Authorities say a phone call led them to a Stoney Creek Road home, to the arrest of three people and to what an investigator said appeared to be “an essay on meth.”
Carter County Sheriff’s Sgt. Harmon Duncan said an unknown caller told him that meth was being cooked at 188 Old Stoney Creek Road, Apt. 1. Duncan, in an incident report, said investigation revealed residents of the home had made several purchases of pseudoephedrine.
Duncan said he and other CCSD officers went to the home and, after gaining permission to search the home, found a black bag he said contained items “typically used to manufacture methamphetamine.” Duncan also said two, 2-liter bottles containing white residue were found, which he said appeared to be a one-pot cook bottle.
The sergeant wrote that one of the men found at the home, Mark Glenn Holt, 43, 317 Cottage Ave., Apt. 2, Elizabethton, told another officer the bottles and contents of the black bag were his, and that the others at the residence were not responsible for the meth lab.
Duncan, however, disagreed.
“Considering that the act of methamphetamine manufacture is an involved process which releases toxic chemicals into the atmosphere, creates a strong odor, especially in a confined space,” Duncan said, along with other factors, that it was his belief that the residents “were aware of and permitted Holt to manufacture.”
Holt was arrested and charged with promotion of methamphetamine manufacture and initiation of a process to manufacture methamphetamine. Duncan said when Holt was searched, a container was found with about 1 gram of what he said Holt identified as methamphetamine.
Georgetta Marie Lyons, 44, 188 Old Stoney Creek Road, Apt. 1, Elizabethton, who told Duncan that she had no knowledge of a meth lab in her home, was charged with promotion of methamphetamine manufacture and maintaining a dwelling where narcotics are sold. David Earnest Lyons, also of 188 Old Stoney Creek Road, Apt. 1, was charged with promotion of methamphetamine manufacture and maintaining a dwelling where narcotics are sold.
The report said Holt told Duncan that he was a friend of David Lyons and was staying at the home.
Duncan said a letter found in the bedroom used by Holt “appeares to be an essay on meth with emphasis on how not to get caught obtaining ingredients, referring to smurf guidelines.”