Officials believe rash of bizarre deaths temporary trend
Anne Warfield
Officials believe rash of bizarre deaths temporary trend
Sunday, January 18, 2004
By JIM WOZNIAK
For the Times News
Northeast Tennessee has never been immune from bizarre and gruesome
deaths, but normally this area has been inoculated from a rash of them
in a brief period.
But in the last two years, a slew of abnormal incidents have occurred
in the area, leaving a trail of deaths that have involved more than
single shots to the heart and gruesomely disposed of bodies.
But officials believe it's a temporary trend that eventually will
pass.
"We've certainly had some different homicides involving either more
destruction to the victims or unusual manners of leaving the bodies,"
District Attorney General Joe Crumley said. "In many respects, some of
them have been especially brutal. I don't know that I could really
pinpoint a cause because each of them are so unique."
In chronological order, here is a synopsis of some of the cases that
have developed in the area of late:
•In 2001, the body of Myrtle McFall, 88, was found wrapped in a
blanket near a parking overlook in North Carolina about a mile south
of the Tennessee border. Her daughter, Linda Diane Fenley, pleaded
guilty in December in Washington County to reckless homicide. Fenley
told the judge that she had given her mother two Percocet pills for
pain. McFall died during an 18-hour ride in a car with her daughter.
•Eric Howard was charged with first-degree murder in Johnson County in
the 2002 death of his mother, Dorothy Sue Collins. She was beaten,
bound, gagged and suffocated and a plastic bag was put over her head
that attached to the body with duct tape.
•Johnny Mack Lawson is facing a potential death sentence in the 2002
stabbing and slashing death of his former boyfriend, John P. Garland,
in Buffalo Mountain Park. Crumley said it appeared Lawson chased
Garland during the incident and might have prevented him from getting
medical help.
•East Tennessee State University student James Norwood's body was
found hidden under a pile of rubble near Tenn. Highway 394 in
Blountville in 2002. Police believe Joey Goins and Justin Jones
strangled Norwood at ETSU, disposed of his body and hid his car until
using it to rob a bank in Bristol.
•The head and hands of Adam Chrismer, 17, were found in 2002 in Boone
Lake near Winged Deer Park. The rest of his body and the remains of
his wife, Samantha Leming, 16, were found in a downtown Johnson City
storage facility. Howard Hawk Willis is charged with shooting them at
his mother's house in Johnson City.
•The body of Roberta Woods was found under a water bed in a home in
Roan Mountain in December. Carter County sheriff's deputies found her
body wrapped in plastic and mothballs. Woods had been missing since
January 2003. Connie Ruth Hughes has been charged with abuse of a
corpse but could face other charges when lab test results are
returned.
•Glenn Isaac Goins has told police that he choked Amanda Wood to death
around the first of the year with a towel and then wrapped her body in
plastic and put it in the basement of his Johnson City house. He also
told authorities that he has been involved in other slayings outside
the area and was indicted last week in Louisville, Ky., in one of
them.
Although he says this theory does not necessarily apply to cases here,
Crumley has a thought about what might motivate people to commit these
types of crimes.
"I guess really some of it you have to ask, ‘How much is the
perpetrator committing these acts because of maybe wanting to become
notorious, being written up in the media,'" he said.
"Some people just want that few minutes of fame."
Charlton Stanley, a forensic psychologist based in Elizabethton, said
it is fruitless for anyone to try and find a common thread in death
cases. He said every case has its own characteristics – that two
homicides accomplished in the same way might have completely different
motives. Killings with similar motives can be committed in different
ways, he said.
The Glen Isaac Goins case added an element to the mix that is not
common in slayings except possibly in some drug cases - the
participants did not know each other very well. Crumley said he tends
to believe this was an isolated incident that could have happened
anywhere in the country.
"Situations like that do happen in various parts of the country, but I
think it's the exception rather than the rule by a long shot," he
said.
He said he does not see any "alarming patterns," such as copycat
killings, in the recent incidents. He also believes that the slate of
deaths does not mean the quality of life, in terms of public safety,
has dropped.
"I still think this is one of the better places in the country to
live," Crumley said. "For the most part, we're safer now than we have
been in the past. Law enforcement in this area is very professional
and well equipped, sometimes understaffed. But any time you have a
case of multiple victims or gruesome aspects, people may be led to
believe they're not as safe as they really are."
The sentiment is essentially the same with Washington County Sheriff
Ed Graybeal. He said the area will have to confront new problems as it
grows but said Northeast Tennessee is "one of the safest places in the
United States."
Mike Marchioni, a member of the South Side Neighborhood Organization
in Johnson City, said he does not detect any fear in the "tree
streets," where Woods' body was found. He said the organization has a
good system set up with police to inform them about any potential
problems that might have developed in the neighborhood. The biggest
concern for neighborhoods is the effect drugs can have on them.
http://www.timesnews.net/article.dna?_StoryID=3320667
--
Anne Warfield
indigoace at goodsol period com
http://www.goodsol.com/cats/
Nitamargarita
"Anne Warfield" <indi...@aolxxx.com> wrote in message
news:400b10b3...@news.prodigy.net...
> From the Kingsport [TN] Times-News--
>
> Officials believe rash of bizarre deaths temporary trend
> Sunday, January 18, 2004
>
> By JIM WOZNIAK
> For the Times News
>
> Northeast Tennessee has never been immune from bizarre and gruesome
> deaths, but normally this area has been inoculated from a rash of them
> in a brief period.
>
> But in the last two years, a slew of abnormal incidents have occurred
> in the area, leaving a trail of deaths that have involved more than
> single shots to the heart and gruesomely disposed of bodies.
>
> But officials believe it's a temporary trend that eventually will
> pass.
>
> "We've certainly had some different homicides involving either more
> destruction to the victims or unusual manners of leaving the bodies,"
> District Attorney General Joe Crumley said. "In many respects, some of
> them have been especially brutal. I don't know that I could really
> pinpoint a cause because each of them are so unique."
>
> In chronological order, here is a synopsis of some of the cases that
> have developed in the area of late:
>
> blanket near a parking overlook in North Carolina about a mile south
> of the Tennessee border. Her daughter, Linda Diane Fenley, pleaded
> guilty in December in Washington County to reckless homicide. Fenley
> told the judge that she had given her mother two Percocet pills for
> pain. McFall died during an 18-hour ride in a car with her daughter.
>
> the 2002 death of his mother, Dorothy Sue Collins. She was beaten,
> bound, gagged and suffocated and a plastic bag was put over her head
> that attached to the body with duct tape.
>
> stabbing and slashing death of his former boyfriend, John P. Garland,
> in Buffalo Mountain Park. Crumley said it appeared Lawson chased
> Garland during the incident and might have prevented him from getting
> medical help.
>
> found hidden under a pile of rubble near Tenn. Highway 394 in
> Blountville in 2002. Police believe Joey Goins and Justin Jones
> strangled Norwood at ETSU, disposed of his body and hid his car until
> using it to rob a bank in Bristol.
>
> Lake near Winged Deer Park. The rest of his body and the remains of
> his wife, Samantha Leming, 16, were found in a downtown Johnson City
> storage facility. Howard Hawk Willis is charged with shooting them at
> his mother's house in Johnson City.
>
> Roan Mountain in December. Carter County sheriff's deputies found her
> body wrapped in plastic and mothballs. Woods had been missing since
> January 2003. Connie Ruth Hughes has been charged with abuse of a
> corpse but could face other charges when lab test results are
> returned.
>
> around the first of the year with a towel and then wrapped her body in
> plastic and put it in the basement of his Johnson City house. He also
> told authorities that he has been involved in other slayings outside
> the area and was indicted last week in Louisville, Ky., in one of
> them.
>
> Although he says this theory does not necessarily apply to cases here,
> Crumley has a thought about what might motivate people to commit these
> types of crimes.
>
> "I guess really some of it you have to ask, 'How much is the
> perpetrator committing these acts because of maybe wanting to become
> notorious, being written up in the media,'" he said.
>
> "Some people just want that few minutes of fame."
>
They want to be famous so they're wrapping the bodies in plastic and
mothballs, chopping off the head and hands, hiding them under waterbeds, and
various other disposal methods? Sounds like they don't want any attention
at all to me.
Nita
> Charlton Stanley, a forensic psychologist based in Elizabethton, said
> it is fruitless for anyone to try and find a common thread in death
> cases. He said every case has its own characteristics - that two
---
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Anne Warfield
<aadd...@blahblahcox.net> wrote:
>
>"Anne Warfield" <indi...@aolxxx.com> wrote in message
>news:400b10b3...@news.prodigy.net...
[snip]
>> "I guess really some of it you have to ask, 'How much is the
>> perpetrator committing these acts because of maybe wanting to become
>> notorious, being written up in the media,'" he said.
>>
>> "Some people just want that few minutes of fame."
>>
>
>They want to be famous so they're wrapping the bodies in plastic and
>mothballs, chopping off the head and hands, hiding them under waterbeds, and
>various other disposal methods? Sounds like they don't want any attention
>at all to me.
Yeah. I think the spokesman wants it all to Make Sense, but it
doesn't, so he just sounds like an idiot.
