A Tennessee man is accused of taking his mom’s body, wrapped in a tarp, to a hospital in another part of the state.
Thomas Henshall Jr., 37, of Chattanooga, picked up his girlfriend at 8:30 a.m. Saturday with the body, “believed to be that of his mother,” in his truck, according to a news release from the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department. The two said they then drove to a VA medical center in Chattanooga — stopping for food, coffee and gas on the way.
When they realized the hospital was closed, police said they drove the body to a VA medical center in Nashville.
Nashville is about 130 miles from Chattanooga. Police noted that the two passed “multiple hospitals and law enforcement facilities along the way” to the second facility.
Henshall got to the Nashville medical center around 5:15 p.m. Saturday with the body “wrapped and/or rolled up in a tarp in the back of his truck,” police said. He reportedly said that his mother had “committed suicide and that he found her in a wooded area of Chattanooga.”
He had also told his girlfriend he found the body in the woods, according to police
But when interviewed by detectives, Henshall told them he was “right next to his mother when she shot herself,” police said. Henshall then “invoked his Miranda rights and ended the interview” when detectives asked him how his mother got the gun.
Officials are still waiting on an autopsy to positively identify the body wrapped in the tarp.
Henshall was arrested and charged with failure to report the discovery of a dead body and evidence tampering. The evidence tampering charge “stems from Henshall touching and concealing the victim’s body,” police said.
Thomas Henshall Jr., 37, of Chattanooga, picked up his girlfriend at 8:30 a.m. Saturday with the body, “believed to be that of his mother,” in his truck, according to a news release from the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department. The two said they then drove to a VA medical center in Chattanooga — stopping for food, coffee and gas on the way.
When they realized the hospital was closed, police said they drove the body to a VA medical center in Nashville.
Nashville is about 130 miles from Chattanooga. Police noted that the two passed “multiple hospitals and law enforcement facilities along the way” to the second facility.
Henshall got to the Nashville medical center around 5:15 p.m. Saturday with the body “wrapped and/or rolled up in a tarp in the back of his truck,” police said. He reportedly said that his mother had “committed suicide and that he found her in a wooded area of Chattanooga.”
He had also told his girlfriend he found the body in the woods, according to police
But when interviewed by detectives, Henshall told them he was “right next to his mother when she shot herself,” police said. Henshall then “invoked his Miranda rights and ended the interview” when detectives asked him how his mother got the gun.
Officials are still waiting on an autopsy to positively identify the body wrapped in the tarp.
Henshall was arrested and charged with failure to report the discovery of a dead body and evidence tampering. The evidence tampering charge “stems from Henshall touching and concealing the victim’s body,” police said.
