Charges Dropped Against Suspect In 1996 Nashville Tanning Murders

NASHVILLE, TN -- Unexpectedly, prosecutors announced they are dropping the charges against a man accused of the brutal double murder of two women at a Church Street tanning salon in 1996.

Patrick Streater was freed from jail in November after serving two years awaiting trial in the February 1996 stabbing deaths of Tiffany Campbell and Melissa Chilton, both 18. The state agreed to his release while new DNA evidence underwent testing. Indicted for the murders in 2013, Streater has always maintained his innocence.

The case had been cold for more than a decade when the grand jury returned its indictment five years ago. At the time, Streater was in prison in California finishing a 14-year stint for robbery and was returned to Tennessee for trial in 2015.

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Campbell, who was Streater's ex-girlfriend, and Chilton worked at Exotic Tan For Men, a now-long-shuttered adult tanning parlor on Church Street and their manager found them stabbed to death the afternoon of Feb. 22, 1996.

In a March 2017 hearing, Quinton Hughes, who was incarcerated, testified his late cousin, David Ewing, confessed to killing Campbell - though not Chilton - after Hughes saw him kill another person in 1998. Ewing, who died in a car wreck in 2014, was convicted of that murder.

"I asked him how could he do that with no remorse," Hughes said at that hearing. "That is when he told me he killed Tiffany. He didn't say anything about that other girl, Melissa."

Judge Monte Watkins refused to lower Streater's bond at that hearing based on the "hearsay" from "convicted criminals."

In an interview with The Tennessean, Streater's attorney Kyle Mothershead praised the district attorney's office for conducting the testing which he said "really cleared (Streater) in a lot of respects."

"Kudos to the DA's office for actually taking the time to have the best testing available done before taking this case to trial," Mothershead told the paper.

Photo via Metro Nashville Police