Phillips native Randy Otto found dead in Tennessee

Law enforcement officials in Hamilton County, Tenn., are investigating a stabbing which occurred Dec. 29, resulting in the death of Phillips native Randy Otto.
A police affidavit obtained by WTVC News Channel 9 in Chattanooga reports that officers responded to a call of a drug overdose to a home on Scarlet Maple Court in Signal Mountain, Tenn., early on the morning of Dec. 29.
Arriving officers found the front door locked, with a woman inside refusing to respond to officers. The woman, later identified as Rhonda Essenpreis, was “acting suspiciously by hiding partially behind a wall located in the front hallway of the residence,” according to the affidavit.
Officers entered the home and found the victim, Randall Paul Otto, seated in a chair in the living room, dead from apparent knife wounds. Signal Mountain Police Chief Mike Williams later confirmed what investigators are calling “a violent and brutal murder.”
The arrest affidavit says Essenpreis then ran into a bedroom and barricaded herself. Officers used fire department breaching tools to get into the bedroom, and found Essenpreis lying on a bed with “blood on her hands, feet and clothing.” 
An ambulance took Essenpreis to the hospital for a possible narcotics overdose. Officers evaluated Essenpreis at the hospital and reported finding “no defensive wounds” on her body, except for a cut on her right middle finger that was “consistent with using the knife in an aggressive manner.” Detectives say they took DNA swabs on Essenpreis of what was believed to be the blood of the victim.
The affidavit says detectives later learned Essenpreis had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and had not been taking prescription medications correctly as she had been prescribed by medical personnel. Chief Williams said this is the second time police have been called to the residence. The other time was on May 2 for a mental health call.
Essenpreis is being charged with criminal homicide and is awaiting booking at Silverdale, according to the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office.