SMYRNA, Tennessee (WDEF) – More than 190 soldiers returned to Tennessee on Thursday after a ten month deployment in the Middle East. They are members of the Tennessee National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 181st Field Artillery Regiment. They are based in Chattanooga with a unit from Dayton. The soldiers were greeted by friends and family at Smyrna’s Volunteer Training Site where…
CLEVELAND, Tennessee (WDEF) – Foundation House Ministries is expanding into the Ooltewah area. The nonprofit that provides supports to mothers and pregnant women who are facing struggles with addiction, homelessness and joblessness, is based in Cleveland. They have now opened a satellite office in the Hope Center of Ooltewah Baptist Church on Main street. That office is for nonresidential clients…
CLEVELAND, Tennessee (WDEF) – Bradley County investigators hope you can identify a suspect from a series of package thefts from homes. They happened on Tuesday in the northeast area of Bradley County. Sheriff’s investigators caught images on surveillance cameras of a woman and a vehicle. It you recognize her or the car, pleas call the Bradley County Sheriff’s Office tip…
SODDY-DAISY, Tennessee (WDEF) – A lot of boat people can commiserate with a fisherman from Soddy Daisy tonight. He was trying to put a boat in Lake Chickamauga on Tuesday morning at a ramp on Armstrong Road. The fisherman was backing his boat and trailer toward the water, but didn’t realize there was a large drop off below the water…
DALTON, Georgia (WDEF) – Dalton Police hope you can identify a suspect who held up a clerk on January 23rd. It happened at JAS Tobacco on Fleming Street around 6:40 PM. Police say the suspect held up the clerk with a small black handgun and demanded cash from the register. He got away with around $1,800 in cash in tens…
UPDATE: The Marion County Sheriff’s Office reports that there is a person unaccounted for from the fire. They brought in divers on Friday to search the water for a possible victim. They didn’t find anyone, but called off the search early because of extreme weather conditions. The Sheriff’s Office has secured the scene for now and ask the public to…
CLEVELAND, Tennessee (WDEF) – Cleveland and Bradley County made a special dedication for a historic bridge and walking path. A steel truss bridge is the focal point on a new greenway walking-bike-jogging path. The bridge was originally built in 1878 and has now been restored. It’s the oldest documented highway steel through truss bridge built in Tennessee and, with the…
JASPER, Tennessee (WDEF) – Law enforcement have been looking for Dustin Stephens for more than a month. On Wednesday, U.S. Marshals, Drug Task Force officers and the Marion County SWAT Team got their man. Stephens has been on the run since the week before Christmas when he ran from police in Monteagle after a traffic stop. Police found he left…
DALTON, Georgia (WDEF) – The trial of a northwest Georgia mother ended before a verdict was reached this week. Instead, 48 year old Sally Ann Garcia pleaded guilty to the charges. She was accused of child molestation and incest for abusing her own child. Judge Jim Wilbanks concluded “horrific does not even begin to describe” the crimes committed against the…
DALTON, Georgia (WDEF) – Dalton Police are investigating a prescription fraud case. They say a man used a fake prescription to get a controlled substance and then returned to try it again at the same pharmacy. Investigators say the Kroger pharmacy got a faxed prescription for codeine in November. But the next day, another Kroger pharmacist from Warner Robins called…
CHATTANOOGA (WDEF) – Snow and ice did bring down some trees and power lines overnight. But the main culprit was the wind that came before them. Here is our update on the power situation on Monday afternoon. As of 3PM, the EPB reports more than a thousand customers still without power. The biggest clusters now are on Walden’s Ridge and…
CHATTANOOGA (WDEF) – In the Tennessee Valley, we saw an elevation snow overnight. While sleet, heavy rain and strong winds brought down power lines all over the area, the snow mainly affected the mountains around Chattanooga. Most of the road issues coming out from Walden Ridge and the Signal Mountain, Montlake, and Flat Top mountain were treacherous this morning. The…
CHATTANOOGA (WDEF) – The Chattanooga Motorcar Festival today announced the date for their third event next year. The next Festival will be on the weekend of October 14-16, 2022. The event returned this fall after a layoff in 2020 due to the pandemic. 20,000 people attended. This year’s edition included a Concours d’Elegance, a road rallye through the Tennessee countryside,…
DALTON, Georgia (WDEF) – Dalton police are investigating the case of a woman who withdrew $7,500 at local banks that belonged to a woman in Florida. They believe the suspect used stolen bank account information and a fake ID to steal from the Florida victim. That victim from Palm Harbor contacted Dalton Police in early November, saying the money had…
PEHLHAM, Tennessee (WDEF) – After a two year break during the pandemic, the PBS music series Bluegrass Underground has booked new taping dates next March. The series will be recorded in the underground theater at The Caverns in Grundy County. They will shoot all of Season XI in a three day taping frenzy, March 18-20 and air next fall. Despite…
Seventeen residents are displaced after a fire Tuesday night at an apartment complex on Shallowford Road.
CHATTANOOGA (WDEF) – The Chattanooga Fire Department reports that a pickup truck ran into a convenience store this morning in Hixson. It happened at the Mapco on Highway 153 at Gadd Road around 9 AM. The store was open and a was sent to the hospital with injuries. You can see from Fire Department photos that the glass windows were…
CLEVELAND, Tennessee (WDEF) – Five Bradley County residents have been arrested in connection with a narcotics investigation. The Sheriff’s Office says, after searching a home on Old Georgetown Street, authorities seized “numerous suspected fentanyl pills, methamphetamine, buprenorphine, and multiple items of drug paraphernalia.” Mason Johnson, Chelby Harris, Samantha Mowery, Angela Taylor and Malachi Akhtab were all arrested. The Sheriff’s Office…
CLEVELAND, Tennessee (WDEF) – A group of students at Cleveland State Community College have created a petition to change the laws in respect to assaulting a law enforcement K9 following the September shooting of K9 Joker. Cleveland Police’s K9 Joker was shot in the head and critically injured during a stolen vehicle foot pursuit. This group of students has reached…
It’s back in black for the Vols Saturday against Georgia. Tennessee will be in their dark mode attire for the second time this season. The Vols broke out the black uniforms against South Carolina in early October, marking only the second time in school history UT wore black. Tennessee drilled the Gamecocks 45-20 last month. Vols scored 45 last week…
CHATTANOOGA (WDEF) – Chattanooga Police have a couple of photos they would like you to look at. The are photos of the suspect video from the fatal hit and run on Friday night. A woman walking on Highway 58 around 9 PM was hit by a vehicle which then left the scene. The woman died from her injuries. Now Traffic…
CHATTANOOGA (WDEF) – Chattanooga Police are issuing video of a murder suspect from a couple of weeks ago. On October 24, D’Marquis Bell was shot outside of Bayberry Apartments in the 1100 block of Arlington Avenue. Investigators believe they have photos and video of the suspect from the murder. They say he appears to be a black male and investigators…
CHATTANOOGA (WDEF) – Chattanooga Police have new images of a suspect from a deadly shooting in Orchard Knob in September. Omar Escobar was shot outside his home in the 500 block of North Willow Street around midnight on September 27. Witnesses described the suspect as a skinny, African American male, between 5’8″-5’11.” Investigators believe the suspect is the man in…
Pelham, Tennessee (WDEF) – EDM artist Kayzo is a big fan of Halloween. So when he came to The Cavern to perform last Friday, he gave the Grundy County venue a challenge. He asked them how many jack-o-lanterns they could set up inside the underground music venue. The answer was more than 450! Management got the pumpkins from Rock Bottom…
