UPDATE: Son Charged After Dogs Discover Human Remains

Rhea County Sheriff Mike Neal tells NewsChannel9.com that an arrest has been made in the case of human remains found Saturday afternoon on Pierce Hill Road.

20-year-old Jimmy L. Kight has been arrested for the murder of his mother, Sandra Lantz.

Sheriff Neal said it was just before Noon Saturday when they received a call that dogs were dragging what appeared to be human remains into a yard on Pierce Hill Rd.

Neighbor Wayne Dotson says yesterday his sister's dogs found the human bones in near Lantz' yard.

"I swear i didnt think it was a human but i got a piece of plastic and i touched it and it wasnt plastic, styrophome it was flesh. That's when I run in the house and called the law," says Dotson.

Sheriff Neal says that Rhea County investigators found human remains scattered over a wide area near a rental trailer at 1517 Pierce Hill Road. He said the trailer had been rented in early December by a woman named Sandra Lantz. The Sheriff said due to the fact that dogs or other animals had devoured the remains and scattered them across such a wide wooded area.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is assisting in the case and Sheriff Neal says they called in forensics experts from the well-known Body Farm at UT Knoxville.

"After futher investigation we feel that on December 16th his mother and him got into an altercation at this residence and it resulted in her death," says Rhea County Sheriff Mike Neal.

Lantz was an employee of Rhea of Sunshine in Dayton and officers were told she had not reported for work in a few weeks and had not picked up her last check.

After midnight, Kight and his 19-year-old girlfriend, Jennifer Waldo, were found in Rockwood, Tenn. where they had been staying with friends. Officers also found the 1990 White Plymouth registered to Sandra Lantz. No charges have been filed against Jennifer Waldo.

After questioning the suspects, officers believe that on Dec. 16 Kight and his mother were alone at her trailer on Pierce Hill Road when they got into an argument leading to Ms. Lantz's murder. 

Dotson says he didn't know Lantz and Kight very well, but did suspect there were problems at the house.

"He sat on his front porch and had fires outside. He would sit out and just burn stuff. he had problems I guess," says Dotson.

Kight remains in the Rhea County Jail with no bond charged with Motor Vehicle Theft and Criminal Homicide.