We had heard a report on TV about a body being
found that was badly burned on the railroad
tracks, but never did we ever connect the
two.
We were two blocks from where she was.
If they'd have just knocked on the door, walked
the streets.
We don't know if we could have saved her life,
but she wouldn't have sat there for two days
in the trash can.
Anybody that knew Chris was his friend, and
he had a smile that everybody just loved.
Chris was an excellent baseball player, good
boy, good kid, worked hard, had a lot of skills.
Could have went on and played further if he
had chose to.
She was a typical girl.
I mean she wasn't perfect, nobody's perfect.
But she never gave us any trouble.
Always did well in school.
She was beautiful but what made her even more
beautiful was the fact that she was not stuck
on herself.
Channon Christian was a 21-year-old student
at the University of Tennessee.
Chris Newsom was a 23-year-old trim carpenter.
Both were still living at home and had just
begun to date in November of 2006.
One Saturday evening they planned to go to
a birthday party for a friend, but instead
they decided to stay at Channon's best friend's
apartment to watch a movie.
12:35 the phone rang that night and he spoke
to, spoke to her on the phone.
She called to check in.
To let us know that she was coming home rather
than staying at Kara's that night and, I sat
up and she never came home.
We had not seen him since Saturday night,
which, it's not unusual, he was 23 years old
and he kind of came and went, you know, with
not a whole lot of restrictions at that age
and the way we discovered he was missing was
Channon's mother, Dana called, and said that
Channon didn't show up for work.
In the early morning hours of January 7th
2007.
Chris Newsom and Channon Christian were carjacked
and abducted from the Washington Ridge Apartments.
They were held captive in a house on Chipman
Street near the waste connections building.
Both were brutally raped and beaten.
Chris was led to the railroad tracks near
the house, where he was shot three times,
twice in the back and once to the head, execution
style.
Then his body was set on fire.
On Monday a body found on the railroad tracks
was identified as Chris by a homicide detective
who had known him through his son.
Detective Snodderly says it's Chris, and we
asked well how do you know and he said, "I
recognized him by his eyes".
Everything fell apart at that moment.
All of his friends walked in, there must have
been 15 or 20 of them come in all at the same
time and that just gave me such an eerie feeling.
So, I thought why isn't Chris with him and
it just really put chills through me.
I thought you know here's all his friends
and he's not here.
That was one of the hardest moments.
I got a phone call.
And it said, "Man.
There is something going on up here at this
house by the trash place."
And then I got another call that said that
they thought that they had found her because,
or somebody, because they were bringing in.
There was an ambulance that had just gotten
in.
Channon Christian was kept alive inside the
house for several hours as her captors repeatedly
raped and tortured her.
A chemical substance was poured down her throat
and on her body in an attempt to destroy DNA
evidence.
She was then bound, put inside five trash
bags and then stuffed inside a trash can where
she was left to suffocate.
She died with her eyes open.
Five people have been indited in these crimes.
Do you know how quick to Channon and Chris
that carjacking went down.
You come down your stairs and you go get in
the car or crank in your car and your boyfriend
gets inside the door there.
You're gonna get him a little sugar.
Boom!
There's a gun in the back of your head and
some big sucker gets in your forerunner and
puts a gun on you, just like that, it's done.
I've covered cops, courts and crime in East
Tennessee for about two decades now, and this
case is unique for a number of reasons.
It is unusual to have two victims.
It is unusual to have a stranger crime in
the sense that the victims and the defendants
did not know each other.
The level of violence is not as unusual but
a bit unusual for the length of time that
that violence was carried out.
It's unusual in how it's gripped the community's
attention, and I think part of that is because
you had two kids who were from fairly well-to-do
families, who were not doing anything wrong.
People look at this case and they think that
could be me or that could be my kids and so
it touches people in that way.
Waste connections which is located next to
the house on Chipman Street, bought the property
where these crimes occurred.
In October of 2008 the house was demolished
in a memorial raise to Channon and Chris.
There 's been an outpouring of community support
surrounding this crime.
In the two and a half years since it occurred
there have been several vigils, fundraisers
and support groups formed.
I have never done anything like this before.
Everybody has someone in their family that
dies, but they don't die like these families'
children did.
My heart just felt for them.
We don't know what it's like, what they're
going through and anything that we can do.
We've got a whole bunch of cards from people
that don't know us, that just have to say
something, and want to say something, you
know that they're praying for us and there
has been an awful lot of support that we really
appreciate.
It really helps us get through.
We took Channon just like Gary takes our children
as part of our family.
So we have lost one of our children.
The Channon Gail Christian foundation memorializes
Channon through a golf tournament and scholarship
each year.
The scholarship is awarded to a female Farragut
high school student attending the University
of Tennessee as Channon did.
We've had three golf tournaments in her name
and we've given two scholarships.
Every recipient so far has been so appreciative.
A little league baseball tournament in Chris's
honour is held each year in the Hall's community,
and a memorial scholarship is given annually
to a graduating Hall's high school student.
He was honored at the baseball park, at the
Hall's high school baseball park.
We put a plaque up in his honour.
We give a scholarship in his name every year.
And that will continue as long as we're here.
The online community at knoxnews.com responds
with an outpouring of comments every time
the News Sentinel publishes a story about
this crime.
Many have voiced frustration and indignation
over the perceived lack of national media
coverage.
That's not entirely true.
There has been some coverage.
CNN did a piece.
Fox News did some reporting.
Although this case is shocking to us, and
certainly unfamiliar territory for East Tennessee,
it is not necessarily something that hasn't
occurred similar in other parts of the country.
They raped them, they tortured them, they
beat them, then they killed them.
It's not a normal murder.
Certainly there has been discussion among
members of various groups, particularly white
supremacy groups trying to use the case and
the lack of coverage as indication that it's
because you have black suspects and white
victims.
I have heard that there has been some people
that have talked about how, you know, it was
a racially motivated crime, and I think that
is a bad thing because that just creates more
racism and intolerance and I guess strife
between in the community.
I don't think it had anything with race, I
think it was just, that's who they saw and
they went after them.
From what we've read and what we know about
some of them because some of the people in
the community know some of the suspects, that
they've always had a life of crime, they were
always unstable, and they were always into
something, and I do believe firmly, and some
of the people that I run along with that,
when you practice a lot of deceit, and when
you're involved in a lot of things like that,
it's going to catch up with you and I think
it caught up with them.
I don't believe that it had a negative effect
on the African-American community as a whole.
Because the African-American community is
not responsible for the acts of a few individuals
who went past the bounds of human decency.
Whether we want to recognize it or not, a
case like this sometimes exposes veins of
racism that we kept hidden.
I think a lot of people don't believe that
things like that can happen here to them,
and when they realize, you know, there's monsters
among us, they're coming in here.
They want some protection.
They want to know what to do to keep that
from happening to them or their kids.
Whenever we get a chance, we haven't had the
chance yet but we are going to go get gun
permits and carry a gun also.
I just feel like, you know, you really need
one now for security and especially if there's
a home invasion or something you really need
to be able to protect yourself now.
We started a class just for women, called
Women on Target and it's full almost every
month.
Most of the people that I know have carried
permit.
But they didn't use to.
They didn't then, they do now.
I am not talking about four, five.
I'm talking about a hundred or more.
Everybody I know.
Everybody that's close to us.
I'm more cautious about what I do and where
I go and my surroundings.
I'm very scared of like going out somewhere
that I'm not aware of where I am.
Since it happened, you know, you always have
to be leery of everywhere you go anyway.
So you know, you gotta be leery about people
you meet and stuff that you do.
I have a daughter and I wouldn't want any.
I mean, as a result of that whole thing, I'm
checking up on her everyday.
The Christian and Newsom families have yet
to grieve their loss.
Instead, much of their time is spent spending
in courtrooms.
They have committed to being present during
every step of the trial process for each of
the 5 suspects.
Still the memories of their children bring
them strength and fire in their determination.
Two weeks before this happened, Chris had
that motorcycle that time and he loved it.
He rode it all the time, and we were always
afraid for him when he rode the motorcycle.
We didn't want anything to happen, and he
knew that we were scared about him riding
it, and he called me one afternoon and said,
"Mom, I've sold that bike" and I said, "You
have Chris?" and I said, "why did you do that?"
and he said, "Because I want a life.", and
that just haunts me now that he said that
and two weeks later, here he is dead.
It just haunts me.
I'd be sitting in that chair and she would
come, I bet a thousand times.
And slide right over the arm of that chair
and sit in my lap.
She was tall, long legged, her feet still
dragging on the ground.
But she would sit in my lap, put her arm around
me and look at me a certain way, "Daddy".
And I would get this feeling that would come
over me like, "This is gonna cost me."
If I sit down in that chair and shut my eyes,
I can feel her do it.
And it sure feels good.
And when I open them, I got a rage in me you
wouldn't believe.
A hate in me that ain't normal.
We still yet have to deal with it on our own
and that is something we face day to day.
We can't bring her back.
Just always remember to tell your children
that you love them, your family that you love
them.
Because you never know when it's going to
be the last time you get to say those words.
I was grateful enough to tell her that I loved
her the day she walked out that door.
And her Daddy got to tell her he loved her
that night he talked to her.
Because that was one thing that we always
did, we let our kids know how much we love
them, and to be careful.
And you just never know when it's the last
time.
