Man found guilty of murder after body found in Franklin County in 2017

FRANKLIN COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) — A Franklin County jury found a man guilty on multiple charges Friday in connection with a murder case from nearly seven years ago, according to officials.

The office of District Attorney General Courtney Lynch for the 12th Judicial District said Bryan Ray Dudley was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of especially aggravated kidnapping on Friday, Aug. 16. Dudley was on trial for the murder of David Steele from 2017.

Steele went missing on Oct. 3, 2017 , in Tullahoma, but then a body was discovered on Oct. 26, 2017 , in the Spring Creek/UTSI Road area, sparking a homicide investigation by the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office.

After the body was identified as Steele , the sheriff’s office reported it was working with the Tullahoma Police Department and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation on the case.

The sheriff’s office posted about Dudley’s guilty verdict on Friday evening , saying that he was the last defendant to be convicted for Steele’s murder, as well as especially aggravated kidnapping with a weapon and especially aggravated kidnapping with serious bodily injury.

“The verdict resulted from the thorough investigation by the Tullahoma Police Dept, Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, and Moore County Sheriff’s Office,” Lynch’s office said in a statement released on Saturday, Aug. 17 . “The prosecution team included Assistant District Attorneys Steve Strain, Kandi Nunley, and Casey Little, along with Criminal Investigator George Dyer and Assistant Victim Witness Coordinator Jenny Armstrong.”

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Dudley is set to be sentenced on Sept. 25. However, authorities have not shared any additional details about the investigation into Steele’s death.

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