Askia Witherow (Photo credit: tbinewsroom.com)An Ooltewah man was arrested Thursday and charged in an October 2018 murder after a joint investigation of local and state law enforcement, according to a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation news release.
An investigation by TBI special agents, the Polk County Sheriff's Department, the 10th District Attorney General's Office and the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office has resulted in the arrest of Askia Witherow, 39, of Ooltewah.
At the request of 10th District Attorney General Steve Crump on Oct. 29, 2018, TBI agents joined investigators from Polk County and the District Attorney's Office in investigating skeletal remains that were found by hunters on Benton Mountain in the Reliance community. The remains were ultimately identified as those of Jacob Dakota Moore, 26, of Apison.
During the course of the investigation, and with the assistance of the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office, agents developed information that identified Witherow, an acquaintance of the victim, as a person responsible for the death of Moore.
Officers arrested Witherow in Georgia on Thursday and charged him with one count of first-degree murder, one count of especially aggravated burglary, four counts of especially aggravated robbery, one count of kidnapping, four counts of false imprisonment and four counts of interference with an emergency call.
Witherow was booked into the Catoosa County (Georgia) Jail without bond, pending extradition to Tennessee.
This is an ongoing investigation.