A long-running property dispute in Yuma, Tennessee, ended in lethal violence on July 6, 2018, when 64-year-old Ben Cole Birdwell, a retired Drug Enforcement Administration agent, was found dead of a gunshot wound to the head on a railroad easement near his School House Road property. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office quickly focused on a nearby neighbor in the dispute.

David Anderson was arrested on July 7, 2018, and initially charged with second-degree murder and tampering with evidence. After posting bond he was re-arrested in August 2018 for violating release conditions by purchasing ammunition and possessing a loaded shotgun. By September 2019 grand jury indictments replaced the original charges with counts including voluntary manslaughter, aggravated assault, especially aggravated stalking, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony.

In December 2019 Anderson, then 64, pleaded guilty to an amended charge of voluntary manslaughter and received a sentence of eight years and six months, with concurrent sentences for aggravated trespassing and unlawful possession of a weapon; the plea required at least one year in jail, surrender of firearms, and a permanent bar from returning to Yuma. Anyone with information about Birdwell, his property dispute, or the events leading to his death is asked to come forward.