Detectives await autopsies in Bradley County slayings

Friday, January 1, 1904

photo Employees of the Bradley County Medical Examiner's Office remove a body from 325 Baker Bridge Road in Cleveland on Friday afternoon. A triple homicide was reported to have taken place at the home just before 7 a.m.

Detectives from the Bradley County Sheriff's Office traveled to Knoxville on Saturday to observe autopsies on three victims of what police called a double-murder-suicide on Friday, a spokesman said.

Meanwhile, the lone survivor of the murderous shooting spree remained at Erlanger hospital. His condition was unavailable Saturday night.

Sheriff's spokesman Bob Gault said Saturday that he wasn't sure when the autopsies would be performed on Charles Boling Sr., 67; his wife, Gail Boling, 65; and their son, Charles Jr., 47, at the state forensic center.

"I know there was a detective or two that were going up [to Knoxville], so as far as I know they're doing them today," Gault said.

Investigators believe the elder Boling shot the other three, then himself, after an argument with his wife Thursday night. Officials said Gail Boling had left her home and gone to her son's house to spend the night.

Deputies responding to a 911 call placed at 6:58 a.m. Friday found the Bolings dead and Charles Jr.'s partner, Kenneth Kilgore, shot multiple times but still alive.

Sheriff's spokesman Bob Gault said Saturday that investigators had finished collecting evidence and searching Boling Jr.'s property on Baker Ridge Road in northeast Bradley County where the shootings took place.

Gault said he didn't know whether Boling Sr. had come to his son's house with murder on his mind or whether he had brought a weapon with him.

Investigators had said several weapons were found in the house, but Gault said Saturday that "I'm not sure if they've determined which weapon was used in the shootings." He said the autopsies might help with that determination.

This is the second multiple homicide in Bradley County this year.

On April 19, Charles "Eddie" and Deborah Phillips were shot to death outside their home near Charleston, Tenn. Aaron Lawson, the father of the Phillipses' 11-year-old granddaughter, has been charged with two counts of murder.

Investigators said the Phillipses and Lawson had argued about custody of the child.