Courtesy: Hawkins County Sheriff's Department
Christina Cowan said she knows the man and woman the Cocke County Sheriff's Department called "persons of interest" following a fatal fire at her sister's mobile home.
"My daddy fed him, did everything with him. He's been in my house," Cowan described Adam Lawton Edwards. Edwards and Marsha Gail Shelton were taken into custody in Haywood County, NC following a car chase Tuesday afternoon.
Fire broke out Saturday night in Cowan's sister's mobile home on Henderson Road in Hartford. Her sister, Terri Henderson and Sherman Ellison lived with their 2-year-old
son, Riley.
The bodies of two adults and a child were found in the
burned home, but authorities cannot confirm their identities until
autopsies are completed.
Cocke County Sheriff Armando Fontes would not release a cause of death Tuesday, but said it was clear the three victims were murdered.
"My sister would've had a hold of me, you know? I know," Cowan added.
The sister said she didn't think Edwards and Shelton would be found. Now, she said she'll continue to wait for word on her family's fate.
"Not closure, not until I know what happened to my family because it keeps replaying in my mind," Cowan said.
Edwards and Shelton are not facing charges at this time. The sheriff said Edwards was a former neighbor of the victims. He and Shelton were believed to be traveling in a Nissan Maxima belonging to one of the victims.
Previous Story: Two in custody following Cocke Co. chase
Two people of interest wanted in connection to a Cocke County triple homicide are now in custody.
Emergency dispatchers said two people were taken into custody around 3:30 Tuesday afternoon following a chase near the Tennessee/North Carolina border.
Cocke County Sheriff Armando Fontes said Adam Lawton Edwards and Marsha Gail Shelton are in custody and will be questioned regarding the homicides and fire at a mobile home in Hartford.
Fontes would not release a cause of death, but said it was clear the three victims were murdered.
"The information we know, the things that we know, it's very disturbing, very disheartening," he said. "Our hearts and prayers go out to the families and what these people may have went through."
Autopsy results are still pending from the University of Tennessee Medical Center. Fontes would not identify the victims without confirmation from a medical examiner.
Terri Henderson and Sherman Ellison lived with their 2-year-old son, Riley at the mobile home on Henderson Road.
"We have a real tragedy with the death of two adults and a small child," Fontes said.
Previous story:
Investigators are now looking for two people in connection with a fire in Cocke County that left three people dead.
At a press conference Tuesday morning, Cocke County Sheriff Armando Fontes said they want to talk to Adam Lawton Edwards, 43, a man who lived near the burned home, and Marsha Gail Shelton, 29, about the fire. A wanted poster calls the two "armed and dangerous."
Local investigators are working with the TBI and U.S. Marshall's Service, and have contacted authorities in Florida, North Carolina, and Arizona, because Edwards and Shelton have connections there.
The fire happened Saturday night in a mobile home on Henderson Road, where Terri Henderson and Sherman Ellison lived with their 2-year-old son, Riley. The bodies of two adults and a child were found in the burned home, but authorities cannot confirm their identities until autopsies are completed on Tuesday.
Sheriff Fontes said Tuesday that it was obvious this was a homicide, but did not go into details as to how the three victims may have been killed.
Deputies are looking for Henderson's missing white 2000 Nissan Maxima, which was not at the residence at the time of the blaze. It's believed that Edwards and Shelton may be traveling in that vehicle. It has Cocke County license tag #810YCW. According to investigators, it had a front cracked windshield, loud exhaust, and tinted windows.