Feet seen sticking out from under mattress lead to homicide charges, TN officials say

Deputies responding to a tip about a killing found feet sticking out from under a mattress near a camper in Tennessee, authorities said.

When they moved the mattress, they found the body of 56-year-old Bruce Allen Morton covered by a blanket and a piece of wood, according to the office of Chris Stanford, the district attorney general for the 31st Judicial District of Tennessee.

Now, 45-year-old Nina Judkins and 54-year-old David Alexander face charges of criminal homicide and abuse of a corpse, prosecutors said.

Deputies with the Warren County Sheriff’s Department received a 911 call on March 14 from a person who said that the pair had confessed to killing Morton and hiding his body under a mattress, authorities said.

Investigators headed to a rural property and found a mattress outside Morton’s camper with human feet sticking out from the side, according to the district attorney general.

Based on the condition of his body, Morton appeared to have been dead there for several hours, and he didn’t have a pulse by the time deputies arrived, prosecutors said.

Judkins was taken into custody and told investigators that the killing stemmed from a belief that “Morton had stolen an item of personal property,” authorities said.

Warren County is about a 75-mile drive southeast from Nashville.