A made-up story about the killing of a man’s girlfriend led to the kidnapping and possible death of another woman. Four people have been arrested on charges related to the disappearance of Tina Walkingstick Frizsell. Law enforcement believe the burned human remains found at a property off Mulberry Road are Walkingstick’s but they are waiting for the autopsy results to confirm. (Note: in search warrants and affidavits, the missing woman is referred to as Tina Walkingstick.)
The investigation began on May 19 when Walkingstick’s half-brother, Greg Justus, reported to the Rabun County Sheriff’s office that he had not seen his sister since March 22. According to a May 20 search warrant, Justus told Capt. Marty Talley of the Rabun County Sheriff’s Office, that he spoke with Norman Peterman and that Peterman began crying while they were talking and said, “he was concerned about Tina and that something was wrong.” Walkingstick lived at Peterman’s residence, 449 Wallalieu Rd., Otto.
Justus then sent a friend, Drew Carpenter, to Peterman’s residence to talk to him. Carpenter told Justus that Walkingstick had been shot at Christopher Shields’ residence and that some girls there had seen it happen: Jessica Smith, Angie Ledford and Crystal Chastain McFarland. Carpenter also said he spoke to Keegan Phillips who said the last time he had seen Walkingstick breathing she was tied to a chair in a shed at Shields’ residence.
According to the search warrants, the alleged crimes stem from Crystal Chastain McFarland telling Walkingstick, Ledford, Peterman and Shields that Shields’ girlfriend, Tina Darnell, had been killed. “They had chopped the body up and scattered her remains across several counties in North Carolina. The story was also told that when Tina Darnell’s body was chopped up, it did not kill her, and they took the body to Lenoka Wilson to get her sewed up and put back together, and she was alive but then died so they burned the body. Crystal Chastain supposedly performed some type of séance over the body as it was being burned.”
However, Macon County Sheriff Robert Holland said Tina Darnell is alive and they have been in touch with her since the investigation began.
May 15: Kidnapping occurs
Detectives interviewed Chastain twice on May 26 – once at her residence and a second time at the Macon County Detention Center. According to a statement from Chastain, Shields kidnapped her and Walkingstick at gunpoint from Peterman’s home, where they lived, on May 15. Chastain said Shields took them to a shed on his property at 1247 S. Tryphosa Road and another woman, Angie Ledford, was already in the shed. In an interview with MCSO Capt. Dani Burrows, Ledford said Lenoka Wilson had been at the property to make sure she and Walkingstick could not leave the shed.
Chastain said she was able to escape from the shed and ran to the Piggly Wiggly in Dillard, Georgia, to get service so she could call 911. After first being connected to Rabun County dispatch, she was transferred to Macon County dispatch. Chastain said she talked to a woman, but her cell phone lost service.
A June 8 search warrant includes information from an interview with Walkingstick’s boyfriend, William Lee Swanson, who was taken into custody on misdemeanor probation violation on June 3. Swanson told detectives he received messages from Chastain on May 15 stating that Shields had taken her and Walkingstick with a gun. He said at the time he, Norman Peterman and Keegan Phillips were out of town on a job. Swanson said when they returned on May 17, Shields started an altercation with the residents at 449 Wallalieu Rd. (Peterman’s home). He said Shields kicked Phillips in the face and showed detectives a photo dated May 17 of Phillips and blood appeared to be coming from his mouth.
May 16: Victim shot
In an interview on May 20, Angie Ledford told detectives that Christopher Shields shot Walkingstick on May 16.
She said he left the body on the floor of the shed for two days and forced Jessica Smith and Dereck McCrackin to move the body to the property off Mulberry Road where it was burned.
Officials are awaiting autopsy results to confirm the identity of the remains found at the property.
May 18: Body on the floor
During an interview on May 20, Jessica Smith told detectives she had been in the shed at Shields’ residence on May 18 and saw a female’s body lying on the floor with blood coming from underneath the body. She assumed it was Walkingstick because Shields thought Walkingstick had killed his girlfriend. According to Smith’s statement in the search warrant application, “Chris confronted Tina Walkingstick about his girlfriend at Norman Peterman’s house and punched her in the face, then dragged her to his truck and took her to his residence and tied her to a chair in the shed.”
Smith told detectives when she returned to the shed at Shield’s residence on May 19, the body was no longer there, and it looked like he had tried to clean up where the body had been. Smith said the body was buried on property on Mulberry Road. She told detectives Shields “was a violent person and had a bad temper and that he always carried a gun with him.”
May 19: Held captive
Crystal Chastain said Shields returned to her residence on May 19, pointed a gun at her and raped her. She said he tied her to a chair in her bedroom, told her she could not leave, “and that the ‘elders’ had to decide her fate and that before she died, she had to have her fingers cut off.” She told detectives Shields said she would be the last one to die.
Chastain said while she was being held in her bedroom, Phillips and Peterman came into the room and Shields also held them at gunpoint and would not let them leave.
According to the report, Jessica Smith arrived at the Peterman house, held Chastain at knifepoint on the bed, and laid Shields’ gun on the bed next to her.
May 20: Suspects interviewed
On May 20, Justus called Capt. Talley and told him Smith was leaving Shields’ residence and walking down the road. Talley found Smith and contacted Capt. Dani Burrows with the Macon County Sherriff’s Office. Burrows and MCSO detectives W.R. Younce and Amber Wright met Capt. Talley and Smith at the Otto Fire Department where they gathered information from Smith.
Detectives spoke to Shields at his residence on Tryphosa Road on May 20. Shields said he had seen Walkingstick about a week before and that she sometimes came through with other people, including Norman Peterman. Shields gave consent for the detectives to search the shed.
While in the shed, the detectives did not see blood on the floor where Smith had indicated, but they did see what appeared to be blood on the bedding that was on the bed.
While Capt. Burrows and Det. Younce searched the shed, Det. Matthew Breedlove and Det. Wright stayed outside with Angie Ledford who was at the residence with Shields. Ledford told the detectives that Shields had killed Walkingstick. Ledford told the detectives to get her out of there “because she was afraid for life.” Det. Wright put Ledford in the back of Burrows’ vehicle.
After leaving Shields’ residence the detectives met at a church on Mulberry Road and recorded an interview with Ledford.
Ledford told the detectives she was sitting on the bed in the shed when Shields shot Walkingstick in the mouth on May 16. “Ledford said she began to freak out and told Mr. Shields she needed to leave, and then he pushed her against the wall on the bed and kept her from leaving and Mr. Shields told her if she tried to leave, he would shoot her.”
Ledford said Smith and Derek McCrackin came to the shed and Shields told them they were going to help him bury Walkingstick. She said they loaded Walkingstick’s body on the back of a truck and drove to property on Mulberry Road. Ledford said Smith and McCrackin were forced to help burn the body.
During a search of Shields’ truck, detectives found shovels and a black flip flop that matched the description of what Walkingstick was last seen wearing.
During the investigation, detectives filed search warrants for the Shields property at 1247 S. Tryphosa Road, Shields’ truck, property off Mulberry Road belonging to Bashey Arizona B. McCracken, and the cell phones and Facebook accounts of those allegedly involved. According to the warrants, the suspects were using Facebook messenger and text messages to communicate with each other about what had happened.
Arrests
• Christopher Shields, 44, of Otto was arrested on May 20. He faces five counts kidnapping (Walkingstick, Peterman, Phillips, Chastain, Ledford), three counts assault by pointing a gun (Peterman, Phillips, Chastain), assault and battery (Phillips) and possession of a firearm by a felon (Shields pleaded guilty to a felony fraud impersonation charge on March 2, 2007, in Garfield County, Colorado). Shields is scheduled to appear in court on Friday, July 1.
• Jessica Smith, 31, turned herself into authorities on May 23. She is charged with first degree kidnapping and assault with a deadly weapon (Chastain) and disturb/desecration of human remains (believed to be Tina Walkingstick). Smith is listed as homeless on the arrest warrant, but the booking sheet from Rabun County shows her address as Clayton.
• Derek McCrackin, 27, of Clayton was arrested May 23 and charged with desecration of a corpse.
• Lenor Lenoka Wilson, 42, of Otto, was arrested on May 24. She faces two charges of first-degree kidnapping (Walkingstick and Ledford).
All the suspects are in custody at the Macon County Detention Center except McCrackin who is being held in Rabun County.