By Robert A. Waters
UK Daily Mail reported that "Hendersonville [Tennessee] Police said no charges will be filed against the widower of late country music singer Jean Shepard in deaths at his home Saturday.
"Police said Benny Birchfield, Shepard's widower, fired shots to 'neutralize the threat' at Elnora Court over the weekend. Police said Birchfield shot five times in self-defense and killed Travis Sanders, 21. Birchfield said he was trying to protect his granddaughter, Icie Hawkins (pictured above)."
Icie, 18, lived in the furnished basement of Birchfield's home. A former member of the Osborne Brothers bluegrass band and later a bus driver for rock star Roy Orbison, Birchfield returned home at about 3:00 A.M. on December 17, 2016. He heard Icie's panicked voice and a struggle in the basement. Walking downstairs to investigate, Birchfield, 73, was attacked.
After shooting Sanders, Birchfield called 9-1-1 and retreated to his front lawn.
Investigators found Sanders, with a bloody 10-inch Bowie knife lying beside his body, dead on the basement floor. Icie lay on her bed suffering from numerous stab wounds--she would die enroute to the hospital. Paramedics transported Birchfield to the hospital where he underwent surgery for severe wounds to his face, head, neck and shoulder. He later recovered.
All Icie's friends and family loathed her boyfriend, Travis Sanders. Many repeatedly warned the pretty teen that her relationship with him would cause misery, or even death, to her gentle soul. On several occasions, she attempted to break up with him, but they always ended up getting back together.
Icie was the granddaughter of Country Music Hall of Fame legend Jean Shepard and Harold Franklin "Hawkshaw" Hawkins. A World War II hero and popular country crooner, Hawkins died in the infamous plane crash that killed Patsy Cline and singer Cowboy Copas. After a second marriage ended in divorce, Shepard married Benny Birchfield. They remained together until Shepard died, three months before the murder.
A critical type 1 diabetic, Icie needed daily doses of insulin to control the disease. Her obituary read: "Independent, fearless, with a loving heart, Icie was an 'old soul' that looked at life in a way that you don't often see in our youth today." A talented musician, she favored tunes from the 1960s and 1970s.
As her grandmother, Jean Shepard, gradually succumbed to Parkinson's disease, Icie moved into the home to help care for her. When Shepard passed, Icie stayed on to assist Bennie. She loved her family and loved life.
Eight months before he died at the hands of Bennie Birchfield, Icie and Travis Sanders began their journey to disaster. She met him through a friend and he immediately became obsessed with the teen. Their relationship was tumultuous, to say the least.
One former friend described Sanders as a loser, "with no direction in his life." He claimed to be a Satanist, and had cut his fingernails to look like claws. He had an upside-down cross tattooed on his chest. One friend told reporters that Sanders once scrawled "666" and other satanic scribblings onto the pages of her Bible. He loved knives and told friends he enjoyed stabbing small animals to death.
Sanders rarely bathed and, according to many reports, smelled bad all the time. "It was really gross," one of Icie's friends said. "He got in my car once and I told him he smelled really bad. He thought it was funny." She also told reporters he had no ambition except to play video games.
Icie's friends repeatedly begged her to break her ties with him. UK Daily Mail reports that when her mother, Velvet Sloan, learned Sanders was into devil worship, she warned her daughter to end the relationship. "In the summer," Sloan said, "we were in the swimming pool and Icie told me Travis was a Satanist and into devil worship. I said, 'Icie, come on, that's not a man you would want to be involved with.' But she said he had some problems and she was trying to help him. She said people needed other people to help them through things. I told her guys like that will end up killing you and she just looked at me and said, 'I know, I know.'"
After Sanders stole money from Icie, she decided to break it off. Unfortunately, Sanders smooth-talked her into returning to him.
Shortly after that, he murdered her.
