Oak Ridge Today

Investigators find human remains in vehicle pulled from lake

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Human remains have been located inside a vehicle pulled from Melton Hill Lake on Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2021. The vehicle belonged to Miriam Ruth Hemphill, who was reported missing in Oak Ridge in July 2005, the Oak Ridge Police Department said. (Submitted photo)

Human remains have been located inside a vehicle pulled from Melton Hill Lake on Wednesday. The vehicle belonged to Miriam Ruth Hemphill, who was reported missing in Oak Ridge in July 2005, the Oak Ridge Police Department said.

“At this time, Oak Ridge Police Department investigators and the medical examiner’s office are working together to process the vehicle,” a press release said. “The medical examiner’s office is also working to identify the remains. It’s unclear how long it will take to identify them.”

It is not clear whether the remains found in the vehicle are Hemphill’s, the press release said.

[Read more…]

Bill Bass of UT’s ‘Body Farm’ to give Feb. 21 lecture at Pellissippi State

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Bill Bass

Bill Bass

Bill Bass, a forensic anthropologist who founded the University of Tennessee Anthropological Research Facility, more popularly known as “The Body Farm,” will give a lecture at Pellissippi State Community College in Hardin Valley on February 21.

His program is titled “Forensic Law Enforcement Field Operations.” It is scheduled from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, February 21, in the Goins Auditorium in the Goins Building at Pellissippi State Community College. His talk will address research and field work throughout his career and more recently at the UT Forest Resources AgResearch and Education Center, a press release said.

Bass is best known for his research on human osteology and human decomposition. He has assisted federal, local, and non-U.S. authorities in the identification of human remains, the press release said. He is the author of numerous best-selling books and will have some books for sale, which he will sign. [Read more…]

New details revealed in search warrants in missing woman case

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Nichole Burgess

Nichole Burgess

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. [Read more…]