GREENEVILLE, Tenn. (WJHL) — Greeneville police are investigating after a body was found in an abandoned house.

The body of Caitlin Crum, 20, of Greene County, was discovered Sunday afternoon on West Barton Ridge Road, according to the Greeneville Police Department.

The body was sent to the William L. Jenkins Forensic Center for an autopsy.

Police are still investigating Crum’s cause of death.

Crum was the mother of two young daughters. Her youngest turned one year old on Monday. Her cousin Shawn Crum said Caitlin was like a sister to him.

“She always loved her kids. I know she’s looking down on them,” Shawn Crum said. “It’s just hard now to fathom her actually being gone.”

Shawn Crum said family members were notified of Caitlin’s death by the Greeneville Police Department Sunday night.

He said several circumstances in her death stand out to him and other members of the family as suspicious.

Greeneville police confirmed Caitlin’s car was left abandoned at Towering Oaks Baptist Church over a mile away from West Barton Ridge Road.

Shawn Crum said Caitlin was not known to be around that area of Greeneville and she did not like to walk long distances. He also said it was not like her to enter abandoned houses.

Ashlee Lynch, the aunt of Caitlin’s children, said it was uncommon for Caitlin to go long periods without contacting family.

“It wasn’t like her to disappear and not talk to anybody,” Lynch said.

Shawn Crum said he believes the final time anyone in the family heard from her was Tuesday last week.

Crum and Lynch both said they believe Caitlin’s body was left by someone in the abandoned house after she died.

“I don’t think for one second that she walked there,” Shawn Crum said. “Something happened and she was dumped there.”

Caitlin’s family, now dealing with the loss of a daughter and mother of two, is looking for closure.

“When I say I want justice and my family wants justice, if it is the case that her body was dumped like we all believe, we want to know who did and we want them to pay,” Shawn Crum said. “They tossed her away like trash and she was much more than that.”

Anyone with information on the case is asked to contact investigators by phone or email:

Captain Tim Davis
tdavis@greenevillepd.org
(423)787-6193

Lt. David White
dwhite@greenevillepd.org
(423)783-2834

Detective Gina Holt
gholt@greenevillepd.org
(423)783-2815