CARTER COUNTY, Tenn. (WJHL) – The trial of two Carter County brothers accused of murdering their father continued Wednesday.

Jacob and Joshua Hitchcock are accused of killing their father, Bill Hitchcock, in 2023.

On Wednesday morning, the prosecution brought Larry Vaughn to the stand. Vaughn, an investigator with the Carter County Sheriff’s Office, mentioned his prior acquaintance with the Hitchcock family. This connection stemmed from his involvement in the 2020 case concerning the death of Jennette Hitchcock, who was Bill Hitchcock’s mother.

Jennette was found dead at the bottom of an embankment near her property, near rocks and old cemetery stones.

Vaugn said Joshua Hitchcock had been suspicious of his father during the investigation.

However, the cause of Jenette Hitchcock’s death was determined to be an accident.

“The autopsy results confirmed my suspicions from that time,” Vaughn stated. “I felt uneasy about certain aspects, but it was ultimately determined that blunt force trauma to the head was the cause, with the death deemed accidental.”

When Bill Hitchcock’s death occurred, it was Vaughn who delivered the news to Jacob Hitchcock. Vaughn noted his own “uneasy feeling” due to Jacob’s surprising lack of emotion upon learning about his father’s passing.

The Carter County Sheriff’s Office interviewed both Jacob and Joshua Hitchcock separately to learn more about their father. Vaughn said at the time of the first interviews, neither of the brothers was considered a suspect.

In those interviews, Vaughn said both brothers told him they developed a strained relationship with their father as adults.

Jacob said he has had thoughts of killing his father, but hated himself for that, according to Vaughn. Joshua said his father had a temper and that his parents did not get along after they divorced.

“I’m not going to lie and try to plead completely innocent here,” said Jacob Hitchcock in the recording. “I’ve wanted to kill that man. That’s been part of my struggles, hating myself for having those thoughts.”

“He did have quite a bit of a temper,” said Joshua Hitchcock in the interview tape. “Looking back on it, and everything, he was, I guess, borderline bipolar or something. He could be happy one moment and then just go off his case, I guess.”

Vaughn also asked the brothers about their father’s substance use. Both brothers said Bill Hitchcock had been growing marijuana near a creek on his property. Jacob said his grandmother, Jenette Hitchcock, had cut down the plants with a tractor while she was alive.

After the recordings were played, Vaughn said he later went to talk to Joshua Hitchcock again about the case. Vaughn said that was when officers first saw in the driveway that Joshua Hitchcock had a motorcycle similar to one seen on surveillance footage in a car sales lot near Bill Hitchcock’s residence.

Later in the day, the prosecution called in Samuel Ward, the finance manager at Mountain Motorsports. Ward confirmed he had sold a 2022 GSX-750Z Suzuki motorcycle to Joshua Hitchcock in March 2023.

Ward also said Mountain Motorsports only sold one of that type of bike, and there were only a “handful” of Suzuki dealerships in the area. He said the bike is considered a “naked” bike due to the lack of plastic covering the entire motorcycle.

The prosecution said they had shown Ward zoomed-in pictures from surveillance footage in preparation for the trial. Ward said the bike in the picture is the same style of bike owned by Joshua Hitchcock, but could not tell who the driver is, nor if it was the exact bike owned by Joshua Hitchcock.

The court will reconvene on Thursday.