A Sumner County grand jury returned an indictment Tuesday charging former Hendersonville resident Tyrone Tackett with first-degree murder in the death of his wife, Salena Tackett.
Tackett has been in the Sumner County Jail on a $1 million bond since July on a solicitation to commit murder charge. Hendersonville Police Department Lt. Jim Vaughn served Tackett with the new charge Tuesday. According to Vaughn, evidence was presented to a grand jury Dec. 6. He wouldn’t disclose the evidence.
“The totality of evidence led them to believe that Salena is deceased and that Tyrone killed her,” Vaughn said.
Salena Tackett disappeared in early 2003, just a short time after the couple married. At the time, Tackett claimed his wife left the couple’s Hendersonville home with a large sum of money. Police say no one has heard from Salena Tackett since that time. Tyrone Tackett moved out of the area with the couple’s daughter soon after his wife’s disappearance.
Two Hendersonville detectives, along with officers from the Pasco County Sheriff's Department in Pasco County, Fla., arrested Tackett on July 13 and charged him with solicitation of murder. His bond was set at $1 million and he has remained in the Sumner County Jail. That charge is a Class B felony and carries an eight- to 12-year prison sentence.
Salena Tackett’s case got a fresh set of eyes when new Police Chief Mickey Miller took office in October 2010. Miller, who was a Metro Nashville homicide detective for years and helped crack the Janet March and Marcia Trimble cases, initiated a partnership with Kentucky Crime Stoppers in January. A billboard was erected on U.S. 31W South near Central Avenue in Bowling Green, Ky. to help generate leads.
“I’d heard about this case and started asking questions about it,” Miller said in January. “I've never been one to forget about a victim.”
Vaughn said on Tuesday that the publicity the case has generated helped authorities secure the murder indictment.
“She hasn’t been located and that is one of the elements that would cause a reasonable person to believe she is deceased,” he said.
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