A man has been taken into custody for questioning in a homicide in connection with a body discovered in Prentice Cooper State Forest.
Billy Dewayne Massengale, 48, of Whitwell, Tennessee, has been charged on outstanding warrants with aggravated assault and false imprisonment, according to a statement issued by the Marion County Sheriff’s Office. Massengale was taken into custody Friday night by authorities on the outstanding warrants and also in connection with a homicide investigation launched March 9 after the body of Danny Durham, 66, was found at a home on Big Rock Road on the fringes of the state forest in Marion County.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation joined the probe in Marion County on March 9, according to Marion County and state authorities. Massengale was named the man investigators wanted for questioning soon after the investigation began.
(READ MORE: Two indicted after body found in wreckage of car fire at Prentice Cooper State Forest)
“They caught him there around the crime scene,” Marion County Sheriff Ronnie “Bo” Burnett said in a phone interview. “The TBI is leading the investigation.”
The scene on Big Rock Road off River Canyon Road is about a half-mile east of Snooper’s Rock, a hiker’s scenic stop in the state forest on the bluffs above the site. River Canyon Road snakes along the Tennessee River between Hamilton and Marion counties. The state forest was temporarily closed while investigators gathered potential evidence from the scene on March 8. Prentice Cooper was also closed from Thursday until Monday because of a forest fire that burned about 130 acres on the south end of the forest.
Massengale was interviewed over the weekend by investigators from the state agency and sheriff’s office, Burnett said.
“We had local charges on him that was from a domestic assault,” Burnett said.
Those charges aren’t related to the Durham homicide investigation, he said.
“It’s up to the TBI to bring those charges,” Burnett said.
New charges could be filed in the coming days, he said.
Contact Ben Benton at bbenton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6569.
Marion County Sheriff’s Office / Billy Dewayne Massengale, 48