Nashville Detective: Murder Suspect Searched For News, Fingerprint Info After Nurse's Stabbing

NASHVILLE, TN — The suspect in the stabbing murder of nurse Tiffany Ferguson searched for news stories about the crime, information about fingerprint evidence and violent pornography in the days after the crime, a Metro Police detective testified Thursday.

During a preliminary hearing, MNPD Detective Chad Gish said that a search of Christopher McLawhorn's cell phone showed numerous searches for news stories about the murder the afternoon after it occurred.

Gish said after reading news stories about the police investigation of the murder of Ferguson, McLawhorn searched "Will rain wash away fingerprints?” and then checked the weather, then going on to search “Can your fingerprints be found by police if you have no criminal record?", "How do police find and use fingerprints to catch criminals?" and "just how incriminating is a fingerprint really."

McLawhorn then visited Pornhub, where he searched "murderotica suffocation," according to Gish.

McLawhorn was arrested 10 days after Ferguson's murder.

During Thursday's hearing two other men who are homeless testified they recognized McLawhorn on surveillance footage from Ferguson's apartment complex based on his gait. One of those men, John O'Donnell, said McLawhorn admitted to him that "he killed someone," according to The Tennessean, and that while he did not initially want to testify, a friend convinced him because it is the right thing to do.

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