| Sources |
- [S23] Atchley Funeral Home, (http://www.atchleyfuneralhome.com/), 27 Feb 2008.
Robert Edward Overton obituary
- [S106] The Mountain Press, 29 Nov 2009.
Mother continues to feel loss of son
SEVIERVILLE — For law enforcement authorities, the death of Robert Overton is a closed case.
They believe he died while trying to rob a man on Cedar Hills Drive.
For his mother, that still leaves a lot of unanswered questions — especially because authorities never interviewed the man named as a “person of interest” in her son’s death.
Overton’s body was found early on the morning of Feb. 27, 2008, outside a mobile home at 617 Cedar Hills Drive. Police believe he was shot after he went there planning to rob or confront an occupant.
“Our investigation indicates that this was an attempted home invasion by Mr. Overton,” said Bob Stahlke, public information officer for the Sevierville Police Department. “We have discussed the case with the Attorney General’s office and we do not plan to charge anyone involved at this time.”
As far as police are concerned, the case is closed, Stahlke said. Early in the investigation, they announced they were searching for a person of interest in the case, but Stahlke said that man was never interviewed by police in relation to Overton’s case.
Stahlke declined to speak further about the case. Sources close to the investigation have told The Mountain Press that police talked to several people with knowledge of the incident who led them to believe Overton had gone to the trailer with the intention of robbing an occupant.
The shot that killed Overton was fired from inside the trailer, according to authorities, and struck him in the head. They believe the shooter opened fire because he thought Overton was coming after him.
Karen Arwood has heard variations on what led to her son’s death in the year and a half since he died. They’ve left her with more questions — chiefly, what does the man who allegedly shot her son say about the incident?
That man wasn’t present when police arrived at the scene; neighbors called dispatchers after hearing gunfire and police were on the scene within minutes.
Her son had been convicted before as an accessory to a crime, and she wonders why no one could be charged in his death.
Arwood knows her son made mistakes. She acknowledges he had a criminal record and used drugs. The toxicology report from his autopsy showed he had alcohol and cocaine in his system when he died, she said.
She has heard that her son felt he’d been ripped off when he bought drugs, and was looking to confront the man who sold them.
But she said it would have been out of character for him to go looking for more than that — especially after a man he knew was armed.
He had been shot himself once before, she said, and his father died in a drug-related shooting when he was just a year old. He didn’t like guns, and she doesn’t believe he would have gone to confront an armed man alone and unarmed himself if he meant to get into a fight of any sort.
She knows her questions may never be answered now. She spent much of the time since her sons’ death looking for answers on her own. She said she’s talked to several of the people who were with her son before his death, and she’s even talked to a person who drove the alleged shooter out of town after it happened.
She went to areas where she thought she might find the shooter, or others who might know about the crime. “My daughter would call and tell me get out of there, they’re watching you,’” she said.
But for a long time, she couldn’t stop. Not until she realized the toll it was taking on her — especially as she was raising her youngest child, 15-year-old Jodi, who needed her back.
“Finally, I did a reality check and said ‘Nothing I can do will bring Robert back, and it doesn’t mean I’m giving up but (Jodi) needs me,’” she said.
She isn’t sure where things went wrong with her son. Despite his run-ins with the law, he was still the son she remembered when he was sober, she said.
“Robert was very loving,” she said. “He never met a stranger.”
She tried her best to raise him on her own after his father died.
She didn’t use drugs herself, she said, and tried to keep her children away from them.
At some point in his teens, though, he got involved with some people she would rather he hadn’t. He started using drugs. She tried to help, but there’s only so much a mother can do.
“I tired to help him before he came of age, but I failed,” she said.
“I tried to help him many, many times.”
He’d even started seeking help himself, she said. He was in community corrections for a previous crime at the time of his death. He had a habit of getting charged with violations of community corrections and probation; those mistakes kept him in the system more than the crimes he initially got charged with, she said.
Arwood had been taking him to his appointments to make sure he made them this latest time. She heard him trying to get into rehab, just a few days before his death.
“He told me when he got out (the last time), ‘Mama I’m 30 years old and I can’t live like this anymore,’” she said, her voice breaking as she recalled it. “I’ve missed too many Thanksgivings, too many Christmases.”
The people at the community corrections office were always good to him, she said, but they just didn’t have a space available for him then at any rehab center.
“He was begging, but they said, ‘We still don’t have anything,’” she said.
He was talented artist, and had been talking about starting a business with her if he could get through rehab and stay clean.
She’s been reluctant to speak to any news outlet about her sons’s death, because she didn’t want people to see Robert essentially standing accused of a crime without the opportunity to speak for himself.
She still wants her answers; it would be wrong to say she’s at peace with where things stand or with the fact that the man believed to pull the trigger has never given police his side — much less that her son never had a chance to give his.
“He was a loving child,” she said. “I’m lost without him.
“When he was taken away from here, from me, like he was, it tore me apart.”
But she’s moving forward, taking care of the rest of her family. And she knows Robert made mistakes that led to his death — chief among them getting hooked on drugs in the first place.
She hopes by talking about it, she might help others.
“My heart goes out to anyone else who’s buried a child,” she said. “You never get over it.
“Maybe it will help somebody, that’s’ just coming of age, to say ‘That could be me, I could be doing that to my mom,’” she said.
- [S84] E-Mail, Bobby L. Parrott [bobby.parrott@juno.com], 23 Mar 2012.
- [S58] Marriage Certificate.
33315 CLARENCE E. ELLIOTT CHARLOTTE ANN DOUGLAS
- [S58] Marriage Certificate.
Groom's Name Bride's First Name Bride's Maiden Name County Date of Marriage File #
MAPLES DELMAR H KAREN E [NOT GIVEN] SEVIER 05-07-1980 19585
- [S58] Marriage Certificate.
53115 DELMAR HUGH MAPLES KAREN JO ELLIOTT
- [S131] Divorce Record.
Husband's Name Wife's First Name Wife's Maiden Name County Court Date of Divorce File #
MAPLES DELMAR H KAREN J [NOT GIVEN] SEVIER CHANCERY 06-01-1990 13560
- [S58] Marriage Certificate.
Groom's Name Bride's First Name Bride's Maiden Name County Date of Marriage File #
ARWOOD RONNIE H KAREN J ELLIOTT SEVIER 02-28-1994 12311
- [S58] Marriage Certificate.
156070 RONNIE HOWARD ARWOOD KAREN JO MAPLES
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1962 - (61 years)
, d. 6 Aug 1999, Ft. Sanders Sevier County Medical CenterSevier County, Tennessee 
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