Vigilantes Torch Home, Kill Innocent Woman

Police Say Two Men Set Fire To House Of Child Porn Suspect, Whose Wife Dies

(AP)  Everybody in this little mountain community knew that Timothy Carl Chandler had been arrested on child pornography charges. It was in the newspaper and all over the TV news.

Two of Chandler's neighbors decided to do something about it, police say. They're accused of trying to scare him off by setting fire to his tiny house tucked away in a hardscrabble Appalachian hollow.

Chandler, 53, escaped from the flames. But his wife was killed in what authorities are calling an example of vigilante justice.

"I really wish it wasn't me who got out," Chandler told Knoxville television station WBIR. "I wish it was her. She didn't deserve that."

Robert "Bobby" Bell, a 37-year-old construction worker, and Gary Lamar Sellers, a 39-year-old coal-mining equipment mechanic, are jailed on $1 million bond, charged with first-degree murder and arson.

After losing all his possessions in the Sept. 2 fire, Chandler was living in a Knoxville homeless shelter. His attorney, public defender Larry Bryant, said Chandler expects to enter a plea next month to charges he downloaded more than 100 pornographic pictures of young girls.

His mother-in-law found some of the pictures on a disk he had given her to copy computer programs in May. She tipped off police, and Chandler was arrested Aug. 20. Released on $100,000 bond, he came home a few days before the fire.

Sellers and Bell told police they did not intend for anyone to die. They just wanted to get Timothy Chandler out of the neighborhood because he was "a pervert," Chief Deputy Bill Lane said.

Sellers admitted driving the pickup truck used that night, but he claimed Bell set the fire, according to an affidavit. After lighting the blaze, the pair "drove to a close location where both men watched the residence burn."

Bell "feels like it was a very unfortunate incident, just like everybody else," said his court-appointed lawyer, Lief Jeffers. "This was not anything that was intended by any of the parties."

Sellers' attorney Jimmy Logan did not return a call for comment.

The fire is one of many examples of suspected vigilantism against sex offenders, ranging from harassment and arson to more violent crimes. A Nova Scotia man used Maine's sex offender registry last year to find and fatally shoot two registered sex offenders. Two convicted child rapists were killed in Washington state.

Helenwood, some 15 miles south of the Kentucky border, is a mountain community of about 800 people with an average household income of $17,700 - less than half the state average.

The Chandlers and both suspects all lived on Butler Lane, a twisting one-lane country road that runs past small fields, weathered houses, outbuildings and trailers, and rusting farm machinery. Homes are clustered so closely together that neighbors can keep an eye on each other from their back porch swings.

Oma Butler lives on a hill overlooking the now-charred one-bedroom home, which she rented to the Chandlers. She knows everyone involved and blamed the fire on a combination of alcohol, drugs and "no sense."

The Chandlers were a little secretive, Butler recalled, and covered their windows with plastic bags. But they were good renters for nearly eight years.

"They have always been real nice to me," she said. Timothy "seemed the happiest guy when I would see him."

Records indicate Chandler served 18 months in prison in Ohio for a 1990 conviction for gross sexual imposition, which typically involves fondling. But he's had no problems since.

Bell and Sellers have had frequent run-ins with the law over relatively minor offenses, including drinking and driving on a revoked license.

Detective Don Laxton said several people were "hollering names and so forth" outside the Chandlers' house a few hours before the fire began.

Butler didn't think anything of the noise then, but awoke later to the sound of a truck spinning its wheels "like it was in a deep mud hole." She saw the red pickup drive to a nearby hill, park and turn off its lights.

Soon after, her son came running in. "Mom, mom, the house is on fire!" he yelled. The house's porch "was burning from one end to the other. It was a-flaming," she said.

Her son ran to the house. He smashed a window to get Chandler out. Then they broke open a door so Chandler could race inside for his wife. She was unconscious when Chandler brought her out. He tried CPR, but Melissa "Missy" Chandler, 37, died at the emergency room.

[cepe10-2009]

Mother-in-law kills here own daughter over 100 nudie pictures... how fitting. hope she feels really good about it.

[xzavierbrown]

Posted by socrates392 at 11:52 PM : Sep 15, 2007
+ report abuse


*****

please grace us with what is "pulp fiction". I am sorry to even consider having my own interpretation..but go right ahead..

[toolmangler-2009]

You would not believe it but an accusation is enough to have you listed as a se x predator or offender, it will be on your record for the rest of your life, yes even if you are never charged. I have seen it happen to others, even the police will tell you that if you ask them straight up.

[freedomluvr]

For those of you supporting murder - remember that many of these *** offenders LIVE with wives and children. You don''t even know the age of the "children" - in those photos. They could have been 17 year old girls for all you know. How many of you know the age of the "chicks" you view when you check out porno? Do you know for sure that the website isn''t lying to you when they say they''re over 18? How many of those websites are set up by police looking for an easy sting? This too has happened and continues to happen. The news reported no specific age of those in the photos. The law is vague, the reporters are vague and America jumps quickly onto the bandwagon of assuming the worst option first. AND YOU SUPPORT MURDER! WHAT DOES THAT SAY ABOUT YOU?

[cyberdjs4]

Samual L. Jackson''s charater would utter that ridiculous passage just before he''d kill someone.

It goes to show that Man can justify anything in the name of religion.
Nothing is taboo anymore.

[socrates392]

Posted by xzavierbrown at 10:39 PM : Sep 15, 2007

Dude, have you actually seen that movie? I don''t think you understood it very well if you did.

[tmchristian1]

Ironic isn''t it. His mother-in-law finds the porn on a disk he gives her and now her daughter is dead.

[afmca]

There are two really dumb southern bubbas. The pervert is still alive, the innocent wife is dead, and they are heading to prison. Don''t know whether either had families, but if they do - hope your wife and kids get along without you for the next 30 years.

[Krazcarl]

I had a lady friend once that''s dad molested her and her siblings and mother caimed she never knew I asked her her opinion she saids she had to it went on over years{he went to prison} you got some sorry excuse of a man playing happy jack on the web all the you should be curious. Most of these women feel trapped I guess. And this he didn''t molest anyone he bought pictures of girls that were victumized, children don''t volenteer for this he knows it if he hadn''t victumized he was fishing. Have another FORMER lady friend that had evidence and stayed with the guy cause she''s alcholic and he lets her drink her way to me this is accessory after the fact. NO this does not justify a firey death but a lot of these ladies knowq more than there admiting to.

[formrusmcsgt]

"Sellers and Bell told police they did not intend for anyone to die. They just wanted to get Timothy Chandler out of the neighborhood because he was "a pervert," Chief Deputy Bill Lane said."

It is Sellers and Bell who will be leaving the neighborhood now for being morons.