KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Knoxville Police said it located two dead bodies inside the abandoned Knoxville College on Sunday.
According to KPD, after an unrelated fire was extinguished by Knoxville Fire on Sunday morning, police responded to a call of two dead bodies inside Knoxville College. Officers located the bodies, a man and a woman, in a building separate from where the fire happened.
On July 20, they identified the bodies as Nora Vick, 21, and William Trollinger, 58. KPD also said the Medical Examiner's Office had not yet officially determined the causes of death, but it is suspected they were drug-related. Toxicology reports are pending.
They also said the bodies were found "in the building closest to Wesley House."
When KFD arrived on the scene, Mark Wilbanks, Knoxville Fire communications officer, said they had a small fire in one of the dormitory rooms in one of the former dorm buildings.
"For this property, we've been here a few times for persons that are illegally trespassing on the property that for various reasons have started fires sometimes in the wintertime, it's been for warming fires, occasionally, it's cooking fires, and they get out of control," Willbanks said.
KFD was able to get in and put the fire out with no reported injuries, but they don't have any information as far as who was involved or what could have caused it.
KFD reported in 2022 that Knoxville College had seen a rise in trespassing calls, with some fires in the past originating from "warming fires," fires set to keep people staying inside the building warm. According to Wilbanks, KFD has responded to calls at Knoxville College four times in 2023 so far.
"The rooms that are in the dorms are our typical size of a dormitory room, they're not very large," he said. "And inside of that room, there was trash that was burning, I believe part of a mattress was burning in this particular instance. So it's stuff that people have brought into the building from outside the property."
Knoxville Fire often responds to various calls for the property. Wilbanks said they can be from medical calls to fires. In the past year, they've been there about seven to eight times for fire calls.
One of the biggest concerns is firefighter safety because bring stuff onto the property that doesn't belong there, and they increase the fire load within the building.
"The biggest risk is if we came over here at night and there were multiple people inside the building and we had to search in the dark, visibility's lower, maybe heavier smoke conditions, so potentially someone could get hurt or injured," Wilbanks said. "Not only our firefighters but those that are on the property that shouldn't be here, and that's with any property that's abandoned within the city."
Wilbanks said they've found things like propane tanks, multiple mattresses and a lot of trash.
"Knoxville College has worked very hard to do that they put up fencing and they've done a lot of things to increase their security presence. However, people still enter the proper property on a regular basis," he said.
Knoxville College is currently undergoing a process to reclaim its accreditation as a historically Black college. The university closed its doors back in 2015.