Foul smell leads to missing teen’s body after grandmother is found dead, TN cops say

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Days after Tennessee police found a woman’s body in the woods, Memphis officers found her 15-year-old grandson dead as well, authorities said.

The woman’s boyfriend, 41-year-old Herman Hollins-Brown, was charged with murder after her body was found on Aug. 17, according to Memphis police. The search for her missing grandson, Syquavius Hoyett, ended Aug. 20 when police found his body not far from his grandmother’s, the arrest affidavit from Shelby County shows.

Memphis police announced in an Aug. 21 news release that additional charges would be filed against Hollins-Brown now that Hoyett has been found.

Officers discovered the body of Anneria Turman in a wooded area of Memphis, according to the Aug. 22 arrest affidavit. They said they saw blood leading from the road to her body.

They learned she lived with Hollins-Brown and that she had custody of her grandson. When officers visited her home, they found “blood smears and a bloody print of three fingers,” according to the affidavit.

While waiting for a warrant to enter the home, officers said they saw Turman’s Chrysler drive by and turned at the end of the block. They followed the car and pulled it over, the affidavit said. As they approached the car, they noticed blood stains around the trunk trailing down the back bumper, police said.

Hollins-Brown was driving the car. Officers placed him under arrest as family members arrived, and he told them, “I’m going to be gone for a while,” according to the affidavit.

Once officers obtained the warrant to enter the house, they discovered a “large amount of blood in the living room, kitchen, hallway and bedroom,” records show.

Investigators began searching for Hoyett and issued an endangered child alert.

On Aug. 20, officers were patrolling an area not far from where Turman’s body was found when they “smelled an odor of decay,” according to the affidavit. That’s when they discovered Hoyett’s body.

A witness came into the police station the next day and told investigators he was held at gunpoint and forced to help Hollins-Brown dispose of the bodies, officers said.

He said Hollins-Brown told him, “You are going to do what I tell you to, or you will be the third body,” according to the affidavit.

He said they disposed of Turman’s body, which was in the trunk of the vehicle, then went back to the house where the witness said he was forced to move the teen’s body into the vehicle and dispose of it as well, according to the affidavit.

Turman’s autopsy revealed she was shot in the back of the head. The witness said it appeared Hoyett had also been shot, according to the affidavit.

Hollins-Brown has been charged with two counts each of first-degree murder and abuse of a corpse, Shelby County records show. He was also charged with convicted felon possession of a handgun.

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