Category: News

On July 17, 2017 a home on Maple Springs Road in Manchester was burglarized by someone prying and kicking in the back door. On July 19, 2017 investigators with the Coffee and Cannon County Sheriff departments stopped a suspect vehicle on Lakewood Park Road in Coffee County and that vehicle was reported stolen out of Cannon County. Upon approaching vehicle the driver advised there was a gun under the front seat. Investigators advised the driver of his Miranda rights and asked for consent to search the car and consent was given. While continuing the search of the vehicle, investigators found the items allegedly stolen from the burglary on Maple Springs Road. There were four subjects in the vehicle at the time which were transported to the Coffee County Sheriff’s Department for questioning. Investigator received statements implicating all four subjects in the burglary.
Justin Wayne Thomas age 22 of Woodbury, Destiny Machea Thompson age 25 of Auburntown, Teqilla Mounette Miller age 37 of Woodbury and Tyler Ray Thomas age 19 of Woodbury were all arrested by Coffee County Investigator James Sherrill and charged with aggravated burglary. Their bonds were set at $50,000 each.
Investigators have been working recovering stolen property from burglaries that occurred in the Maple Springs Road area.
If you had anything stolen such as guns, TV’s, or stereos stolen, call Investigator James Sherrill with the Coffee County Sheriff’s Department at 931-570-4404 and give a description of the property and serial number, if you have it, to see if any of the property is yours.

When two Georgia inmates escaped from a prison bus leaving two dead guards in their wake, the reward for information leading to their capture rose quickly.
Authorities say Ricky Dubose and Donnie Rowe overpowered their guards during a prison transfer on June 13 and used the guards’ guns to kill them before fleeing in a carjacked vehicle.
Authorities announced two days later that the reward had risen to $130,000. The inmates were caught hours later in Tennessee after stealing a car and holding a man and woman hostage in Bedford County. Coffee County Sherriff Department personnel assisted in the pursuit of DuBose and Rowe just before they were captured.
Putnam County Georgia Sheriff Howard Sills said that by the time they were caught, the reward had risen to $141,000. The money is being paid out to several people, but authorities declined to say exactly who’s getting it, saying the recipients wished to remain anonymous.

An arrest has been made in the Thanksgiving (2016) burglary of Palmer Drugs in Grundy County. Sheriff Clint Shrum confirmed that 58 year old Andy King, a Palmer resident, and an accomplice(s) broke into the pharmacy on Thanksgiving of last year.
According to Sheriff Shrum, lead investigator Captain Greg Higgins, broke the case after processing some leads that came to his attention over the past few weeks. “Captain Higgins has been diligent about solving this case. His persistence paid off early this week,” stated Sheriff Shrum. King was charged with aggravated burglary and vandalism and will appear in court August 10th.
He is currently incarcerated with the Tennessee Department of Corrections on other charges. More arrests and charges are expected to be filed later this month.

The Coffee County Sheriff’s Department along with Cannon County and Warren County Sheriff Department Investigators have been working recovering stolen property from burglaries that occurred in the Maple Springs Road area.
The Coffee County Sheriff’s Department would like to thank the other departments for their assistance in the investigations. There are still several items that the agencies recovered that the victims have not identified.
If anyone within the past five days has had any guns, TV’s, or stereos stolen, call Investigator James Sherrill with the Coffee County Sheriff’s Department at 931-570-4404 and give a description of the property and serial number, if you have it, to see if any of the property is yours.

The Tullahoma Fire and Police Departments are seeking the public’s help finding an arsonist. Discovered on July 13 by school staff, a fire at Tullahoma High School’s Wilkins Stadium was determined by the Tennessee Bomb & Arson Division to have been intentionally set.
Anyone having information that can help to determine the person or persons responsible for this fire is encouraged to report it to the Tennessee Arson Hotline at 1-800-762-3017. A cash reward of up to $5,000 is being offered for information.
Tullahoma Police Department Investigator, Tyler Hatfield, is leading the investigation.

Tennessee’s teen birth rate has declined by 59 percent in less than 30 years, but that progress is in question after the Trump administration announced it is cutting funding for teen pregnancy-prevention programs across the country. The cuts will directly affect at least three programs in Tennessee.
Bill Albert, chief program officer for the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, called the announcement to end a program with a proven success rate, with no opportunity for public input, “alarming.”
“It is one of the few federal government programs that is administered on the basis of what works, rather than ideology,” he said. “The Office of Adolescent Health made this announcement before there was any congressional action on funding.”
Tennessee still ranks in the top 10 states for the highest teen birth rates, with 6,200 births to teen mothers in 2015 alone. The high school graduation rate for teenage parents plummets to 40 percent. Teen pregnancy-prevention programs in Memphis, Morristown and Nashville will be affected by the funding cuts.
Rural communities and communities of color continue to have disproportionately higher rates of teen pregnancy. With one in 19 girls across the United States getting pregnant before their 20th birthday, Albert said, the nation continues to have a higher teen birth rate than other developed societies – and progress was being made to change that.
“We have done such an extraordinary job as a nation and bringing these rates down, that one wonders what’s broken, what needs to be fixed here,” he said. “Our rates in the U.S. are far out of whack with other comparable countries. Our rates remain far higher than those in, say, Western Europe. ”
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that that teen pregnancy and childbirth total more than $9 billion in health-care and foster-care costs in 2010, the most recent data available. According to the United Health Foundation, the Tennessee birth rate is 35 per 1,000 females, ages 15 to 19.
Tennessee data is online at thenationalcampaign.org.

The parking lot at the Coffee County Administrative Plaza on McArthur Drive in Manchester will be closed this weekend (July 21 night through 23) starting Friday evening around 5:30 p.m. This is due to pavement striping being performed.
There will be access to the doctor office at the entrance of the plaza.

The Coffee County Sheriff’s Department has issued a missing child alert.
Keana Watters age 17 of Coffee County has been missing since June 30, 2017. Watters was last seen at her residence.
She is a white female standing 5’4” and weighing 118lbs with brown hair and eyes. There is no known last clothing description nor direction of travel.
If you have any information please contact Investigator Jason Dendy at the Coffee County Sheriff’s Department at 931-570-4427.