What started as a routine traffic stop ended in Overton County Sheriff’s Department possibly solving more than 10 burglary cases over the last weekend of December.

According to an arrest report from Deputy Maggie Luczenczyn, she initiated a traffic stop on a black 2003 Honda Civic that did not make a complete stop at the stop sign at the intersection of Old Celina Road and Celina Highway in Allons at approximately 8:35 p.m. Thursday, December 26. Driving that car was Melea Diana Murphy, 23, of Ledbetter Lane, Allons, the report said. Listed as a passenger was Terry Lee Flowers, 24, of West Main Street, Livingston.

“Upon initial contact with Ms. Murphy, I noticed that she and Mr. Flowers both were not wearing their seatbelts,” Luczenczyn’s narrative said. “I also noticed that Ms. Murphy had a white pasty substance around the corners of her mouth as well as inside her mouth that was foaming out as she spoke.

“Ms. Murphy was very fidgety, spoke rapidly with slurred speech, and fumbled to find her driver’s license, insurance, etc.,” the narrative continued.

Luczenczyn reportedly asked Murphy to step out of the vehicle so a field sobriety test could be initiated.

“Just as I started the field sobriety tests, Deputy Jonathan Stout arrived to assist me on the traffic stop and advised me that there was a pistol laying on the shoulder of the road behind my patrol car,” Luczenczyn said. The pistol was secured, and the sobriety tasks were administered to Murphy, according to the narrative, which said the Glock Model 26 9mm pistol was believed to be stolen in a theft that occurred on Christmas Day. The pistol reportedly was sent to the Tennessee Crime Lab for fingerprinting.

Murphy, meanwhile, failed her sobriety test and was arrested and charged with DUI first offense, the report said. Flowers was issued a seatbelt ticket and waited at the scene of the traffic stop for someone else to drive the Honda Civic back to Ledbetter Lane.

Luczenczyn and OCSD Sgt. Robert Garrett later took the pistol to an Old Celina Road residence where its owner did positively identify it as being one that was stolen from his vehicle on Christmas day, the narrative said. That victim reportedly told Garrett and Luczenczyn about a blue and silver parka that was stolen in the same theft.

“I instantly remembered that Ms. Murphy was wearing a coat that matched the description of the blue/silver parka when I arrested her for DUI,” Luczenczyn said in her report. She said she went to Overton County Jail and retrieved the garment from Murphy’s belongings and brought it back to the victim, who she said did identify it as the one stolen.

On that evidence, a search warrant was obtained for Murphy’s residence on Ledbetter Lane and executed Friday, December 27. The warrant execution returned “numerous items” from the Old Celina Road case as well as “numerous items relating to at least ten (10) other burglaries along with a large amount of narcotics,” Luczenczyn’s narrative said.

Flowers allegedly was found in an upstairs bedroom of the residence, “where most of the stolen items were found,” the report said. He was arrested and transported to Overton County Jail on charges of auto burglary, the narrative said. Murphy, who was still being held at the jail for her earlier DUI charge, was also charged with auto burglary.

Murphy made bond on the same day the search warrant was executed, while Flowers remained in jail. Luczenczyn was notified on that date that Flowers had called Murphy on the inmate phone in the jail’s cooking area. Corrections Officer Wayne Rake and Sgt. Jannette Cole reportedly told Luczenczyn they had heard Flowers talking about a toboggan containing narcotics that law enforcement may not have found while executing the warrant.

Phone calls at the jail are monitored, and inmates are made aware of that fact each time a call is made, Luczenczyn’s narrative said.

“Therefore I arranged to listen to the recordings of the phone conversations that Terry Flowers made while on the inmate booking phone,” Luczenczyn said.

Upon listening to the phone call, Luczenczyn said she heard Flowers asking Murphy about a rifle and green ammunition box he had placed in the attic of the home on Ledbetter Lane. She also said she heard Flowers talking with Murphy about the toboggan, and heard him ask Murphy to bring him a Suboxone strip to the jail.

“I do know that Suboxone is a Schedule Three (3) controlled substance and that bringing any medicine and smuggling it into the jail is a criminal offense,” Luczenczyn said. Furthermore, she said, she knew that during the search warrant execution, OCSD had not recovered a toboggan as described in the phone call. Also, she said Flowers was a convicted felon, and his possession of a firearm would have been against the law. For those reasons, Luczenczyn said she obtained a second search warrant for the Ledbetter Lane residence.

When she and Garrett returned to the residence on Saturday, December 28, to execute that warrant, “Murphy answered the door,” the narrative said.

“Before Sgt. Robert Garrett or myself could say anything, Ms. Murphy stated that she was so glad that we were there because she has been gathering items from around the house that she knew were stolen,” the report continued.

Murphy had allegedly retrieved the rifle, a .50-caliber Tompson Center muzzle loader, as well as the green box that contained “miscellaneous ammunition” and set them in the upstairs bedroom. Also recovered in the second search was the toboggan, “which contained several pills believed to be morphine,” according to the narrative.

Garrett then reportedly crawled into the attic space where Murphy had stated she retrieved the rifle and ammunition box. There, the narrative said, he found numerous items believed to be stolen, including items identified by the victim in the Old Celina Road case and medication believed to have been stolen from a cart at Livingston Regional Hospital. Among the medications were a vial of epinephrine, an empty box of lidocaine, a plastic container with three vials of narcan, and one box of sodium bicarbonate injection, according to a follow-up report by Garrett.

Garrett’s investigation into the medications found LRH did have a theft from a cart between the dates of Monday, November 25 and Wednesday, November 27. Furthermore, two empty pill bottles were recovered in the second search, Garrett said, with Murphy being the listed recipient of both prescriptions.

The prescription was for Hydrocodone and the physician was Dr. R. Fields, according to Garrett’s report, which said one bottle was filled on Tuesday, November 26. The other bottle was filled on Wednesday, November 27 for the exact same prescription at the same pharmacy, Garrett’s narrative said.

“Dr. Fields was not available at the time of my investigation, but I did speak with the attending ER physician who stated to me that at no time would any doctor prescribe the same prescription two days in a row.

“I therefore suspect prescription fraud on behalf of Melea Murphy. Charges resulting from this investigation will be presented to the Overton County Grand Jury,” the narrative said.

Luczenczyn’s report said she obtained and served warrants on both Flowers and Murphy for criminal conspiracy to enter contraband into the jail, and Murphy was transported back to the jail on Saturday, December 28.

“All other charges on Melea Diana Murphy and Terry Lee Flowers, Jr. will be presented to the Overton County Grand Jury at a later date,” Luczenczyn’s narrative concluded.