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The next day after Latonya's abduction, ten year old Aaron Wyche disappeared. His body was found beneath an overpass over some railroad tracks, where he had apparently fallen to his death. On July 6, Anthony Carter, 9, was playing outside around 1am when he too vanished. He was found stabbed to death the next day less than a mile from home. Finally in mid July, due to political pressure from STOP, the police began a task force to investigate the rash of child murders as a connected killing spree. But still the children died. On July 30, eleven year old Earl Terrell was ejected from a public swimming pool for misbehaving. He too, disappeared, and the case took another bizzare turn. Earl's aunt reported recieving a call from a man who sounded like a white Southerner, who claimed to have Earl in Alabama. This apparent kidnapping accross state lines allowed the FBI to become officially involved in the case. The "Summer of Death" as it was called, was to claim one more victim. 13 year old Clifford Jones was found strangled in a dumpster on August 20. But the coming of fall brought no end to the violence. On September 14, ten year old Darron Glass vanished. On October 9, twelve year old Charles Stephens disappeared as well. Stephens body was foun the next day, a victim of suffocation. Several days later, the skeletal remains of LaTonya Wilson were found not too far from her home. That fall, the mayor issued a city-wide curfew. All attempts by citizens and authorities alike to prevent further murders seemed in vain. In the first week of November, nine year old Aaron Jackson was found murdered near where his friend Aaron Wyche's body was found. An aquaintance of both boys, Patrick Rogers, 16, was the next victim. Rogers disappeared on November 10th, and was found 11 days later face down in the Chatahoochee River, dead from a blow to the head. A friend's mother told police that Rogers had been looking for her son to tell him that he had found someone to meneage their singing careers. That man was Wayne Wiliams. The new year brought new tragedies. Lubie Geter, aged14, disappeared in January of 1981, his body was found in the woods in February. Terry Pue, 15, also disappeared in January. He was found strangled to death after an anonymous phone tip from a white man. Patrick Baltazar, 11, disappeared on February 6; his body was discovered one week later. By the end of March, 3 more children has been killed. One chilling fact emerged as the killing continued, the victims were getting older. Then, it was adults who were being killed. 7 adults were murdered in similar fashion in the next two months. Then something happened that was the break in the case everyone ws waiting for. |
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| The 80's History Project Crimes The Atlanta Child Murders July 21, 1979 - May 21, 1981 |