Ricky Lee WhittemoreThe Catoosa County Sheriff’s Office arrested a Ringgold man for dumping and burning a woman’s body in Tennessee, a potential link to the remains found last week.
Ricky Lee Whittemore, 49, is in the Catoosa County Jail on charges of concealing the death of another, tampering with evidence and violation of probation. According to an arrest warrant affidavit, Whittemore burned the body of 18-year-old Lauren Deshea Lowrance, of Hixson, Tennessee, on Wednesday or Thursday.
Another man is linked to the case, according to the affidavit. He has not been booked in the jail, according to the sheriff’s office website.
On Friday morning, a train engineer found a woman’s body on a gravel road next to railroad tracks off State Route 156 in New Hope, Tennessee. Twelfth Judicial District Attorney General Mike Taylor told the Times Free Press he did not believe the body had been there for a long time.
Investigators have sent the body to a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Crime Lab in Nashville, where a medical examiner will try to identify the body through dental records.
On Saturday, the Walker County Sheriff’s Office arrested Whittemore in the Noble community on a domestic violence charge Saturday. While investigating the case, Sheriff Steve Wilson said, deputies learned that Whittemore was potentially linked to the remains in New Hope.
The Catoosa County Sheriff’s Office booked him into their jail on Monday.