COLLEGEDALE — Judge Curtis Bowe bound a criminal homicide charge against Kian Andrew Neal to the Grand Jury after Neal confessed to killing Robert George Locke in Collegedale. Neal told investigators his motive was to exact retribution for sex abuse victims.

Neal stated he had been angry about past child abuse and could not sleep on the night of the killing. He said he looked up information about Locke online, noting Locke was listed on the Sex Offender Registry. Neal later told a female friend in a church lobby that he had killed a man and disposed of the body.

Neal recounted leaving his residence after midnight. He stated he struck Locke repeatedly in the head with a hammer while Locke was in his bed. He added that he used a plastic bag and zip cords to suffocate Locke after Locke continued to move. Neal then used a saw to cut off Locke's legs, stating he could not fit the body into a bag. "It was a lot of work," he said.

Neal stated he placed the body parts and a bag of tools used in the killing in his brother's car. He then disposed of the items in a dumpster behind an auto parts store. Video from a camera near the dumpster showed an individual loading items into the dumpster in the early morning hours. Law enforcement identified the approximate location where the body parts were dumped as the Birchwood landfill, but an extensive search did not recover the remains.

During his police interrogation, Neal requested an attorney, then told detectives to disregard the request. He stated he is resigned to spending the rest of his life in prison. "It is what it is," he said. A detective stated Locke's mother reported him missing to police. Officers detected blood, especially in Locke's second-floor bedroom, using Blue Star.