CHATTANOOGA – A joint investigation by Special Agents from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the Whitwell Police Department has resulted in charges for a Whitwell woman in connection to the death of her boyfriend’s son.
At the request of 12th District Attorney J. Michael Taylor, TBI Special Agents began investigating the death of 6-year-old Lucas Michael Dillon on March 29, 2015, a day after authorities found his body in a home on Jewell Lane Road in Whitwell. During the course of the investigation, Agents developed information which led to Holly Rutledge as the individual responsible for the boy’s death. Investigators say the boy died from blunt force trauma.
On Monday, the Marion County Grand Jury returned indictments, charging the 30-year-old woman with one count of First Degree Murder and one count of Aggravated Child Abuse.
Late Friday night, with the assistance of the Marion County Sheriff’s Department and the Dunlap Police Department, Agents arrested Rutledge at her place of employment and booked her into the Marion County Jail on $50,000 bond.
