Area News

ONE INJURED IN TURKEY CREEK WRECK One person was injured in a single vehicle accident on Turkey Creek Highway, Wednesday morning. The accident occurred around 9:45 a.m. at the Farley Lane intersection a short distance east of the Hugh West Hill. The vehicle left the roadway, overturned in a creek and struck a culvert. Rescue…

COLLAPSING TILE THREATENS DEFEATED AREA ROAD Collapsing drain tiles are threatening roadways in the Defeated and Maggart communities. The most serious case is in the Defeated community where a collapsing metal drain tile is causing the surface of the roadway to sink and could potentially give way causing the road to collapse. The drain tile…

MORE THAN 15 INCHES OF RAIN An unusually wet February came to a close Thursday with more than 15 inches of rainfall recorded in some parts of the county. The highest total for a CoCoRaHs weather station was 15.71 inches recorded in the Elmwood community. That total was followed by a recording of 15.14 inches…

CHESTNUT MOUND SITE OF FATAL WRECK A man was killed in a motorcycle wreck on Highway 70 in the Chestnut Mound community, Wednesday. The victim was identified as Michael Ferguson, 50, Nashville, who was driving a 2016 Honda motorcycle. According to the Tennessee Highway Patrol, “Ferguson was traveling west on U.S. Highway 70 North. While…

BOND SET FOR BENITEZ IN DOUBLE HOMICIDE Bond has been set for a second suspect charged in the murder of two men found dead at an unoccupied house on Dillehay Hollow Road in April of last year. Alain Benitez, 18, Wilson County, appeared in criminal court Thursday before Judge Brody Kane asking for a bond…

WOMEN’S BOXING HALL OF FAME CLAIMS LONGTIME SMITH COUNTIAN Pat Emerick Lancaster Landreth, who says her greatest feat was seeing all 15 of her children graduate from Gordonsville High School, enters a class of her own this summer — the International Women’s Boxing Hall of Fame’s class of 2019. She will be inducted into the…

DOUBLE HOMICIDE SUSPECT BACK IN JAIL AS JUDGE REVOKES BOND A criminal court judge has revoked the bond for one of two suspects charged in a double homicide which occurred in April of last year in the Dillehay Hollow near Defeated. David Ortiz Bibian, 53, formerly of the Difficult area, was indicted in June of…

VETERAN OFFICER INDICTED IN CONNECTION WITH MAN’S DEATH A Fifteenth Judicial District Drug Task Force agent and veteran law enforcement officer faces multiple charges in connection with the drowning death of a Hartsville man. Keith Holder, 41, was indicted by a Trousdale County Grand Jury for vehicular homicide by intoxication, vehicular homicide by recklessness, criminally…

FORMER DEPUTY INDICTED ON HOMICIDE CHARGE NASHVILLE – An investigation by Special Agents with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has resulted in the arrest of a former Smith County deputy, who was indicted on vehicular homicide and other charges. At the request of 15th District Attorney General Tommy Thompson, on June 3, 2018, TBI Agents…

2 SHERIFF’S DEPT. SEARCHES LEAD TO HEROIN DISCOVERIES Officers with the sheriff’s department located heroin during two recent investigations. On Wednesday, February 13, Sgt. Jimmy Gregory and Deputy Willie Robles went to a residence on Lancaster Circle to execute an arrest warrant on Joshua Kane Farley, 39, Buffalo Valley. Officers located Farley in a shed…