More charges face woman in Blountville meth lab bust
BLOUNTVILLE, Tenn. – Authorities have upped the charges on a woman arrested Thursday after police stumbled upon a meth lab in her kitchen.
Cynthia Laura Baumgardner, 43, of Deck Valley Road on the outskirts of Bristol, Tenn., is now facing charges of manufacturing methamphetamine, felony drug paraphernalia, maintaining a dwelling where narcotics are used or sold, possession of schedule III narcotics and possession of schedule VI drugs.
The Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office went to the Baumgardner’s double-wide trailer in Roller Hills Park on Thursday morning to serve a warrant for failing to appear in court on a traffic charge. That’s when the deputy “saw what appeared to be a methamphetamine lab in the kitchen,” according to a statement issued by the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office.
Her trailer is high on a hill, behind thick brush and out of sight from the rest of the trailer park. Still, neighbors said the community reeked of chemicals, and traffic up and down Baumgardner’s derelict driveway was so bad they were scared to let their kids play on the lawn.
Those neighbors said they never called authorities, but mentioned it to their landlord several times.
Tennessee property records name Kassie McDowell as the owner of Roller Hills Trailer Park. On Thursday evening, the woman who answered the phone at the number posted on the park’s entrance sign declined to name herself or comment on the bust. No one answered Friday.
Deputies, firefighters, ambulances and hazmat-suited drug experts were on the scene all afternoon and into the night, securing evidence and dismantling the lab.
Baumgardner remains at the Sullivan County Correctional Facility on a $50,000 bond.
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Reader Reactions
Is the average American SO IGNORANT OF AMERICAN HISTORY
that they are unaware that we tried to outlaw alcohol in this country?
IT WAS A MISERABLE FAILURE.
Making meth is easier than making beer.
Making meth is only getting easier , cheaper, and faster.
If you are honest, you realize that something so easy,so cheap and
SO PROFITABLE is not going away.
WE cannot afford to lock up the people we already have behind bars now.
Are we really going to lie to ourselves
and say we can lock up 10 million meth users?
and say we can lock up 30 million pot users?
I HATE METH.
But just wringing our hands and saying lock them up is just making us feel good and fixes nothing.
Without a solution we just throw a few million more wrecked lives onto of the pile of bodies that meth creates
Still, neighbors said the community reeked of chemicals, and traffic up and down Baumgardner’s derelict driveway was so bad they were scared to let their kids play on the lawn.
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with this many people using it , (metH) , WE can lock up dealers to the end of time and make no dent.
WHY DO WE CHOOSE TO IGNORE THE LESSONS LEARNED WHEN WE PROHIBITED THE SALE OF ALCOHOL IN 1919?
IF A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT DID NOT STOP PEOPLE , WHAT WILL?
I am sick & tired of these people- put them away instead of giving them breaks. They knew it was wrong and they just ruin peoples lives.
I wish Obama cared more about drugs & less about screwing up health care.,!!
Does Kassie McDowell also own a trailer park on 126 in Bristol?
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