By JOSH AULT
6 News Reporter
LOUISVILLE (WATE) - A murder victim's son is making a plea for help in finding his mother's killer.
Jonathon Ty Lett is still living on the property where his mother, Sue Lett, was murdered on June 19.
He said it has been tough walking by her room that was set on fire to cover up the murder.
"My mom and I were very, very close," said Lett. "We were it. She was everything."
Lett was living with his mom and his 19-month-old niece.
On the night of his mother's murder, he was gone. His niece was found in the back of a truck at a nearby business.
Investigators said James Howard Harmon, who had been living with the Letts a few weeks before the murder, is a suspect.
"Without a doubt Howard did it," said Lett. "Things that occurred a week prior to that, the things he was doing... Mom and I were throwing him out, that had already been a discussion."
A week before Sue's murder, Lett tattooed the word 'warrior' on Harmon's chest with tribal symbols on both sides.
"There is a trail of tears on his right eye," explained Lett. "He wanted a tattoo. He was saying he was Cherokee. It's not like the prison ones. It was tribal one, and it didn't connect all the way. It came in like a tight upside down question mark."
Lett hopes these identifying marks will help investigators find him.
Several things were discovered missing after the fire was put out.
Three Emmett Kelly oil paintings had been taken from the living room walls. Original pieces of jewelry were also taken from the home. They included a gold necklace with two French Horns and a gold bracelet with two Jaguar heads.
All of those items are worth thousands of dollars. There were also two small safes stolen from the home.
Investigators believe Harmon is driving Lett's white Chrysler Sebring LXI.
"If he is watching tonight, all I am going to say is with my mom being all I had, I'd get away with insanity," said Lett. "I will just drop it like that. I just want him to come up here and try to hurt me."
Sue Lett had owned Sugar Plums, a children's consignment store in Maryville. She had run the business for eight years.
Lett said he plans to reopen the store on August 1.
"I wish that he would have timed it different and maybe just tied me and my mom up and asked where the safes were, and just left my mom alive," said Lett. "I would have given everything in the world, everything that I have, take my car, just leave my mom alone... just to have one more day."
Lett's niece has now been adopted by her Godparents.
If you have any information about Lett's murder or the whereabouts of Harmon, call the Blount County Sheriff's Department at (865) 273-5000.
