Tennessee may not know much about Scientology, but folks are surprisingly aware of the dangers of abuse of individuals by cults than many other areas of the country. There was "The Gathering", "The Twelve Tribes", "the Congregation for the Light" (out of Atlanta) and the KKK, to name a few. Others that are a bit more mainstream but whose ex-members deal with therapy regularly include FLDS and JW.
So one abused eyewitness willing to come forward was enough to investigate, and the evidence substantiated the claim, so they had every reason to come down hard on it as a destructive cultic group and they did.
Something about the Tennessee hills seems to make culties think they can hide and get away with anything. Nobody is that invisible here, or more than about 45 minutes from shops and civilization. It's not that isolated anymore. Not like parts of Canada, for example.