The house may be gone, but homicide investigators remember well the crimes committed inside the Cooter residence in Greeneville.
Someone targeted Elizabeth Cooter, 78, and her nephew, Roger Aiken, in March 2014 inside the woman's West Main Street home. The killer also set the house on fire, perhaps to disguise what they'd done.
In the nearly nine years since, police haven't been able to gather enough information to crack the case.
The Tennessee Bureau of Information this week announced it's hoping the public will come forward with information that could lead to a break in the case. If you have any information -- and investigators are confident people have leads that can help them out -- you're asked to call 1-800-TBI-FIND or to email your tips in to TipsToTBI@tn.gov.
Greeneville Police Department Lt. Eddie Key was driving by the morning of March 23, 2014, when he spotted fire coming from Cooter's home. It was a Sunday morning, cool, with a light rain falling.
No one answered when Key knocked on the door. He pushed the door open and saw Aiken lying unconscious on the living room floor.
The center of the home collapsed on itself from the fire with Cooter still inside. According to the TBI, the investigation would later show they'd both been the victims of a deliberate attack.
Someone then set the white house on fire.
Cooter was pronounced dead at the scene. Aiken died a couple days later from his injuries at a North Carolina hospital.
The burned house sat empty at least two years. Neighbors complained about its condition. Eventually it was torn down.
TBI Special Agent Chris Wilhoit said authorities are confident the victims were "targeted."
The TBI thinks people may have passed by the Cooter house the morning of the crimes and seen something of significance, even if it didn't appear so at the time. Even the smallest piece of evidence could help investigators make progress, the TBI said.
