GUILTY TN - Arthur Gibson, 38, & Amber Terrell, 22, Johnson City, 7 Jan 2015

[SurfieTX]

Remodeling his home, doing projects and carrying on with life like a normal person....

https://www.facebook.com/eric.azotea.7

 

[LadyofShalott]

His post from January 24th is especially sick. He posted about Art being missing and spreading the word. :sick:

 

[perfectingpink]

Remodeling his home, doing projects and carrying on with life like a normal person....

https://www.facebook.com/eric.azotea.7

January 27th Eric posted he was putting up a $5,000 reward for info on Art's whereabouts. Nice guy. :facepalm:

 

[sheshecanada]

January 27th Eric posted he was putting up a $5,000 reward for info on Art's whereabouts. Nice guy. :facepalm:

This is sad, I was hoping they were hiding out somewhere. They knew each other 28 years and he murdered him :'(

 

[~Lyric~]

Rest In Peace Amber and Art~

 

[steelman]

Does anybody know why the details in these articles is so vastly different ??

http://www.elizabethton.com/2015/04...-to-murdering-missing-sullivan-county-couple/

http://www.wjhl.com/story/28872481/missing-sullivan-co-couple-found-murdered-in-carter-co

On one hand it says the victims bodies were found stuffed in a crawlspace of the home. At the bottom of the article is says that the suspect admitted to dismembering them and burning them in his firepit.

Which is it ? It can't be both.

 

[wendybtn]

The police commented in one of the above links that there is some difference between the evidence they have so far and Azotea's story. But it does sound like this guy was really into drugs, so his memory may be faulty. He did admit to luring them over with the promise of paying his debt and buying more drugs.

 

[Topcat]

This guy confessed to killing both of them.

View attachment 73604


http://www.elizabethton.com/2015/04...-to-murdering-missing-sullivan-county-couple/

He killed them because he owed Gibson money for some drugs he had bought. He lured them to his home with a promise of payment plus to buy more drugs. Instead he killed them and burned their bodies in a fire pit. This info. is per the article linked above. I see that a different article says that they were found in a crawlspace of a home. Don't know why the conflicting information.

Drugs..........of course.

of course........how many times have we seen this played over in other cases!!!!!!

 

[Topcat]

Does anybody know why the details in these articles is so vastly different ??

http://www.elizabethton.com/2015/04...-to-murdering-missing-sullivan-county-couple/

http://www.wjhl.com/story/28872481/missing-sullivan-co-couple-found-murdered-in-carter-co

On one hand it says the victims bodies were found stuffed in a crawlspace of the home. At the bottom of the article is says that the suspect admitted to dismembering them and burning them in his firepit.

Which is it ? It can't be both.

I go with the firepit story because of the search for bone fragments....the perp said he stabbed then hid the bodies in an outbuilding, after 2 days he dismembered and burned them...

 

[DNR]

Does anybody know why the details in these articles is so vastly different ??

http://www.elizabethton.com/2015/04...-to-murdering-missing-sullivan-county-couple/

http://www.wjhl.com/story/28872481/missing-sullivan-co-couple-found-murdered-in-carter-co

On one hand it says the victims bodies were found stuffed in a crawlspace of the home. At the bottom of the article is says that the suspect admitted to dismembering them and burning them in his firepit.

Which is it ? It can't be both.

I live within walking distance of the crime scene and my son goes to school with the murderers daughter. From what I have heard he stabbed them to death, put their bodies in his outbuilding for 2 days, dismembered them with a chainsaw, burned their remains, and then put what was left in the crawlspace under his house.
I personally did not know anyone involved in this case but it has definitely hit too close to home and my kids are shaken. Their school bus stopped at the house every day.

 

[steelman]

I live within walking distance of the crime scene and my son goes to school with the murderers daughter. From what I have heard he stabbed them to death, put their bodies in his outbuilding for 2 days, dismembered them with a chainsaw, burned their remains, and then put what was left in the crawlspace under his house.
I personally did not know anyone involved in this case but it has definitely hit too close to home and my kids are shaken. Their school bus stopped at the house every day.

I guess it CAN be both. Of course, it would be nice if these reporters would explain things as precisely and directly as you did in their articles.

I'll bet your neighborhood is buzzing right about now, lotsa' standing out in the street chatting I would assume.

 

[hisjerseygirl]

Not the outcome I expected at all. RIP.

 

[sallye818]

I live within walking distance of the crime scene and my son goes to school with the murderers daughter. From what I have heard he stabbed them to death, put their bodies in his outbuilding for 2 days, dismembered them with a chainsaw, burned their remains, and then put what was left in the crawlspace under his house.
I personally did not know anyone involved in this case but it has definitely hit too close to home and my kids are shaken. Their school bus stopped at the house every day.

This is awful! What was going through this guy's mind? I wonder if they will disclose whether Amber was pregnant.

 

[DNR]

This is awful! What was going through this guy's mind? I wonder if they will disclose whether Amber was pregnant.

I can't imagine how someone gets to the point of senseless murder. I haven't heard anything about Amber yet. I will try to keep up with updates to post here.

 

[DNR]

He has pled not guilty and will be facing the death penalty.
http://www.wjhl.com/story/28927946/...t-guilty-eric-azotea-amber-terrell-art-gibson
Eric Azotea, the man charged with killing a Sullivan County couple that had been missing for months, entered a not guilty plea Wednesday morning. Now, the state says it will seek the death penalty.

Previously, the 43-year-old confessed to the crimes. He was subsequently charged with two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of abuse of a corpse, and altering evidence.
Family members of Amber Terrell watched silently Wednesday as the man accused of killing their loved one entered a not guilty plea.

Attorneys Steve Finney and Gene Scott represented Azotea as they asked for permission to go back and look at the crime scene on Woodland Drive in Carter County. Judge Keith Bowers granted the defense attorneys permission to visit a home, but they will be accompanied by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the Carter County Sheriff's Office.

Investigators said in an effort to cover the crime, Azotea dismembered the bodies and burned them. Last week, investigators uncovered the remains of Terrell and Art Gibson - wrapped in plastic and hidden in a crawl space.

District Attorney Tony Clark told News Channel 11, the crimes are the most heinous he has ever seen, "...one of the worst that I've seen - other than Howard Hawk Willis - in the way of being more than just a killing or alleged killing, it's much more than that."

Investigators claim Azotea killed the Sullivan County couple, reported missing in January, over a drug debt..

"Forensically, there's still some ongoing investigation. And of course, we don't have anything in the way of lab reports, We don't have anything back as of yet, but we'll try to expedite that," said District Attorney Clark.

Clark says his office plans to file a motion to seek the death penalty within a week.

"You have to have a first degree murder, and then the aggravating factors of the bodies and it involving more than one person. There were two victims in this particular case. We think there's more than enough in the way of aggravating factors to ask for the death penalty in this case."

Azotea remains behind bars without bond in Carter County.

A TBI agent, previously told News Channel 11, Azotea served 13 years of a 15-year federal sentence and said he got out of prison in December 2013.

A preliminary hearing has been set for June 11.

 

[steelman]

So that's where he got the idea...........prison.

 

[wendybtn]

From reading in the local media, apparently Mr. Azotea was pretty much in a blacked out, drugged up haze prior to his arrest and at the time of the murders.

 

[DNR]

Thought I would post the latest update on this case. Come to find out I do know Azotea's girlfriend. I didn't realize she was living there. She didn't know any of this was going on. He was doing all of this while she was working 60 hours a week. She is a sweet woman and is devastated. He told her that he killed them because Gibson was threatening to kill her and the kids if he didn't pay his drug debt. She told me that she doesn't believe him because that's the same excuse he used for when he robbed the banks. She is completely done with him and is cooperating with anything the police need her to do. It's a sad situation.
I was told that the drug involved was molly but the article mentions meth so I'm not sure which is correct. Meth makes a little more sense though.


http://wjhl.com/2015/06/11/written-...details-how-he-killed-sullivan-county-couple/
According to the written statements, Azotea admitted he was buying meth from Gibson. Azotea’s writings indicate on January 7, Gibson and Terrell went to his home on Woodland Drive. Azotea said that Art was “acting strange as if he was high”.

He went on to say in his statement, Terrell showed him a gun. Azotea wrote that he wrestled the gun away from Terrell, shot her and stabbed Gibson. Then Azotea says he shot Terrell again as she tried to get away and then shot Gibson.

Azotea admitted in writing he cut up their bodies and spent several hours burning them.

He wrote that when the woman he lived with came home, he stopped what he was doing. Azotea wrote that what was left was Terrell’s torso and Art’s head, and he hid them in the crawl space.

Investigators found their remains in a crawl space under the Woodland Drive home on April 23.

Azotea said he gave the written statements so that immunity would be granted to the woman he lived with.

Azotea went on to admit in writing that he drove the Sullivan County couple’s Ford Escort to Big Springs Road in Carter County. He admitted he threw the keys and a necklace in dumpster at a Sunoco gas station and wrote he disassembled the gun and threw parts away in different places.

Investigators said in court, they used geolocation to track a phone used by Terrell and Gibson. According to detectives, the phone was last used at the Woodland Drive home where there remains were found.

The case has been bound over to the Grand Jury. The case will be presented to them on July 30.

Back in April, Azotea was charged with two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of abuse of a corpse and altering evidence.

District Attorney General Tony Clark, previously told News Channel 11, he is considering this as a capital case, which means they could seek the death penalty.

 

[myzzy]

So senseless .. Rip

 

[OkieGranny]

http://wjhl.com/2016/01/15/accused-...ed-with-attempted-escape-from-carter-co-jail/

According to a CCSO news release, deputy jailers of the Carter County Detention Center disrupted the escape of Eric Azotea, 44, who was being held in the jail while awaiting trial on two counts of first-degree murder...

Carter County Sheriff, Dexter Lunceford said, “There’s systems, or sensors, in place that let us know … and we immediately knew he was in an area that he wasn’t supposed to be.”