Head found in lake may be remains of Georgia teen

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Posted 7:58AM on Wednesday, October 16, 2002

JOHNSON CITY, TENNESSEE - A head discovered floating in Boone Lake might be the remains of a 17-year-old Georgia boy, Washington County Sheriff Fred Phillips says. Phillips also said Tuesday he suspects that hands discovered in the lake belong to the boy's 16-year-old bride. Officials are waiting for official confirmation from pathologists that the body parts, found by fishermen last weekend, belong to Adam Christmer and Samantha Lemming, his wife of two months. The sheriff said Howard Hawk Willis, 51, of Chickamauga, Ga., is a suspect in the deaths because the teenagers, who were from northern Georgia, were seen with Willis in Johnson City and Walker County, Ga. Willis has not been charged in connection with the discovery of the body parts. But Phillips said, ``Anytime you're the last person to be seen in the company of a missing person, you are a suspect.'' Search warrants served Tuesday state that investigators obtained descriptions of Christmer that were consistent with what a pathologist found. Willis was arrested Friday in Johnson City at the residence of his aunt and uncle on a federal detainer warrant. Assistant U.S. Attorney Neil Smith said Willis was out on bond on drug charges but that 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., who is missing. The Bradley County Sheriff's Department is exploring a connection between the body parts and Thomas' disappearance, Capt. Chip Bryant said Tuesday. He said Thomas' body has not been found and that the sheriff's department believes foul play was involved. Thomas was reported missing Oct. 5 and blood was found at his home. Preliminary examination of the head found in the lake indicated there was a gunshot wound to the chin area. 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.'' Phillips said the back of the skull was also missing from the head, with the flap of skin covering the missing bone.