Post by Joanna on Aug 7, 2014 0:51:34 GMT -5
5 Years Later: Sevier County Woman's Murder Still Unsolved
SEVIERVILLE, Tenn. – Sunday marked the five-year anniversary of a Sevier County woman's death and five years of an unsolved murder.
Investigators initially thought Shannon Hercutt died in a car accident August 3, 2009, however, an autopsy later revealed she was murdered at home, placed in her SUV, then sent down a steep drop in the Fox Run Resort area.
"I knew she was murdered. Don't ask me why, I just felt that way," said Penny Lane Stephens, Shannon's older sister. Stephens met with 10News on the five-year anniversary of Hercutt's death to ask for the public's help, once again. "It kills me every day. A little bit of me dies because I feel like I'm letting my sister down for not having justice," she said. Stephens visited her sister's grave Sunday saying, "It never gets better. It just gets harder."
According to Stephens, there is a $40,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for her death.; $25,000 comes from the state of Tennessee. But Stephens said she rarely hears from the Sevier County Sheriff's Office, who is investigating the case. "It makes me wonder if my sister's case is sitting on a shelf, getting colder as we speak," she said. "It hurts that someone could take Shannon away from us and to know they're still out there and they know what they did."
The Sevier County Sheriff's Office and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) would not comment, but said “the case has remained open for the duration since her death and many leads have been investigated since that time."
Ms. Hercutt owned Auntie Belham’s Realty & Nightly Rentals in Pigeon Forge and on the night of November 20, 2009, more than three months after Ms. Hercutt’s murder, someone fired numerous shots at her former business, hitting the front door while two people were in the office.
Ted Hercutt, Ms. Hercutt’s father, was left wondering if the shooting had anything to do with his daughter’s death. “... whoever murdered Shannon got the job done. Why would they keep continuing doing something else to her? Could it be somebody that's involved with the murder or is there more vendettas going on than what we know about?"
The weekend following the shooting, Hercutt’s wife discovered a blog on the internet in which someone was requesting photographs of Ted Hercutt and his other daughter, Penny.
Anyone with any information about the case should call Sevier County Sheriff's Office Criminal Investigation Division at 865-428-1899 or TBI at 1-800-TBI-FIND.
Sources: WBIR News and WVLT News.