SEVIERVILLE, Tenn. — Detectives do not have a motive for why they said Joshua Carr stabbed his mother Pam to death Wednesday. But as the search for her son continued Thursday, her longtime colleagues at the Sevierville City Hall remember the 20-year finance department veteran.
Sevier County deputies asked the public to be on the lookout for Joshua Carr, 30, who they said attacked his mother and grandmother Wednesday morning in a house on Bluff Mountain Road.
“We are incredibly shocked and saddened to hear the news of Pam Carr’s death," said Sevierville City Administrator Russell Treadway. “Pam has been a part of our family at City Hall for almost twenty years. Our hearts go out to her family and we ask that you join us by keeping them in your thoughts and prayers.”
“I have known Pam for many years both personally and professionally,” said Sevierville Mayor Robbie Fox. “Our City Family was shocked to hear of this senseless tragedy. She was a lady that was well respected by her peers and will be a great loss to the City and our community. Pam has been an integral part of the finance team at City Hall and to lose her like this seems somewhat unbelievable.”
“Pam was a person of deep faith and loved her family above all,” Finance Director Lynn McClurg said. “We will truly miss her presence, her smile and her commitment to excellence in all she did.”
Once the search for her killer began, rumors flew. Online, a false report spread of an active shooter at The Island attraction and of a shooting at the hospital.
"Any rumor we got, we addressed pretty quickly and then went back to the source of the rumor to explain that," Chief Deputy Michael Hodges said.
But there was no public statement from the sheriff's office for more than 12 hours--even as eight schools went on soft lockdown for fear the suspect may be nearby.
Hodges said the department's manpower was stretched thin.
"In a perfect world you'd like to have somebody sitting right here doing that. But that wasn't a possible yesterday given the circumstances that we're under," he said.