Adena Parton, 58, a female from Cosby, Tennessee, was found dead inside a home on Padgetmill Road on the morning of November 7, 2019, after a call came in reporting gunshots. When deputies arrived, the situation was still volatile: they took cover outside and watched through a window as a woman inside held a handgun, moving erratically enough that officers treated the scene as an active threat rather than a closed call.
Investigators identified the armed woman as Martha Styles, 45.
According to the sheriff’s account reported that day, Styles did not flee; instead, she remained in the home as deputies tried to de-escalate. The standoff ended after Styles smashed a window and climbed out through the broken glass, suffering cuts that required treatment at an emergency room. In the immediate aftermath, authorities said Styles admitted to shooting Parton.
Styles was arrested and booked into the Cocke County Jail, where she was held on a $200,000 bond while facing a first-degree murder charge. Early reporting indicated investigators had not pinned down a clear motive at that stage, though deputies suspected drug use may have played a role in what happened inside the house before the shots were fired.
In death notices, Parton was remembered as Adena Garver Parton, with arrangements handled by a local funeral home and no service planned at the time—brief, quiet details that stood in sharp contrast to the violent, public scene described by law enforcement. Publicly available coverage centered on the arrest and charge announcement on the day of the killing, with few widely circulated follow-up reports detailing later court proceedings.
