JOHNSON CITY – An investigation by Special Agents with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and other East Tennessee law enforcement agencies has resulted in the arrest of a Sneedville man on a charge of kidnapping.                                                             

At the request of 3rd District Attorney General Dan Armstrong and the Hancock County Sheriff’s Office, the TBI began investigating an incident that took place at 1041 Vardy Blackwater Road in Sneedville on April 8th that left two people dead. Ricky Helmick, 57, and Natasha Riley, 37, were both found deceased inside the home. On April 9th, officers with the Hancock County Sheriff’s Office obtained a warrant for Ricky Helmick, 30, the son of one of the victims, on a charge of kidnapping.

On Monday afternoon, with the assistance of officers with the Hancock and Hamblen County Sheriffs’ Offices, the Tennessee Highway Patrol and marshals with the U.S. Marshals Service, Helmick was apprehended in Hamblen County and taken into custody. TBI Special Agents served the kidnapping warrant on Helmick, and he was booked into the Hamblen County Jail on a $250,000 bond. Helmick remains a person of interest in the double homicides that occurred on Friday in Hancock County.

Ricky Helmick (son)

Published by Susan Niland