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The Sheriff’s Office arrested a Decatur County couple Thursday night after deputies found supplies for a methamphetamine lab in the residence they shared with their child, according to the agency’s chief investigator. A clean-up team from Bio-Tec Emergency Services, responded to remove the remaining hazardous materials from the home, he said. Capt. Gale Bowyer, who leads the criminal investigations unit at the Sheriff’s Office, said Investigator Pat Jeter became concerned Thursday morning after receiving a report from the Department of Family and Children Services that alleged that a 36 year old man from Bainbridge, was manufacturing, or “cooking,” meth in the residence he shared with his wife, 34-year-old Tonya Chambliss, and their young child. “Both the chemicals used to make meth and the finished product are highly toxic and hazardous, so we were concerned about their possible presence around children,” Bowyer said. Bowyer said Jeter obtained a search warrant for the Chamblisses’ property and visited it along with other investigators on Thursday. Inside their home and another building, they discovered numerous items that could be used as ingredients to cook meth, suspected marijuana and meth, partially finished meth product, drug-related items and several firearms located near the area the alleged meth lab had been set up, Bowyer said. The Bainbridge-Decatur County Hazardous Materials Response Team, composed of Bainbridge Public Safety officers and Decatur County Fire and Rescue firefighters, responded to the scene to secure samples of the chemicals so they can be examined later at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation crime lab in Moultrie, Ga., Bowyer said. The Chamblisses are each charged with three counts of manufacturing meth, illegal possession of anhydrous ammonia, possession of marijuana, possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime, possession of drug-related objects and cruelty to children, Jeter said.
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