MADISON, Tenn. — A Tennessee counselor was sexually assaulted before being stabbed to death by a stranger, according to an arrest affidavit.
Melissa Hamilton, 50, was found dead last week unclothed in a back office of Crossroads Counseling in Madison, according to The Tennessean. Suspect Brian Dewayne Conley was scheduled to appear in court Monday, but that hearing was rescheduled to later this month.
Police have said the 31-year-old is charged with criminal homicide.
Surveillance video shows Conley entering the business late Tuesday just as Hamilton was ending a group counseling session, they said. The two had a “brief interaction” before the center’s lights went off and Conley was seen leaving through a rear exit, police said.
She was found dead the next morning after her husband of 25 years called police to say she had never come home.
Conley was arrested Thursday just across the street from the counseling center.
He had a defensive wound on his right pinky finger that was consistent with Hamilton’s stab wounds, according to the affidavit.
Authorities have said there’s no indication that Conley knew Hamilton or was a client of the business, which provides court-appointed domestic violence and alcohol and drug treatment counseling.
