Anderson had lost touch with family
Choking back tears while seeing horrific photos of their loved one and hearing the chilling details of his final days before he died of starvation, the family of murder victim Fletcher Anderson says it was a cruel twist of circumstances which delivered the victim into the hands of his killer.
“It’s no substitute for the torture she put him through,” said Tabitha Schlater, great-niece of murder victim Fletcher Anderson. “Justice was done, but God will have the final judgment.”
The comments of Schlater and her mother, Shirley Douglas, both of Crossville, came after jurors convicted Doreen Jones, 48, on the charge of second-degree murder for the neglect/starvation death of their uncle. They sat through all three days of the trial along with other family members.
“We care,” Schlater said. “We kind of feel like we were being looked down on by some people because of what happened but we just want people to know we cared about him.”
Schlater said her great-uncle had been in mental institutions for most of his life because of his schizophrenia. Doctors had advised he not be returned home due to his condition, but instead be kept in a monitored environment such as an institution or halfway house.
She noted he had been in Moccasin Bend in Chattanooga along with institutions in Nashville. He had also been in halfway houses in Baxter and had eventually taken up residence at Jackson’s Boarding Home in Morrison. It was there, Schlater said, that the chain of communication broke down.
“We were never told the boarding home closed down or that she (Jones) had taken him with her,” Schlater said. “We’ve looked for records about what happened, but there aren’t any. We were never notified and some of the family, who came down to visit him, were unable to find where he was taken because there were no records.”
Schlater said members of the their rather large extended family assumed Anderson was in good hands at Jackson’s and had no idea he had been taken by Jones.
Schlater pointed out Anderson has four children and a wife. However, his wife and children are all mentally challenged, explaining why his immediate family had not kept track of his movements.
Douglas said she was stunned when police contacted her, one month after her uncle’s death, to tell her what had happened. It took authorities that long to find his next of kin.
“We came and got him (his body) one day before they were going to give him a county funeral here,” Schlater said. “We took him and had him buried with the family.”
The horrific turn of events which happened after Jones took possession of her uncle concerns Schlater, since a similar situation could happen to anyone who has a family member who is being cared for either by a state or private agency.
“There needs to be laws passed where just anyone can’t take someone like that,” Schlater said. “There needs to be stronger laws that require the family be notified. If we had known, we would have found somewhere to have him placed. He fell through the cracks of the system and this is what happened. What happened to him was inhumane.”
As for the trial, Schlater and Douglas agreed it was the most nightmarish situation imaginable, given the horrid photos of their uncle and the chilling testimony.
“It was like being in a horror movie but it was real,” Schlater said. “No one ever believes something like this can happen to someone they care about.”