Murder Breadcrumb Trail

Erica Megan Sharpton, always known as Megan, was born on 24 October 1987 and grew up in Coffey County, Tennessee, one of a large family. She was close to her siblings and to her mother, Kelly Sharpton, and by 2012 was working two jobs while studying nursing at Motlow State Community College. She worked double shifts as a server at the Yamato Japanese Steakhouse in Tullahoma and also shifts at a nursing home, and she was due to graduate on 26 October 2012. She had been with her boyfriend Chris for about three years, a relationship her family described as passionate and volatile; by the summer of 2012 she had decided privately that it had no future.

On 1 July 2012 she had worked until 2 a.m. and slept in. A man telephoned a second mobile phone of hers that Chris had in his flat, saying he needed someone to care for an elderly woman, that he knew Megan through a nursing school classmate called Naomi, and that the pay was good, possibly with an advance that same evening. Megan was excited. She rang her mother to cancel dinner with a sister who was visiting, wrote down the address Shelfer Road and drove off in her 1995 red Ford Mustang.

At about 1.15 a.m. on 2 July a group of teenagers driving on Awalt Road, a remote stretch beside Tim's Ford Lake in rural Franklin County, saw flames near the Awalt Bridge. They found a burning barrel with a young woman inside and called 911. Franklin County deputies and firefighters arrived at about 1.30 a.m. The fire had taken hold mainly on her lower body, and she was naked from the waist down. There was no purse, phone, keys or identification, and her fingers were too damaged for fingerprints. She was wearing the remnants of a nursing school uniform top. A detective noticed blunt force trauma to her skull; another said the broken bones could be felt through the skin.

An autopsy established that she had been raped repeatedly, beaten about the head until her skull was fractured in several places, and shot once in the face with a .22 calibre round, which was the cause of death. There was no soot in her lungs, so she was dead before the fire was set. The accelerant had been concentrated on her pelvic area, apparently to destroy semen, but the heat sealed and preserved the biological evidence instead.

The next morning the case spread on Facebook. Kelly Sharpton, who had been trying to reach her daughter since midnight, saw a post describing a young woman with star tattoos and a nursing shirt and recognised her at once. She called the police and provided the identification. That afternoon Megan's Mustang was found abandoned on Three Forks Bridge Road in Bedford County, fifteen to twenty miles from the body, with a handwritten note on the passenger seat reading Shelfer Road. The address did not exist. On 4 July a fisherman found her pink purse in Rock Creek near Estill Springs, containing her wallet, driving licence and Social Security card. Her mobile phone was never recovered.

Suspicion fell first on Chris, whose alibi was confirmed by surveillance footage showing him at work from 5 p.m. until midnight. His flatmate Robbie admitted the drug residue found in the flat was his and then volunteered that he and Megan had had a secret relationship. this part of the story is covered for now

Detectives concentrated on the burner phone that had called Megan. In recordings from shops selling prepaid phones they found a man who already had a mobile on the counter and who left in a red pickup truck. Local officers identified him at once as Timothy Gifford, a small-time drug dealer. details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it

this part of the story is covered for now In 1998 he had escaped from the Rutherford County workhouse, stolen a car and held two women at knifepoint before being caught. details of the account remain covered until revealed He grew up in the Awalt Road area, where his family owned farmland.

the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now At the farm they found a burn barrel containing the charred remains of a purple scarf with star patterns, which Megan's sister Carrie recognised as a gift she had given her.

details of the account remain covered until revealed In late October 2012 the DNA matched. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed

the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it In spring 2013 the family had dedicated a memorial more than seven feet tall at the Awalt Road site, with twenty-four metal stars that spin in the breeze, one for each year of Megan's life.

this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed