In this undated photo provided by the Thornton, Colo., Police Department and released on Feb. 5. 2018, Grant Matthew Poole, is shown. Poole has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of a Tennessee man whose body was found buried under a concrete slab in his backyard. (Thornton Police Department via AP)
In this undated photo provided by the Thornton, Colo., Police Department and released on Feb. 5. 2018, Glenna Yvonne Newingham Wood is shown. Wood has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of a Tennessee man whose body was found buried under a concrete slab in his backyard. (Thornton Police Department via AP)
In this undated photo provided by the Thornton, Colo., Police Department and released on Feb. 5. 2018, Joseph Scott Newingham is shown. Newingham has been charged as an accessory after the death of a Tennessee man whose body was found buried under a concrete slab in his backyard. (Thornton Police Department via AP)
In this undated photo provided by the Thornton, Colo., Police Department and released on Feb. 5. 2018, Mikayla Danielle Harmon Poole is shown. Poole has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of a Tennessee man whose body was found buried under a concrete slab in his backyard. (Thornton Police Department via AP)Family members are among the half-dozen suspects now charged in the homicide of a Winchester, Tenn., man whose body was found Jan. 24 buried under a concrete slab in his own backyard.
Indictments charging the six people were issued last Friday by the Franklin County grand jury. Five are in custody.
Winchester Police Chief Richard Lewis said Tuesday that 50-year-old homicide victim James Leon Wood's 44-year-old wife, Glenna Yvonne Newingham Wood; her 19-year-old daughter, Mikayla Danielle Harmon Poole; Poole's husband, Grant Matthew Poole, also 19; and family friend Shawn Michael Hampton, 21, are each charged with first-degree murder, two counts of conspiracy to commit murder and abuse of a corpse.
Two other people, Kisha Evelyn Anderson, another friend of the family, and Glenna Wood's 20-year-old son, Joseph Scott Newingham, are each charged in the homicide as accessories after the fact, Lewis said.
Wood's body, wrapped in a sheet or blanket, was found buried under a 5-by-8-foot concrete slab, positioned several feet away from an above-ground pool in the home's backyard on Spring Hill Drive. The slab had been poured over the grave, Lewis said during the initial recovery work. A search warrant linked to the original missing person investigation led to the discovery of Wood's body about 10:30 p.m. on Jan. 24.
The activity of digging the grave, burying the body and pouring the concrete slab over it "apparently didn't attract any of the neighbors' attention," Lewis said. Fencing and vegetation screen parts of the yard from view.
The body was identified during a forensic examination on Jan. 26.
The victim's 1988 Ford F150 was impounded in Grundy County in a separate matter, authorities said.
Glenna Wood, Harmon, Poole, and Newingham were taken into custody over the weekend in Thornton, Colo., while Anderson, who was previously said to be in custody in Colorado, is being allowed to come back to Tennessee on her own and turn herself in "by the end of the week," Lewis said. Hampton was taken into custody in Madison County, Ala. All those jailed are awaiting extradition back to Tennessee to face charges.
Lewis said he couldn't talk about a motive in the case, but noted that Glenna Wood, her daughter and Grant Poole were living in the house for an unspecified period of time, and Hampton often hung around the Spring Hill Drive residence. Tennessee property records show that Glenna Wood is listed as one of the two owners of the property she and the victim purchased on June 30, 2017.
James Wood was last heard from on July 29, authorities said. Wood's mother reported her son missing on Jan. 18 after she didn't hear from him over the holidays, the chief said.
"There was also a birthday around that time that she kind of expected to hear from him," he said. "When she called us she was in New Mexico."
The victim's mother had talked to Glenna Wood about her son's whereabouts, and was told "he had left home," Lewis said.
Anderson, whose age is unknown and is the lone suspect still free, is believed to have provided a vehicle to take the others to Colorado, the chief said.
Hampton ended up with Wood's pickup truck and the truck at some point was taken to a family member's house in Grundy County where it sat leaking fuel and lacking a license plate. The family member asked local authorities to take the truck off his property, Lewis said. The truck's status is still undetermined.
Lewis said he understood all those held in Colorado plan to waive extradition, but the chief was unaware of Hampton's extradition status in Alabama.
Contact staff writer Ben Benton at bbenton@times freepress.com or 423-757-6569. Follow him on Twitter @BenBenton or at www.facebook.com/benbenton1.