Draft:Killing of Tara Cole

Writing an outline for this article.

Primary Subjects: Killing of Tara Cole and Tara Denise Cole Memorial Bench

On August 11, 2006, Tara Denise Cole, a 32-year-old Black woman who was homeless, was killed in Nashville, Tennessee, by Timothy Webber, a 21-year-old white man, and Josh Dotts, a 22-year-old white man. Webber and Dotts attacked Cole, who was sleeping on a dock at Riverfront Park, rolled her in her blanket, and pushed her into the Cumberland River, where eventually she drowned.

Earlier, on the evening of August 11th, Webber and Dotts were drinking with friends at a bar in Lebanon, Tennessee, when they decided to drive to Nashville to meet girls. In interviews with the Metro Nashville Police Department, friends of the suspects indicated that Webber and Dotts had come downtown with intentions to harass and assault people who spent their nights sleeping on downtown streets. Upon arriving at Riverfront Park, they verbally harassed and physically assaulted sleeping homeless individuals who were on the dock. Upon noticing Cole sleeping there as well, Webber and Dotts dared each other to push Cole into the water. Initially, Webber and Dotts each identified the other as the one who pushed Cole into the water, but police later concluded that it was Webber who jumped over the railing and pushed Cole.

After being pushed into a river, according to a witness, Tara Cole screamed "Help me, God! Help me, God!" At a preliminary grand jury hearing, witness Timothy Holder, who was also sleeping along the dock, testified that he jumped into the water to save her, but due to the current and Cole's panic, they both went under the water. He also testified that while another man was able to rescue him, Cole had already been submerged. Cole's body was not recovered until twelve days later.

Both men were arrested on August 24th and charged with criminal homicide in Cole's death and with aggravated assault on Jessie Masters, another homeless man who was struck in the face earlier on the night of Cole's death.

In [insert month and year], Webber accepted a plea deal from the prosecution, subsequently pleading guilty to second-degree murder. He received a 17-year sentence, which he received on [insert date]. Dotts, not implicated in assisting Webber in pushing Cole into the water, pleaded guilty to the facilitation of second-degree murder. On [insert date], he received an eight-year sentence, becoming eligible for parole after serving 30 percent of his term.

Tara Denise Cole, a 32-year-old Black woman born on November 25, 1973, in Humboldt, Tennessee moved to Elgin, Illinois, with her family at the age of 7 months. She attended and graduated from Larkin High School, and was known for her love of music and writing, aspiring to create plays and poetry. Described by her stepfather as 'happy-go-lucky,' and by extended family members as a 'happy, caring person,' she began experiencing bipolar disorder in her early twenties.

On August 21, 2006, ten days after Cole was last seen in the water heading toward a nearby barge anchored at Riverfront Park, her body was recovered. Cadaver dogs from Memphis guided searchers to her body beneath the bridge.

Controversy arose following this discovery when it became public knowledge that volunteer searchers and professionals had earlier identified the presence of a body, presumably Cole's beneath the bridge. The timing of this identification during the search remains unclear. Scott Harris, then the emergency coordinator with the Mayor's Office of Emergency Management, commented to The Tennessean that they were uncertain whether Cole's body was under the barge. However, these dogs picked up a scent on the Riverfront Park barge, even jumping into the river twice during the search process. Afterwards, Harris expressed confidence, stating they were "99.9 percent sure she was under there."

Not completed: It took 12 days to recover Tara Cole's body; Nikki Ivey penned that it should only have taken 15 hours of her drowning: "Raea Cole should have been recovered within 15 of her reported drowning. This would have allowed the family, at the very least, an open casket service. This recovery should have never taken 12 days." K-9-unit leader Nikki Ivey were suspended that criticized the search for Tara Cole's body in a letter she wrote to the former Vice Mayor Howard Gentry, criticizing the Mayor's Office of Emergency Management officials. However, the OEM interim director at the time claimed that Ivey's team was being evaluated because of a sub-par performance (August 31, 2006, pg. 1, pg. 15)

Archives August 19, 2006 (pg. 1) August 23, 2006 (pg. 17) August 31, 2006 (pg. 15) Information on suspects and when/where they were charged: August 25, 2006 (pg. 1; pg. 2) Letter from Nikki Ivey: https://freedomtracks.com/taracole.html Obituary Archive: https://tryingtofollow.wordpress.com/2006/08/31/memorial-for-tara-cole-mourning-an-unjust-death/