TBI Agents Arrest, Charge Murfreesboro Man in Elderly Woman’s Murder

NASHVILLE – Special Agents from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation have arrested and charged a Murfreesboro man in connection to the murder of his neighbor.

TBI Special Agents began investigating the death of Lois Jean Espy on Monday, February 23rd, the same date deputies from the Bedford County Sheriff’s Department found the body of the 86-year-old woman on Mullins Mill Road. During the course of the investigation, Agents developed information which led to her neighbor, William Russell Brace, as the individual responsible for Espy’s death in her Murfreesboro apartment on or around February 22nd, as well as the subsequent placement of her body in Bedford County.

This morning, Agents arrested and charged Brace with one count of First Degree Murder. At the time of this release, the 60-year-old Murfreesboro man was being held in the Rutherford County Jail without bond. The investigation into the circumstances surrounding Espy’s death continues, with the cooperation of the Bedford County Sheriff’s Department and the Murfreesboro Police Department.