Chattanooga Update - December 19, 2013

First of all, There won't be a new year's baby at Hutcheson Medical Center in 2014. The hospital's board has voted to suspend its labor and delivery services. And several dozen employees may lose their jobs. It's part of the troubled hospital's new strategic plan to return to profitability. Officials say labor and delivery services lose the hospital about $2 million dollars a year. The hospital also saw a steady decrease in births over the past 12 years as Chattanooga hospitals have become more competitive. ______ Two women were stabbed repeatedly in a Chattanooga home on Tuesday night. Police were sent to a house on Fourth Avenue around 11:30 p.m. When they got there, Rodrickous Hodges told officers everything was OK. But police heard screaming inside and two women came to the door bleeding severely with multiple stab wounds in their chests. Police say Hodges ran away and was later caught and admitted to the crime. He now faces two counts of attempted first degree murder, and his bond has been set at $1 million dollars. Hodges told police he was trying to help work things out between his girlfriend, Ueronica Watkins, and her friend, Destinee Jackson. Both were taken to a hospital with non-life threatening injuries. _____ A Chattanooga police officer has been placed on leave after evidence was reported missing. Sergeant Kevin Kincer is on leave without pay after evidence bags including drugs had been tampered with. The case has been turned over to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the locks to the evidence room have since been changed. Authorities say the investigation is still ongoing and no one has yet been charged. _____ Authorities say a person found dead in a burning vehicle in north Alabama was shot to death. The vehicle was discovered Tuesday along a road in DeKalb County. The body was identified as 38-year-old Gary Lee Willis, of Boaz, Alabama. And officials say the car belongs to a person who has been listed as missing. Anyone with information is asked to call the DeKalb County Sheriff's Office. _____ A man has pleaded guilty to murdering a woman at Chattanooga's Country Hearth Inn and Suites. 29-year-old Meco Siler was stabbed 48 times there in January 2011. She had a daughter and two sons. A housekeeper found her body inside the hotel room where she had been living for several months. Now Brandon Eugene Russell has pleaded guilty to the crime. He's agreed to a second-degree murder conviction and a 20 year sentence. _____ The new East Brainerd Elementary School building will cost taxpayers about $23 million dollars. That bid came from Cleveland-based Tri-Con Construction. It was the lowest bid out of six companies. And even though Tri-Con's bid was 2 million dollars lower than every other bidder, school officials say the company has done good work before and they're comfortable with the amount. The new school will be built on the site of the old David Brainerd private school, and will have capacity for 11 hundred students. The sHamilton County school board is expected to approve the bid today. Construction could then begin in February, and the facility should be ready for classes by fall 2015. ______ Finally, a forum on race, reconciliation and truth-telling will be held today at 6 p.m. The meeting will discuss the high number of unsolved murders in Chattanooga, the code of silence in the community, and the divide between police and residents. The forum will also include conversation about Chattanooga's new violence reduction initiative. The meeting will be held at the Bethlehem Center gym in Alton Park, and is open - to the public.