Mother, aunt of dismemberment suspect indicted in case

JONESBOROUGH, TENNESSEE - The mother and aunt of a Georgia man charged with killing and dismembering a teenage couple have been indicted on charges of helping to conceal the crime. <br> <br> Emma Elizabeth Hawk, 71, and her sister, Marie Holmes, 74, were indicted by a grand jury Tuesday on charges of abuse of a corpse, accessory after the fact and attempting to tamper with evidence. <br> <br> Hawk&#39;s son, Howard Hawk Willis, 51, of Chickamauga was charged last year with first-degree murder and abuse of a corpse in the October deaths of Adam Chrismer, 17, and Samantha Leming, 16, both of Walker County, Ga. <br> <br> Chrismer&#39;s head and hands were found in a Johnson City lake. His other remains and those of his wife of two months were recovered in a storage warehouse. <br> <br> Willis has told investigators that he didn&#39;t kill the couple and blamed his mother instead. On a tape secretly recorded by his ex-wife, Willis admits to the killings, police have said. <br> <br> Prosecutors allege that Hawk and Holmes urged Wilda Willis to destroy the tape and that Hawk rented the storage unit where the remains and various tools that might have been used in the dismemberment were found. <br> <br> Willis also is a suspect in the death and dismemberment of his stepfather, 73-year-old Samuel Thomas of Bradley County. A decomposed body believed to be Thomas was recovered in October in Walker County, Ga. <br> <br> Willis remains in federal custody in New York awaiting a Feb. 14 sentencing for a cocaine delivery case.