Investigators await tests on severed head and hands

JOHNSON CITY, TENNESSEE - Investigators awaited forensic test results on a severed human head and two hands, possibly the remains of a missing teenage couple from Georgia, while trying to determine if a suspect in the case is linked to another disappearance. <br> <br> Walker County, Ga., Sheriff Steve Wilson said a skull discovered floating on Boone Lake near Johnson City was identified as Adam Ray Chrismer, 17, of Walker County. <br> <br> Chrismer and his wife, Samantha Foster Leming, 16, were last seen Oct. 4 when they ate dinner with her mother. <br> <br> Phillips said he was awaiting a pathologist&#39;s report on the positive identification of the remains. He said the hands discovered by fishermen appeared to be female. <br> <br> A preliminary examination of the skull, which Chrismer&#39;s mother tentatively identified as her son, indicated a gunshot wound to the chin area. <br> <br> The missing teens were seen with Howard Hawk Willis, 51, of Chickamauga, Ga., in Johnson City and Walker County, Ga., <br> <br> Willis was in federal custody in Johnson City on charges stemming from an unrelated drug case. <br> <br> ``Anytime you&#39;re the last person to be seen in the company of a missing person, you are a suspect,&#39;&#39; Phillips said. <br> <br> One thing the head and the hands have in common, Phillips said, is that they were severed in a ``very brutal fashion ... with a tool with a jagged edge.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Phillips said the back of the skull was also missing, with a flap of skin covering the missing bone. <br> <br> The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation was assisting the sheriff, TBI spokeswoman Jeanne Broadwell said Wednesday. <br> <br> Willis was arrested Friday in Johnson City at the residence of his aunt and uncle on a federal detainer warrant. <br> <br> Assistant U.S. Attorney Neil Smith said Willis had been free on bond in the drug case when prosecutors in eastern New York learned Friday that Willis was using credit cards belonging to his 70-year-old stepfather, Samuel Johnson Thomas of Cleveland, Tenn. <br> <br> Thomas has been missing since Oct. 5 and blood was discovered at his residence in Bradley County. Investigators were exploring a connection between the discovery of the body parts in the lake and Thomas&#39; disappearance, Bradley County Sheriff&#39;s Department Capt. Chip Bryant said Tuesday. <br> <br> ``We believe Mr. Thomas is dead and we want to find him or his body,&#39;&#39; Bryant said.