Loudon family forced to move aft

LOUDON (WATE) – A family in Loudon was forced out of their home after signs of meth contamination. The struggling single mother of two says she didn’t know about the home’s history when she moved in.

Shelly Underwood thought a four bedroom, two bathroom home for $650 a month in a decent neighborhood on Crock Road was a good deal. Underwood moved into the house in early December.

“My oldest son started getting nose bleeds that would not stop. They both had diarrhea real bad. So I thought they may have the flu. And later on, I couldn’t sleep. I was up all night. I was up all night having hallucinations. And when I did fall asleep, I had really bad dreams,” Underwood said.

Underwood tried her best to figure out what was going on, with theories of everything from medical issues to a ghost.

“I’m very spiritual so I thought it’s a spirit. I called someone from my church asking them what to do,” she described.

That’s when she hit the Internet and found a 2013 story WATE 6 On Your Side published that said the home was a former meth house that had been listed on the market for only $8,500. Her next step was calling the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation.

Previous story: Loudon meth house listed for sale

“They originally emailed and said there was a Certificate of Fitness, that the home had passed for the landlord to have someone move in. They next day they called me and said they wanted to have someone come out and do a field test. They found the home was meth positive,” Undewood said.

That was a preliminary test. TDEC asked her leave the residence immediately as they wait on the final lab results. She is now staying with a friend. Underwood’s landlord did not wish to comment.

“I grabbed what I could and left because of safety. I don’t know what to do. Everything we own is in the home,” she said.

Underwood isn’t sure if she’s going to get an attorney or where she’ll move to and is open to suggestions from the public. She can be reached at shelly2273@yahoo.com.

If a renter or buyer finds him or herself in a similar situation, TDEC had a few tips:

A prospective tenant or buyer of a property can obtain some certainty that a property is not contaminated with methamphetamine by following a few guidelines.
Search the Tennessee Methamphetamine and Pharmaceutical Taskforce webpage at http://www.rid-meth.org/
Search the Division of Remediation web page at: http://tn.gov/assets/entities/environment/attachments/rem_meth-quarantined-properties.pdf
Check for methamphetamine related paperwork on the property at the Register of Deeds Office.
Call the Division of Remediation at (865) 594-5444.