x
Breaking News
More () »

Grand jury to review charges against women living at N. Knoxville home where body was found

Officers responded to the home at 2306 Greenfield Lane after neighbors reported a smell. A tip led investigators to the home.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A Knox County grand jury will review the case against two women charged after police found a mummified body wrapped in a tarp at the home where they lived.

Knox County General Sessions Court Judge Andy Jackson heard testimony Thursday from two Knoxville Police Department officers before sending the case on to the grand jury. Jackson found there was probable cause to believe the women committed crimes.

Christina McCormack, 48, and Deborah Gister, 41, are charged with evidence tampering and abuse of a corpse.

Donald Moore, 66, was found dead Oct. 6 in the tarp in a shed behind the Greenfield Lane home where the women and Tommy Rose, 62, lived.

Rose also is charged in the case but was ill and did not appear Thursday in court. Court records show Rose is a suspect in Moore's killing but has not been charged with murder.

The alleged motive in the case was to steal the proceeds of Moore's Social Security benefits, according to records.

Officers responded to the rundown home at 2306 Greenfield Lane after neighbors reported a smell.

After investigators got a search warrant, they found Moore's body. Based on its mummified state, KPD said it had likely been there for multiple weeks.

The arrest warrant said that the three "wrapped the victim's body in a tarp after his death from unknown circumstances and then concealed it in a storage building on the property" and also "destroyed material which likely contained evidence of the victim's death."

Gister was also charged with aggravated assault for threatening her son. While police were there during the search, court documents show Gister grabbed a screwdriver and put it to the neck of the 7-year-old.

Before You Leave, Check This Out