Suspect in Sumner County killings got probation despite threatening to 'finish the job' when he got out
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation responded to a crime scene in Sumner County on Saturday, April 27 at 5:30 pm only to find a string of bodies all suspected to be linked to one person.
The officials found four bodies in a home on Charles Brown Road after a family member who spotted the homicides called 911.
As the detectives were conducting their probe into the incident and collecting evidence from the house, they were alerted of another person who had been found critically injured in the region and was transported to the hospital.
It was revealed that the wounded person was also linked to the murdered family and was a relative of Michael Cummins — an offender on probation.
A few minutes later, the TBI reported that another body had been found in a home on Luby Brown Road and that the scenes were believed to be connected.
The investigation bureau, at 7:21, named Michael Cummins as a person of interest in the case and a manhunt was launched for him. It was reported that he was believed to be armed and spotted in the woods near the crime scene. The TBI also deployed an aircraft to assist the search for Cummins.
After over two hours of manhunt, which involved more than 100 law enforcement agents, 25-year-old Cummins was taken in custody at 10:00 pm. He was reportedly arrested in a creek bed less than a mile away from the home on Charles Brown Road after the TBI aircraft personnel identified indications of his person in the region. The county's joint SWAT Team shot Cummins during the course of his arrest and he was transported to TriStar Skyline Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries.
As the initial probe of the four bodies in the home on Charles Brown Road progressed to Sunday, authorities at 1:19 pm found a fifth body in the same house, and two hours later an additional body was discovered, taking the toll to six in the same house and one in a separate home. Cummins, by this time, had been linked to seven homicides in the region, one of the deadliest the county has ever witnessed.
The TBI identified the deceased victims on Monday as David Carl Cummins, 51, the suspect's father; Clara Jane Cummins, 44, the suspect's mother; and Charles Edward Hosale, 44, the suspect's uncle. Another family was also found dead in the same home and they were identified as Rachel Dawn McGlothlin-Pee, 43; Sapphire McGlothlin-Pee, 12, Rachel’s daughter; and Marsha Elizabeth Nuckols, 64, Rachel’s mother. Officials are currently investigating the possible connection of the second family to Michael Cummins.
The victim found in her home on Luby Brown Road was identified as Shirley B. Fehrle, 69. Fehrle, so far, has no known relations to the suspect.
Court documents filed on Monday alleged that Cummins had stolen a car when he was on the killing spree and the vehicle, which was found abandoned, was determined to belong to Fehrle.
The motive for the gruesome killings has not been established yet. However, there are indications that Cummins struggled with mental issues. Judge Dee David Gay on Monday filed a violation of probation order against Cummins for violating probation by being a suspect in the seven homicides, according to Tennessean.
According to the order, Cummins had failed to comply with the requirements to undergo a mental health evaluation and to not contact the woman involved in a previous arson conviction in 2017. This was the first violation issued against him since his probation order in the case was signed in July, 2018.
Cummins was charged on September 13, 2017 in connection to an aggravated arson case. He was sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment, however, he was placed on 10 years of probation by a Sumner County late summer after he pleaded guilty to attempted aggravated arson and aggravated assault. The house he attacked was a few feet away from the current crime scene on Charles Brown Road.
An arrest warrant stated that he had told a Sumner County Sheriff's Office deputy at the time of his 2017 arrest: "If I get out of jail, I'll go there and do it again... when I get out, I'll finish the job."
The victims found over the weekend did not include the woman in the arson case.
Court documents also alleged that Cummins, hours before his arrest, was spotted wearing a bloodstained shirt and told acquaintances that he was saving a bullet later for himself.