On May 27, 2012, Ronald Sherman Ellison, 36, his partner, Terri Lynn Henderson, 38, and their son, Riley Gene Ellison, who was just shy of his third birthday, were victims of a home invasion in the Grassy Fork community of Cocke County. While the child's parents were being slaughter, their throats cuts by Adam Lawton Edwards and Marsha Gail Shelton, little Riley wandered into the bloodbath, crying for his parents. After killing them, Edwards took the child, forced him into a clothes dryer, and turned the dryer around so that the door was blocked by the wall. He then set the mobile home on fire and drove away after taking a guitar, a bajno, and their Nissan Maxima.
Adam L. Edwards — one of two people arrested after the victims' bodies were found in a trailer that burned Saturday night on Henderson Road in the Grassy Fork community — has a lengthy criminal history dating to 1986, according to court records, that include drug, theft and assault charges.
Edwards, 43, and Marsha Gail Shelton, 29, both of Cocke County, were picked up Tuesday afternoon in North Carolina, just a few hours after being named persons of interest in the killings, which Cocke County Sheriff Armando Fontes confirmed to be a triple homicide.
As of Tuesday night, Edwards and Shelton were being jailed on probation violation charges in Haywood County, N.C., awaiting extradition back to Tennessee.
Before their capture, authorities had been seeking a white 2000 Nissan Maxima with a broken windshield that belonged to the burned home's residents. Family members identified the residents as Terri Henderson, 39, Sherman Ellison, 35, and their 2-year-old son, Riley.
A witness reported seeing a white male driving the car from the area.
A Cocke County deputy spotted the Maxima on State Route 107 in Del Rio, Fontes said, and a lengthy pursuit involving the assistance of a Knox County Sheriff's Office helicopter ensued over the state line into North Carolina.
Cocke County deputies arrested Edwards, a former neighbor of the victims, and Shelton after the car was wrecked, Fontes said. Other charges are pending, the sheriff said. The Maxima was sent to a crime lab in Knoxville.
Authorities have yet to confirm the victims' identities, their cause of deaths or a possible motive.
"We have a very good idea who they are," Fontes said, noting their autopsy results are pending.
Henderson's cousin, Tim Henderson, 34, said the family had lived in the single-wide trailer for about five years. His cousin was a stay-at-home mom, and Ellison did odd jobs around the neighborhood to keep the family afloat. They'd recently remodeled their three-bedroom home with an addition that included a wood burner, said Henderson, of Cosby.
On Tuesday, he stood on his cousin's property and surveyed what little was left of her trailer. The ashy carnage included pink insulation that had peeled off the home, burnt siding and a silver antenna on the lawn.
Nearby it, a yellow toy dump truck.
Henderson and other family members said a banjo and guitar were taken from the home before it burned.
The sheriff could not confirm that statement because he said the killings remain under investigation.
criminal histories
Court records show that as of October 2009, Edwards listed an address at 3698 Henderson Road.
Most recently, Edwards had pleaded guilty to charges including aggravated assault and theft in connection to an Aug. 17, 2009, stabbing. Court records show Edwards attacked three men — George Randy Wild, Edward Pendergrass and Edward Hammett — with a knife, stabbing each of the men multiple times.
Edwards was sentenced to six years in prison on Jan. 25, 2011, and released less than six months later, on July 19, 2011. Assistant Public Defender Keith Haas filed the motion for early release, stating his client "had been incarcerated for 485 days and had been on trustee status," making him eligible for release.
A court order approved by Circuit Judge Ben Hooper shows Edwards was placed on supervised probation for the remainder of his sentence.
Hooper issued a warrant for Edwards' arrest Jan. 26 for reasons including failing to report to his probation officer.
Shelton, who according to Fontes lives in Newport and whom authorities believe to be Edwards' girlfriend, also has a lengthy rap sheet, including convictions of DUI, public intoxication and child endangerment dating to early 2000.
a family's grief
The Grassy Fork Volunteer Fire Department responded to the fire at about 8:30 p.m. Saturday, after a neighbor reported seeing part of the trailer on Henderson Road smoking.
By the time firefighters arrived, said Fire Chief Walt Cross, about 70 percent of the trailer was engulfed and the roof soon collapsed.
Neighbors didn't think the residents were home because the car was missing, Cross said.
The fire department worked on the scene until about 4 a.m. Sunday.
It was upon returning later Sunday morning, after daylight, that firefighters discovered the severely burned remains of an adult, Cross said. The Sheriff's Department, the Tennessee Bomb and Arson Squad and Tennessee Bureau of Investigation then joined the probe.
They located the remains of a second adult Sunday afternoon and the remains of a small child Monday afternoon.
Cross said firefighters found several spots in the trailer burning hotter, which "can sometimes indicate foul play."
Fontes said police had been called to the residence before when the couple reported being victims of theft.
"He shouldn't have been out," Tim Henderson said, referencing Edwards' early release. "Anybody who can do that to a kid shouldn't be walking this earth."
"They shouldn't be breathing this air," added his uncle, Glenn Henderson, who stood next to him. The 55-year-old Del Rio resident called the attack on his niece and her family senseless.
"That little kid. He didn't deserve it," Glenn Henderson said. "They could have at least left him outside. Dropped him down the road somewhere."
