A $10 million dollar wrongful death lawsuit has been filed in DeKalb County Circuit Court by the mother of a 21 year old Hendersonville woman who lost her life on Center Hill Lake last summer.
Sherry Smith of Sumner County brought the lawsuit on July 22 against several individuals claiming that her daughter, Lauren Taylor Agee was killed through the intentional, negligent, or reckless acts of the defendants.
Agee’s body was found on Sunday afternoon, July 26 2015 by fishermen on Center Hill Lake near Still Point Boat Ramp across from Pates Ford Marina.
According to reports at the time, Agee had been enjoying an outing with friends known as “Wakefest” over that weekend and was camping near the edge of a steep cliff overlooking the lake prior to the tragedy.
Defendants named in the lawsuit are Aaron Lilly, a resident of Broward County, Florida; Brixner Heydrich Gambrell, a resident of Sumner County, and others including several persons referred to as “John and Jane Doe” or unknown. Two defendants (who may not yet have been served with the lawsuit) are residents of Rutherford County, Tennessee and Broward County, Florida.
Smith is seeking a judgment against the defendants for compensatory damages in the amount of $10 million; a judgment for punitive damages in an amount to be determined by a jury trial; and costs and such other further relief that the Court deems just and proper.
The plaintiff seeks to recover damages on account of the injuries to and the wrongful death of Lauren Taylor Agee arising out of the events leading up to and her death on July 26, 2015 at Center Hill Lake in DeKalb County.
Smith alleges that the “intentional, reckless, and/or negligent actions by the defendants, their agents, employees, and representatives proximately caused Lauren Taylor Agee’s injuries and death”.
According to the lawsuit, obtained by WJLE, “ In the early morning hours of July 26, 2015, Lauren Agee was killed through the intentional, negligent, or reckless acts of the defendants”.
“Prior to her death, Agee had attended a three-day event, known as “Wakefest” at Center Hill Lake with Lilly and another man and woman during which time she stayed at a campsite selected by Gambrell and Lilly. The campsite consisted of a tent and two hammocks”.
In initial statements to the authorities, a woman claimed that Agee returned to the campsite with all defendants in the early morning hours of July 26, 2015 after visiting a bar on the lake. The woman claimed that Agee wanted to go home, but that she took Agee’s keys. Upon returning to the campsite, the woman claimed that she and her boyfriend, Lilly, went to sleep in the tent while Agee slept in the hammock with the other man in the group.
The woman further claimed that later that morning, she awoke to discover that Agee was “missing”. She said that Agee’s shoes and belongings were still located next to the hammock and that when she awoke the man with whom Agee had shared the hammock to ask him where Agee had gone, he responded that she had been gone for quite some time but that he did not feel her leave.
In contrast, Lilly and the other man in the group told authorities that they had spoken to Agee’s ex-boyfriend who allegedly told them that Agee had visited him after returning to the campsite with them on the early morning hours of July 26, 2015. The man with Lilly told police that Agee only stayed at the campsite for a few minutes before leaving. But his and Lilly’s accounts to police were inconsistent with the account given by the woman in the group.
According to the lawsuit, the defendants did not alert authorities that Agee was missing. Instead the woman in the group went looking for Agee because she claimed that she expected to find Agee on the lake.
At approximately 4:00 p.m. on July 26, 2015, two fishermen found Agee’s lifeless body floating in the water in a cove.
“Agee had sustained massive trauma to her body indicating homicide,” the lawsuit states.
Around the time that Agee’s body was found, Lilly and the other man in the group approached the crime scene and asked responding officers if they had found their “missing friend”.
“Defendants have continued to provide conflicting statements regarding Agee’s death and have conspired to hide their involvement in and the true circumstances of Agee’s death. This intentional and outrageous conduct has resulted in severe injury to plaintiff (Smith), including emotional trauma and pain,” according to the lawsuit.
Smith contends that the physical injuries to and ultimate death of Agee were the result of intentional action on the part of the defendants and that the defendants acted intentionally with the conscious objective or desire to engage in the conduct or to cause the harm to Agee, plaintiff, and others, thereby entitling plaintiff to an award of punitive damages.
Smith seeks damages for wrongful death as permitted by Tennessee law including damages for the pain and suffering that Agee experienced before her death, as well as damages for funeral expenses and the pecuniary value of Agee’s life, including loss of earning capacity and the loss of society, companionship, comfort, guidance, and other losses experienced by plaintiff by reason of Agee’s death.
Smith is represented by a Nashville law firm.
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