Dr. William Wayne Cope. Mrs. Cope is survived by their daughter, Karen Cope Dawsey, Whiteville, North Carolina; their granddaughter, Allison Dawsey Yezek, Charlotte, North Carolina; and great-grandchildren, Ava Carolyn Yezek and Mason James Yezek, Charlotte, North Carolina. She is also survived by sisters, Novella Fuson Phillips, Knoxville, Tennessee and Flo Fuson Martin, Bristol, Virginia and the extended Fuson and Cope families.
SEVIERVILLE â Two Sevier County men are now facing second-degree murder charges in relation to an overdose death from May 22, 2020.
Forty-two-year-old Joshua Lombardo and 21-year-old Benjamin King, both of Seymour, were charged in indictments handed down earlier this week, when Sevier County convened a grand jury for the first time in months.
They were charged in the death of a 33-year-old Seymour woman who died from an overdose after using heroin that had been laced with fentanyl, according to information from the Sevier County Sheriffâs Office.
Investigators eventually learned she obtained the drugs from Lombardo and King.
The pair were charged with conspiracy to distribute drugs as well as murder.