HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn.- The Sumner County Sheriff's Department says a 15-year-old confessed to killing his mother, Melanie Davis. Deputies wouldn't elaborate on the cause, but said the teenager showed little remorse.
"Something snapped," Davis's friend and former colleague, Tanya Porter, said while staring at the home. "Something went terribly wrong in her house last night."
As smoked filled this home on Gannett Road, the alarm woke up the 16-year-old inside. He ran to alert his family. The 16-year-old called 911 after finding his mother dead, hit with a blunt object, and his 15-year-old brother was nowhere to be found.
"I don't even know what to think," Porter said about the news. "I'm kind of numb right now, very shocked and devastated."
Deputies tracked the 15-year-old's cell phone, and found it in the brush less than a mile away from the Thornton's on Long Hollow Pike. Deputies spotted the 15-year-old and arrested him nearby. He later confessed to the murder.
"He even had a smile occasionally about some of the statements he made," Sheriff Sonny Weatherford explained.
Davis was widowed years earlier and was raising her two boys alone.
"My heart just really grieves for her. I just can't imagine because I know how much she went through when her husband passed away and how she has survived," Porter said.
The worst, many thought was behind her.
"Very nice person, very quiet (and) somewhat to herself, but very strong," Porter added.
Now a 16-year-old is left without parents and must grapple with a tragedy no one can begin to make sense of.
"He is doing as well as we can expect him to be," Sheriff Weatherford said of the 16-year-old. "His mother is a victim now (and) it's caused by his younger brother. He's kind of destroyed."
The 15-year-old is charged with criminal homicide, and more charges could be forthcoming.
A hearing on Tuesday will determine if he's charged as a juvenile or adult.
Neighbors are taking care of the 16-year-old, until family arrives from out of town. Sheriff Weatherford confirmed Davis is from Austria and didn't have any family in the United States. Her husband's family lives in Kentucky.
