Update: Knoxville Police say a missing runaway teenage girl is found safe.
14 year-old Lena Manuel was reported missing yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon from her home on Louisiana Avenue.
Original Story: Knoxville Police are asking for your help to find a missing teenage runaway.
14 year-old Lena Manuel was reported missing yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon. She was last seen at her home on Louisiana Avenue and might be wearing black Halloween-style pajamas with skulls.
If you see her, call 9-1-1. Anyone with information is asked to call East Tennessee Valley Crime Stoppers at 865-215-7165.
The City of Knoxville is officially cutting the ribbon on the new Public Safety Complex in North Knoxville October 25, 2023 at 4 p.m. at 1650 Huron Street.
The ceremony will include Mayor Indya Kincannon, Chief Paul Noel, and Chief Stan Sharp, the Knoxville Fire Department Honor Guard, and the Fulton High School Band.
Members of the community are invited to take part in the ceremonial ribbon-cutting, explore first responder vehicles, and take guided tours of sections of the new facility. In addition, those in attendance will learn more about possible redevelopment on other sections of the former St. Mary’s campus.
While KPD, KFD, the E911 backup system, Pension System offices and City Court operations moved into this new location over several months earlier this year, there is still some ongoing construction.
The City of ensures meaningful access to City programs, services and activities to comply with Civil Rights Title VI and ADA Title II laws and reasonably provides: translation, interpretation, modifications, accommodations, alternative formats, auxiliary aids and services. To request language translation services, contact the City’s Human Resources Department at [email protected] or 865-215-3100. For disability accommodations, contact City ADA Coordinator Stephanie Brewer Cook at [email protected] or 865-215-2034.
The three-year reconstruction project to transform a vacated North Knoxville hospital into the City’s Public Safety Complex will be substantially completed by the end of 2022/early 2023, with employees and operations moving in incrementally.
The Public Safety Complex consists of three repurposed former St. Mary’s Hospital office buildings between St. Mary Street and Huron Street, near Woodland Avenue, just west of Fulton High School.
The cluster of buildings will serve as a combined complex for the Police and Fire Departments, the E911 backup system, Pension System offices and City Court operations.
Additionally, the City cleared the northern end of the former hospital campus to make room for future private redevelopment – likely, new housing and green space. The private redevelopment will be anchored by the stalwart, stately and iconic 1929 Building, the original St. Mary’s Hospital, which was carefully preserved and safeguarded by the City and its contractors. By clearing the site of obsolete, unusable buildings that had for decades surrounded the 1929 Building, this marble-accented architectural gem is now free-standing and visible from all directions.
Next door, at the former Magdalen Clarke Tower, Lincoln Memorial University is privately investing $40 million and will graduate hundreds of nursing and dental students each year. A tree-lined LMU-funded quadrangle is planned, adjacent to the new City Court.
On the south side of the site, the City, Knox County and McNabb Center are partnering to convert the 25,000-square-foot former St. Mary’s Ambulatory Surgery Center into an urgent care and behavioral health facility.
By the time the Public Safety Complex opens, the City will have invested more than $70 million to consolidate key government services, prevented a vacant hospital campus from devolving into blight, and supported and enhanced with various private partners the surrounding North Knoxville neighborhoods.
Sheriff Tom Spangler said William Brewster and Zachary Jordan have been arrested, and charged with multiple counts of vehicle burglaries (Courtesy: John Pirsos | WVLT)
Knoxville, TN (WOKI) Two suspects already facing several charges in connection to a string of car break-ins in Knox county can now add arson to their resumes.
Knoxville Fire Department officials announcing Tuesday, October 24 that 22 year-old William Brewster and 23 year-old Zachary Jordan were charged with arson after an ongoing investigation found that Brewster, Jordan and an accomplice stole a Ford F150 from a home in Fountain City on October 3 and later intentionally set it on fire.
KFD officials say the accomplice, 22 year-old Dalton Davis, has also been arrested and charged with arson.
The arrests are part of a multi-department investigation involving KFD’s Fire Investigations Unit, Knoxville Police Department’s Auto Theft Unit and the Knox County Sheriff’s Office’s Property Crimes Unit.
Brewster and Jordan were previously charged with multiple counts of vehicle burglaries in a string of car break-ins, including law enforcement cruisers.
Scott County, TN (WOKI) A Scott County man is sentenced Monday, October 23 to 80 years in prison after being found guilty in April of committing multiple child sex crimes.
A release from the Eighth District Attorney General’s Office states that Jonathan Maine Lowe was convicted on April 12, 2023 of five counts of aggravated sexual battery, two counts of incest, one count of rape of a child, one count of rape, and two counts of child abuse after a two-day jury trial.
During that trial, the Department of Children’s Services, members of the Scott County’s Sheriff’s Department and the victim, who was a minor, testified.
The release said the victim testified that the incidents of abuse occurred over a ten-year span.
Morristown, TN (WOKI) A Rogersville woman is dead after being hit by a truck Monday morning near Morristown hospital.
Morristown Police Department officials say officers responded around 7:30 a.m. to a deadly pedestrian crash on North High Street at the intersection of Watercrest Street.
They report 41-year-old Elizabeth Block, an employee of Morristown-Hamblen Healthcare System, was traversing the crosswalk near the facility when she was struck by a pickup truck driven by a 73-year-old Jefferson City resident.
Authorities say the driver of the pickup failed to yield, striking and killing Block.
Charges against the driver have not been filed, but police did administer a drug test. Those results are pending, and the crash remains under investigation.
A driver is facing charges after crashing into a Tennessee Department of Transportation HELP truck on the side of the road.
TDOT officials say it happened on October 20th when the truck was pulling up to help a disabled vehicle on the side of I-40 West near Watt Road, when another car crashed into them.
Tennessee Highway Patrol says the driver who caused the crash fell asleep at the wheel.
He’s facing several charges including reckless endangerment. The TDOT driver suffered some injuries in the crash.
This is the fourth time this month one of their trucks has been hit.
A Knoxville man is charged after firing a gun towards two juveniles.
Knox County Sheriff’s deputies called to a home on Little River Road for a “disturbance” call and say the two youth told them they had gotten into a fight with 71 year-old Jerome Denson who pulled out a gun and fired toward them hitting the ground almost hitting one of them.
Denson is charged with aggravated assault and reckless endangerment.
Wreaths Across America is taking donations to honor veterans buried in Knoxville’s three veteran cemeteries with evergreen wreaths this Christmas.
Last year, Wreaths Across America was able to place wreaths on all 18,000 graves in the Knoxville area for only the second time. This year they will need 19,000 wreaths to cover all veterans’ graves.
Engineers are working to get the Dollywood Express back up and running after it derailed at the beginning of October, officials said. (Courtesy: Amanda Bolin Varney / WVLT))
Sevierville, TN (WOKI) All aboard! Though there’s no date available yet, engineers are working to get a beloved Dollywood favorite back on the tracks.
The Dollywood Express derailed at the beginning of October; now, engineers are working to get the train back up and running.
Park officials say a switch track on the train’s path suffered a mechanical issue on October 1st causing the train to derail. No one was hurt, and guests were evacuated from the cars.
They say a specialized part is being manufactured for the track, and that the part, once installed, will be tested before the train returns to service.
Athens, TN (WOKI) An investigation is underway in McMinn County after hunters find human remains last week near Athens.
Officials with the McMinn County Sheriff’s Office say deputies responded around 10:00 a.m. Thursday, October 19 after hunters found what appeared to be skeletal human remains in a wooded area off Highway 30 west of Athens, near County Rd. 119.
The sheriff’s office says hunters directed deputies to the location several yards off the highway where partial human remains were discovered; they were sent to the Knox County Regional Forensic Center.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and members of the District Attorney General’s Office are aiding in the investigation.
