NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) – Her heartache is as fresh today as it was nearly 27 years ago when Ernestine Reavis received devastating news her only granddaughter Tiffany Campbell and Melissa Chilton, both 18, were found lifeless, stabbed nearly 100 times at a business off Church Street in downtown Nashville.

“I’ve just been so sad because I loved her so much. She had a beautiful smile,” recalled Reavis while referring to Tiffany, who she lovingly calls Mae.

The unsolved crime captivated Nashvillians in 1996. Police swarmed the scene dusting for prints at Exotic Tan for Men, the adult establishment where the teens were discovered. Melissa’s family told News 2 they were unaware their daughter worked there. Tiffany’s grandmother learned only days before the crime.

“I had heard that she worked there. So, I called her one night and she answered the phone,” Reavis said. “But I hung up. I didn’t want her to know I knew.”

The teens, seemingly recruited into sex trafficking before the crime was widely discussed, had wanted out.

“Mae had already told them that she was quitting,” Reavis explained.

Tiffany wasn’t scheduled to work the afternoon of the murders. Instead, she was called in by another employee to cover a shift with Melissa.

“She was stabbed over 70 times and her hand looked so pitiful,” Reavis said through tears. “Like she was trying to protect herself.”

Seventeen years after the murders, Patrick Streater, Tiffany’s ex-boyfriend, was indicted on two counts of premeditated first-degree murder. In June 2018, the state announced it would drop the charges against him.

“I just don’t know. There could be others. I’m not really blaming him, I don’t know if he really did it or not. He was very nice,” Reavis recalled.

Streater even showed up at Tiffany’s funeral with a request to place something in her casket.

“Patrick had brought her a rose to put in her little hand and he put it in there,” remembered Reavis.

Decades later, the mystery has taken a toll.

“Her dad got sick and so did all of us,” she said.

Tiffany’s mother died of a heart attack during the hearings. The two are now buried side by side.
Reavis turns 90 years old on March 12 and has only one wish.

“I just hope someday that we found out who did it before anything happens to me,” she said with tears rolling down her cheeks as she clutched Tiffany’s picture.