On a cold January day in 2022, the community of Oneida, Tennessee, was shaken by the death of 34-year-old April Duncan, a female Scott County Sheriff's Deputy. On January 31st, deputies responded to a shooting call at a residence on Locust Lane and found April deceased inside her home. A dedicated public servant, she was remembered for her service that began with the Tennessee Department of Corrections in 2015 before she joined the sheriff's office in 2019, where she was promoted to Corrections
Sergeant and later served as a School Resource Officer.
Initially, the investigation into the shooting death was reportedly considered a suicide. However, as the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation delved deeper into the case, the focus shifted. The investigation into her death also uncovered allegations of sexual abuse against a child. This led to a lengthy and complex probe that spanned over a year.
In May 2023, a Scott County Grand Jury returned indictments against April's husband, Tommy Duncan, who was also employed as a deputy with the Scott County Sheriff's Office at the time the investigation began. He was charged with second-degree murder in connection with his wife's death. The indictments didn't stop there; Tommy Duncan also faced charges of continuous sexual abuse of a child and five counts of rape stemming from the concurrent investigation. He was served with the indictments while already incarcerated in the Campbell County Jail on charges related to the sexual abuse investigation and was being held on a $1 million bond.
