Texas man with Blount County ties in custody on suspicion of homicide
From Staff Reports
A 26-year-old Texas man is in custody in Blount County after Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested him late last Thursday as a person of interest in the disappearance of a Texas woman.
According to a press release, Joshua David Latham, 26, is in custody at the Blount County Detention Facility awaiting extradition back to Texas. Last Thursday, the Sheriff’s Office received information from authorities in Orange County, Texas, that Latham might be en route to Maryville. Latham has family ties in Blount County.
During the course of the investigation, Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigation Division and patrolmen tracked Latham to a residence on Magill Avenue. They took him into custody at around 8 p.m. Thursday night at that residence. Friday morning, a Texas Ranger, along with an officer with the Orange, Texas Police Department, traveled to Blount County to interview Latham in connection with the disappearance of 41-year-old Tami Diane Higginbotham, of Vinton, Texas, who had been missing since Feb. 8.
Higginbotham told her family she was going to meet Latham about a cell phone exchange. After Texas authorities interviewed Latham Friday afternoon at the Blount County Detention Facility, authorities found Higginbotham’s body in a wooded area in Newton County, which is north of Beaumont.
A female who traveled with Latham to Maryville was interviewed last Friday and released.
Latham is awaiting extradition to Texas, which could take several days, according to the release.
