The Murder of Grant Solomon Part 1

On July 20th, 2020, Gallatin, Tennessee 911 dispatchers received a phone call from Aaron Solomon. He told them that his 18-year-old son Grant was lying in a ditch at the bottom of the parking lot, and that his Toyota Tacoma had backed over him and dragged him down the hill. When responders arrived, they found Grant alive, but only just. He was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital. Officers ruled the death an accident and the case was closed. Grant’s mother, Angie Solomon, knows that something else happened in that parking lot that day, something that was the culmination of years of sexual, physical, emotional, and mental abuse, and she’s going to do everything she can to prove that Aaron murdered their son.

Who was Grant?

Grant Rhodes Huffines Solomon was born on June 13th, 2002 to Angie and Aaron Solomon. Angie grew up in a rough household, but despite the odds against her, she worked hard and achieved a doctorate in pharmacy. She bought her own home in Tennessee and was excited when she reconnected with an old friend from high school named Aaron Solomon. Aaron was a sports anchor for WSMV Channel 4 news in Nashville when the two began dating in 2001.

Just six weeks into their relationship, Angie discovered that she was pregnant with Aaron’s child. On June 13th, 2002, she gave birth to the couple’s first son, Grant. Though Angie was entirely prepared to raise Grant as a single mother, her parents pressured her into marrying Aaron so Grant would have a father in his life. Grant was a great friend to those he knew, and he loved fiercely. He did well in school, but his passion was baseball. He started playing at just 4 years old, and by the time he hit high school, he was an incredibly talented pitcher and being recruited by Division 1 colleges to play baseball.

Four years later, in October of 2006, Angie gave birth to the couple’s second child, a baby girl named Gracie. Unlike most brothers and sisters, Grant and Gracie were very close. Grant saw himself as the protector of his sister and mother, especially when things went sour between his parents. The marriage started to go downhill after Grant was born. Aaron became aggressive and began having violent outbursts. He was manipulative and lied to get what he wanted.

In 2008, Angie found out that Aaron had cheated on her with multiple women. She also believed that he was grooming several high school-age girls and hiring sex workers. In 2011, Aaron told Angie that he quit his job at the news station, however there were rumors that he’d been fired after inappropriate content was found on his cell phone and computer. In 2014, Aaron began working as a financial advisor for Merrill Lynch.

Things continued to get worse in the Solomon household. Angie tried to get counseling, but Aaron wouldn’t give her any privacy. He never left her alone for an extended period of time. Aaron ended up joining Angie in therapy, where she was diagnosed with PTSD, likely from the significant abuse she’d experienced as a child and the abuse that she was currently experiencing in her marriage. Aaron was diagnosed with narcissism and sex addiction.

After Gracie was born, Aaron’s anger towards Angie and Grant intensified. The outbursts and abuse in the Solomon household became more and more frequent. Grant, Gracie, and Angie were terrified and whenever Angie thought about talking to the police, Aaron threatened her that he would take the kids and she’d never see them again. So she continued to document things with her therapist and did everything she could to protect her children. Unfortunately, Aaron’s influence and power proved to be too much for Angie. Aaron filed for divorce and won full custody of the children. Grant and Gracie’s worst nightmare had come true, and it wouldn’t be ending anytime soon..

The Day of the Murder

On Monday, July 20th, 2020, 18-year-old Grant, who was living with a friend, drove an hour to the Ward Performance Institute in Gallatin, Tennessee. WPI was a baseball training facility, and Grant had a private training session. His father had insisted on attending the session and was going to meet him there. It was going to be the first time Grant had been alone with his father in two years.

At 8:44AM, Aaron called 911 and told them that Grant’s truck had rolled over him, dragged him, and pinned him down in a ditch. During the 911 call, Aaron said that there were three men there with him that were down in the ditch with Grant. He said that the men told him that blood was coming out of Grant’s mouth and that he might aspirate (choke) on the blood.

The 911 dispatcher gave directions and tried to get more information from Aaron. After she felt that she’d gotten enough information, she suggested that someone go down into the ditch to be with Grant, to talk to him. She says that when Grant wakes up, he might be scared. Aaron yells out, “Somebody talk to him”.

When police arrived, Aaron told them that he’d been sitting in the driver’s seat of his own truck, answering a work email on his phone. He saw Grant get out of the driver’s seat of his white Toyota Tacoma, then walk to the back of the truck to get his baseball gear out.

Credit to the Justice For Grant YouTube Page.

Aaron said he heard a loud crash, then looked to see Grant’s truck back over him and down the hill, into the grass ditch below the parking lot. First responders arrived to find Grant laying underneath his truck, between two of the tires. None of the tires’ weight was on Grant. The only blood was coming from the back of his head. He was unresponsive and barely breathing.

Firefighters and EMS personnel did everything they could for Grant as they lifted and braced the truck to pull him out from underneath. They loaded into the ambulance and began CPR en route. They reached the hospital and shortly before 9:30AM, Grant Solomon was pronounced dead. He’d just turned 18 less than a month prior.

Before Angie was able to get to the hospital, Aaron declined an autopsy and organ donation. Angie said that when she finally got to the hospital, Aaron was sitting in a chair, no emotion on his face. He looked at her and said, “We’re going to be a family now”.

Let’s Go Back To the Beginning… Again

The Solomons hadn’t been a family for a long time. Before Angie and Aaron divorced, before he took both children out of the home without telling Angie, Gracie told her mother that her dad had been hurting her. In January of 2013, Gracie was 5 years old and Grant was 11. Aaron forbade Angie from bathing Gracie, he was the only one allowed to. Angie noticed that Gracie began having a terrible reaction when it was bath time. She’d beg her not to make her take a bath. That day in January, it all began to make sense.

Gracie told Angie that Aaron was touching her, that he’d put soap in her “private parts” and was really hurting her. She gave more details to her mother about what was happening during bath time. Angie, full of emotion, confronted Aaron about the abuse, which she said that he admitted to. However, he repeated the same threat that he always did, that if she told anyone, he’d take the children away and she’d never see them again. Angie believed them, and she couldn’t risk not being around to try to protect her children.

Angie continued to see her therapist, making notes and plenty of documentation about what was going on in the household. She and her therapist were working to figure out a plan to get her and the children safely away from Aaron. It didn’t seem like they had anywhere to go. Gracie later confirmed what her mother said; Angie’s parents knew about the abuse, but continued to support Aaron.

In May of 2013, an incident happened at the Solomon household that set things further down the path that would eventually lead to Grant’s death. Angie, Grant, and Gracie all slept together in the master bedroom, even locking themselves inside when Aaron became violent.

On May 9th, the three had locked themselves in the bedroom as Aaron became aggressive. Somehow, he was able to coax Angie out of the room and into the bathroom with him. He struck her on the side of the head and began strangling her with the power cord from the hairdryer. Grant, who was just 11, walked in and was able to intervene, stopping his father from killing his mother. Like the other incidents, Angie didn’t report this to the police, still in fear for her life and her children’s lives.

Aaron, on the other hand, did call 911. Angie’s parents came over to the house, supporting Aaron as he called law enforcement, telling them that his wife was suicidal and had tried to hang herself with the hairdryer cord. Angie was transported to the hospital, where she ended up talking to a doctor about her home situation and everything that had happened that night. In the physician’s medical chart from his encounter with Angie, he didn’t believe that she was at risk of harming herself or anyone else. These are excerpts from that chart:

”The note indicated that the staff admitted her out of caution despite the confusing presentation of abuse versus suicide attempt. The note suggested that Dr. Solomon was likely in an abusive relationship with her husband.”

When referencing the information he received from Angie’s therapist, the doctor wrote, “…the plan was to move Dr. Solomon out of the house safely and obtain a divorce. The chart indicated that Dr. Solomon did not appear to have signs of depression and she was not voicing suicidal ideation.”

“In the hospital course of the discharge summary, it was noted that ‘the patient was telling the truth about the situation and that she was in a risky situation with her husband who appeared to possibly be volatile and violent, although this was uncertain. The patient’s parents also appeared to be unreliable sources of information.”

The doctor determined that Angie had never expressed thoughts of hurting herself and she’d never attempted to do so. With that, he released her from the hospital. Angie left the hospital on May 11th and went home to the house she still shared with Aaron. When she got home though, the house was empty. Aaron, Grant, and Gracie were gone.

This Guy is the Fucking Worst

Angie had no idea where her children were. She called Aaron, her parents, his parents, over and over, but there was no response. She hoped that because May 12th was Mother’s Day, Aaron would bring the kids home, but he didn’t. Instead, he called 911 to report that Angie was suicidal. Again. Officers arrived on scene and, after talking to Angie, determined that she was no threat to herself or others.

At the recommendation of the doctor who she’d seen in the emergency room on her visit, Angie had filed for a restraining order against Aaron. This seemed like it was the one time that Angie wanted to see Aaron. She wanted to know where her kids were. When she called the police to report that Aaron had left the home with her kids, and that she still had no idea where they were, reportedly the officers didn’t seem to be too concerned.

On the 18th of May, Angie went to a friend who was a lawyer, hoping to find out what rights she had and what she could do. After digging, they found out some shocking news. While she’d been in the hospital, Aaron had filed for divorce, as well as for an order of protection for him and the kids from her. He was granted full custody.

Living with Aaron was a nightmare for Gracie and Grant. They were constantly terrified. Aaron regulated everything they did; what they ate, when they went to the bathroom, who they hung out with, everything. The kids told their friends and Angie that they were on a strict diet. Grant’s friend saw a noticeable change in him; he’d lost 25 pounds within the first year of living with his father. Gracie had HUGE dark bags underneath both eyes.

On May 26th, 2013, Aaron returned to the home with both of the kids and Angie’s parents. She said that Aaron essentially told her that if she “behaved”, he and the kids would stay. Just a day later, Aaron took Gracie and Grant to Dunkin’ Donuts, telling them that they were grabbing donuts for their mom. When they realized that Aaron was just taking them back to his house, Grant tried to jump out of the moving car. Aaron yanked him back in by his wrist.

On June 21st, Angie and Aaron appeared before a judge for their divorce hearing. Both Angie’s father and sister made statements in Aaron’s favor. Medical experts testified in Angie’s defense, insisting that Angie was not suicidal, she was a victim of domestic violence. Despite seemingly no evidence to indicate that Angie was an unfit mother, Judge Philip E. Smith ruled in favor of Aaron, leaving him with full custody of Gracie and Grant.

Judge Smith also ordered a full mental health exam before she was allowed to have any contact with her children. The doctor returned with a report stating that he agreed with the other doctors that had evaluated Angie; she was a great mother. Judge Smith later reportedly dismissed this report.

It was October of 2013, and Angie hadn’t seen her children since June 21st. Gracie later said that her father told them that their mother was dead. They believed him. Finally, in February of 2014, Aaron allows Angie to see the children. Angie could see how scared her children were, and how much they’d physically changed since living with their father. The weight loss, the bags under Gracie’s eyes. There was nothing she could do.

Are We Surprised?

In November of 2014, Aaron was only letting Angie see the children during their sporting events. On the 18th, while sitting at a basketball game, 8-year-old Gracie told her mom that her father was still sexually abusing her. She detailed how he’d bathe her, still putting soap inside her “private parts”. Gracie told her how much it stung and how badly it hurt. Angie did the only thing she could think of; knowing that Aaron would deny Gracie’s accusations, she recorded parts of her conversation with Gracie on her phone to add to the documentation she was keeping about Aaron.

Aaron, of course, didn’t allow the children to see their mother for Christmas, which devastated them. In March of 2015, Gracie managed to FaceTime her mother without Aaron knowing. She showed her bruises that she had on her inner thighs, but didn’t know where they came from. Angie took screenshots of the FaceTime conversation to document the bruising. She also told her mother that there were times at home where she’d get really sleepy for no reason, then wake up in her father’s bed. Aaron told Gracie that the bruises on her thighs were just a rash from her bathing suit.

Despite the fact that Aaron was receiving hefty payments from an enormous trust he’d inherited from his aunt, Aaron still filed a report in April of 2015 against Angie for her not paying child support. She was arrested and put in jail for the weekend. It didn’t seem to matter who she told about what was happening; Gracie, Grant, and Angie were at the mercy of Aaron.

Throughout the next three years, Angie and the kids did everything they could to keep Aaron happy, hoping that they wouldn’t be the target of Aaron’s next violent outburst.

They Literally Told Everyone

Angie began telling law enforcement about the abuse that her and the kids were suffering. She also told several people at the kids’ private Christian School, Grace Christian Academy, and their associated church, Grace Chapel, that she believed Aaron was messaging young girls and talking to them inappropriately. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem as though anyone was going to do anything further about it.

There are multiple emails and communications showing that Angie reached out to law enforcement, church, and school officials about her concerns for Aaron’s behavior and the safety of herself and the children. There’s even evidence showing that Grant and Gracie tried to tell people at school what was happening. There’s even a recording of two female school officials from Grace Christian Academy discussing Gracie’s allegations with one another. They both voiced their concern that Grace wasn’t thinking about the future, just the present. They were concerned with how many people she was telling and how they could best “contain” the situation.

In July of 2018, Grant and Gracie had forensics interviews done by a social worker from the Davis House Child Advocacy Center and Tameka Sanders, a detective with the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office. Sanders opened an investigation when she realized that Gracie was being sexually abused. After the interviews, Sanders contacted the Department of Child Services (DCS), who told her not to investigate the situation any further. Sanders listened to DCS

In August of 2018, Grant and Gracie ran away from Aaron, but he quickly called the police. Once officers found them, he requested that the police bring them back home in order to scare them.

On the weekend of August 17th and 18th, Grant had a baseball tournament out of state in North Carolina. Aaron drove Gracie, now 11, and Grant, 16, to North Carolina. While Grant stayed with his team, Gracie and Aaron had to drive back to Tennessee because Angie had filed for emergency custody citing neglect and abuse of the children.

Gracie made a video testimony, in which she told them how, on the night prior, on the way back from North Carolina, her father booked them a hotel room with one bed. She explained in detail to the court how her father had raped her that night. The judge refused to watch the video.

Since Grant was still at his tournament, he wrote a letter to be read in court, describing the abuse he and his sister suffered at the hands of his father. He said that Aaron restricted his food and humiliated him constantly, calling him fat. Grant wrote how Aaron would say terrible things about their mother, constantly trying to turn them against her. Grant said that they were terrified every minute they had to spend with their father, and all they wanted was to be back with their mother.

Despite the disgusting amount of evidence detailing Aaron’s abuse and behavior, the judge dismissed the motion, saying that Angie had filed it without merit. She also ruled that Angie was unable to file any further civil lawsuits against Aaron for six years. Gracie, absolutely fucking petrified, had to drive with her father back to North Carolina to pick up Grant.