CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. \u2013 Authorities have confirmed that a body found near Chattanooga, Tenn., is that of murder victim Richard Russell.<\/p>\n
Shortly after 1:30 p.m. today, investigators from the Chattanooga Police Department advised Logan County Sheriff Andy Smith that a body found along Lightfoot Mill Road in Chattanooga this past Saturday has been positively identified as that of Russell, who along with his wife, Gladis, has been missing from the couple\u2019s home in that Ohio county since February 16.\u00a0Dental records provided by Ohio authorities to Chattanooga investigators were used to make the identification. Sheriff Smith noted that the Russells were most likely taken from their home by murder suspect Samuel Littleton, then placed inside the trunk of their 2004 Mercury Marquis, where they remained until their bodies were discarded. Now that Russell\u2019s body has been located in Chattanooga, it is believed that the body of his wife is somewhere in the general vicinity.<\/p>\n
Ohio investigators learned during an interview with Littleton that he recalled exiting off I-75, traveling for a period of time on a paved road, then turning on a side road made of sand, where he placed the body of Gladis Russell in what he described as a \u201cwhite, glowing cotton field.\u201d<\/p>\n
Littleton stated that he could see that the sand road appeared to go up an extreme incline, possibly up a large hill. However, due to the presence of a vehicle traveling towards him from a distance away, Littleton hurried back to his vehicle and traveled along the same paved road back towards I-75. He then drove through \u201ca low income area\u201d where he discarded the body of Mr. Russell.<\/p>\n
Littleton reportedly returned to I-75 at some point and was eventually captured in West Virginia.<\/p>\n
Investigators are asking anyone living in the southern Tennessee and northern Georgia to check their property, especially areas that match the above description, for anything unusual or items possibly related to this case.<\/p>\n
Authorities stress that, if residents of the area find anything, they should contact their local police agency or sheriff\u2019s office and request that Ohio law enforcement be contacted.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe sincerely appreciate the investigative assistance of all fellow law enforcement agencies throughout this investigation, and it is our hope that by working together with our media contacts and the citizens of Tennessee and Georgia, we can bring Gladis Russell home, along with her husband Richard, to their families back in Ohio,\u201d Sheriff Smith said.<\/p>\n
Those wanting to contact the Ohio investigation directly can call a nationwide toll-free telephone number: 866.693.9171.\u00a0Those with information on the Russells or Littleton are asked to contact the investigation as soon as possible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. \u2013 Authorities have confirmed that a body found near Chattanooga, Tenn., is that of murder victim Richard Russell. Shortly after 1:30 p.m. today, investigators from the Chattanooga Police Department advised Logan County Sheriff Andy Smith that a body found along Lightfoot Mill Road in Chattanooga this past Saturday has been positively identified as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-11 01:09:38","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3942\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}