New details revealed in search warrants in missing woman case

Information from WYSH Radio

Search warrants released last week have provided new information about what led investigators from Nashville to search the Anderson County home of a man who is now a person of interest in the disappearance and possible death of a Hermitage woman.

The documents indicate that a friend reported Nichole Burgess missing from her home in Hermitage on May 25 after she was unable to reach Burgess by phone or text message. The friend said Burgess’s last text message, sent on May 23, indicated she had been in an altercation with the father of Burgess’s child, 32-year-old Andersonville resident Caleb Cannon.

The friend told detectives that they had gone to Burgess’ home in Hermitage and noticed her car was parked out front and her dogs were walking around freely instead of in their crates. A neighbor said he/she saw two people carrying something out of the home’s back door on May 24.

Cannon, who has custody of his and Burgess’s 10-year-old son every other weekend, picked the boy up from school on May 23. The warrants say a friend of the boy’s said that Cannon had been at Burgess’s home earlier in the afternoon, loading two black bags into a car parked in the driveway. The friend said he asked the 10-year-old where his mom (Burgess) was, and the boy said he was pretty sure his mom was dead and that his dad had killed him.

 

The friend also said he asked to use the bathroom at Burgess’ home and was told the toilet was not working.

When police searched the bathroom on May 29, they found the toilet in working order, but cadaver dogs detected the presence of human remains. That same day, Nashville police alerted officials in East Tennessee, who located Cannon’s vehicle at his home in Andersonville. It was towed to an impound lot the following day.

On June 1, cadaver dogs noticed the presence of human remains in the trunk of that vehicle as well. In the documents, police said they believe Burgess is dead, and her body was taken from her home in Hermitage to an unknown location in Cannon’s trunk.

Cannon’s home in Anderson County was searched on Thursday. Officers recovered a backpack, several knives, a gun, ammunition, and several cell phones.

Anyone with information on the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of Nichole Burgess is urged to contact Nashville Crime Stoppers at (615) 742-7463.

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