Neal confesses to murder in forensic interview played in preliminary hearing

The forensic investigation of Kian Neal being shown during his preliminary hearing.

COLLEGEDALE, Tenn. (WDEF)- “I’m going to give you one opportunity to be honest… Where is Robert?”

Collegedale Police detective Chase Watson asked this question to Kian Neal in a forensic interview shortly after his arrest on June 12.

Neal, an 18-year-old, is charged with criminal homicide among five charges in the suspected killing and disappearance of 56-year-old Robert Locke.

Wednesday, his preliminary hearing was held in front of Collegedale city judge Curtis Bowe.

The center of the hearing revolved around a forensic interview that Detective Watson conducted with Neal, of which nearly an hour of the conversation was shown in court.

In that hearing, Neal initially refused to answer questions about Locke, asking for an attorney, leading the detective to pause the interrogation.

However, he changed his mind, and began to tell the detective that he was motivated to kill Locke because of his criminal past.

Locke was a registered sex offender, having been convicted of child molestation in 2003.

Neal told the detective, “I had this weird idea in my head that it would be cool to like, good to like to serve my own kind of justice because I felt it wasn’t being served.”

He went on to describe his version of events, telling investigators that he broke into Locke’s home, then murdered him on his bed by beating and strangling him.

Neal said that he dismembered his body, and threw it away in a dumpster.

Video surveillance from a nearby business showed a man identified as Neal throwing garbage bags in a dumpster investigators believe contained the body of Locke.

Locke’s body has never been found, as law enforcement searched the Birchwood Landfill where they believe those garbage bags were taken by a garbage contractor.

That search lasted days but was unsuccessful.

Neal said in that interview he had suffered sexual abuse as a child, and decided to look up the nearest person on the sex offender registry to kill them.

He said, “I kind of had some bad experiences as a kid, some sexual experiences, so I was really scarred from that for a long time, and I was angry at people who would do that kind of stuff in general.”

Detective Watson described how it took weeks after Locke’s disappearance to conclude that Neal was involved in his murder, as he had been investigating his disappearance since Memorial Day weekend.

He said that when he searched Locke’s home, that his wallet, keys, cell phone, and vehicles were still at home.

However, the bed sheets from Locke’s bed were gone, and Blue Star agent, which is designed to reveal blood not visible to the human eye, placed in his room revealed blood.

Eventually, the investigation led to a crash that occurred on May 22 on the 3400 block of Camp Road, which is near the dumpster investigators believe Neal dumped Locke’s body.

Detective Watson stated in the forensic interview that there was blood inside Neal’s car as found by the Blue Star agent.

He says ultimately a juvenile witness, who testified but we cannot identify due to a court order was the break in the case after they reported Neal telling them about “killing someone” at church in an hour long conversation.

Another witness who said they were a former friend of Neal’s, Serena Fish, testified that he had told her fantasies of committing a murder over two years ago against quote, “people who deserved it.”

Fish had stated in one conversation in May 2024 that, “(Neal) said he was going to stab someone he thought was going to rape me.”

Prosecutor Paul Moyle followed up by asking, “What did he say that he would do to the body of the person that he killed?”

Fish responded, “He said he would stab it continuously even after all the life has drained out, and that his body would be mutilated.”

Prosecutor Moyle said in his closing argument that no matter what Locke did in his past, that still doesn’t excuse the actions of that were espoused by Neal in his interview.

Moyle argued, “Our office routinely prosecutes individuals for the very types of crimes that he was convicted of and sent to prison for, but we also can’t condone an individual who appoints himself to be judge, jury, executioner, vengeance, whatever term he would like to use.”

Judge Bowe did find probable cause to send this case to a Hamilton County grand jury.

They will decide whether or not to indict Neal on these charges to send it to Hamilton County criminal court.

Neal remains in custody at the Hamilton County Jail.