Knoxville (WVLT) - A horrific story from North Knoxville. A Knox County runaway teen's accused of beating, trying to kill, and stuffing an elderly woman in her own car trunk.
It's a story you we first told you about on volunteertv.com.
Volunteer TV's Mike McCarthy spoke with suspect's grandmother.
The Tennessee Department's of Children's Services says 17-year-old David Ryan Pulley's been on the run from them six months.
Cuffed at his feet, 17-year-old David Pulley walks into court.
"I just can't understand what happened to him. Why he done it," grandmother Shirley Tillery said.
Court records say Pulley broke into 87-year-old Dorothy Clark's home Thursday. Records show he "severely" beat her, made her undress, and tied her up. They say Pulley covered her with bleach and tried to set her on fire. Then, at knife-point, the records say he stuffed her in her car trunk, drove to wooded area, then slit her throat.
"I work in a nursing home and I take care of elderly people. It just tears my heart up," Tillery said.
Pulley's Grandmother hasn't spoken to him in nearly a year. In fact...the only picture she has is this one. He's only a few years old, in the striped shirt.
"A troubled kid. He had a lot of problems and stuff with authority growing up," Tillery said.
Knoxville Police say Pulley brought Clark to Amy Clabough's Dewine Road home.
"He kept saying we...me and some guys I just met robbed a house for some guns and they killed an old lady there," Clabough said.
She thought Pulley was joking. Until he popped the trunk.
"I just seen what appeared to be a woman laying there. I couldn't see her face. It scared me," Clabough said.
She called 911 and Pulley took off. Police found Clark alive, but abandoned in the car trunk off Henson Road.
"I'm just glad he came here because I really don't think that woman would've made it if he hadn't," Clabough said.
Police say he turned himself himself at Clark's home.
"I never expected something like that," Tillery said.
Because now her grandson's cuffed and charged with attempted murder.
Police say Pulley has no violent history. He'd completed his program at Mountain View Development Center for theft in November 2007. Pulley went into a Johnson City group home. That's when he ran away.
Clark's at UT Medical Center. The Knox County Sheriff's Office says she's expected to survive.
Pulley's being held at the county's juvenile detention center until his next hearing. That will decide if he'll be tried as an adult or a minor.
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