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Updated: Missing preschool teacher found, apparent victim of fatal single-vehicle crash

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Melanie-Coley

Melanie Coley

Note: This story was last updated at 3:10 p.m.

The Loudon County woman who was reported missing on Friday and last seen at Bad Daddy’s Burger in Turkey Creek on Thursday has been found, and she is the apparent victim of a fatal single-vehicle crash, authorities said.

Melanie Coley, 29,was found ejected from her wrecked 2014 Dodge Avenger on Saturday morning in the 1400 block of Sugar Limb Road in Loudon County, the Knox County Sheriff’s Office said.

She had last been seen around 10:45 p.m. Thursday at Bad Daddy’s Burger Bar, located at 11863 Parkside Drive in Farragut. The Primrose School of Farragut had identified Coley as a preschool teacher there.

Tennessee Highway Patrol discovered the crash after coordinating with KCSO Major Crimes detectives to investigate Coley’s travel routes and patterns. The area had previously been checked by public safety personnel, but the vehicle was off the road and not visible to passing traffic, authorities said.

It appears as though Coley was on her way home when the crash occurred, the KCSO said. The Loudon County Coroner’s Office will perform an autopsy.

More information will be added as it becomes available.

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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…]