Cold Cases in Georgia
ColdCaseIndex documents 20 cases in Georgia, dated 1965 to 2024. 7 are recorded as unsolved. The earliest is Mary Shotwell Little (1965) and the most recent is Laken Riley (2024).
- Unsolved 7 (35%)
- Partly resolved 2 (10%)
- Solved or convicted 9 (45%)
- Closed without conviction 2 (10%)
Homicide clearance in Georgia, 1965 to 2024
A homicide is "cleared" when police make an arrest or close it by exceptional means, so an uncleared case is not always an unsolved one. Source: Murder Accountability Project analysis of FBI Uniform Crime Report data, as published by Project: Cold Case. These are statewide totals and are separate from the ColdCaseIndex entries listed below.
By type
All Georgia cases
Laken Riley
Laken Riley, a 22-year-old Augusta University nursing student, was killed on February 22, 2024 while running on a trail on the University of Georgia campus in Athens.
Ahmaud Arbery
Ahmaud Arbery, 25, was chased by three men in pickup trucks and fatally shot in the Satilla Shores neighborhood near Brunswick, Georgia, on February 23, 2020.
King Von
Chicago rapper King Von (Dayvon Bennett), 26, was fatally shot outside the Monaco Hookah Lounge in Atlanta on November 6, 2020, when an argument between two groups turned into a gunfight.
Tamla Horsford
Tamla Horsford, a Black mother of five, was found dead at a sleepover party at a white friend's home in Cumming, Georgia. Her death was ruled accidental but her family disputes this.
Kendrick Johnson
Kendrick Johnson, a 17-year-old student, was found dead inside a rolled-up gym mat in the gymnasium at Lowndes High School in Valdosta, Georgia, in January 2013.
Tiffany Michelle Whitton
Tiffany Whitton, a 26-year-old mother, was last seen on security video running barefoot out of a Walmart in Marietta, Georgia, in the early hours of September 13, 2013, after a suspected shoplifting incident.
Lauren Giddings
Lauren Giddings, a 27-year-old Mercer University law graduate, was strangled and dismembered in her Macon, Georgia, apartment in June 2011.
Nique Leili
Dominique "Nique" Leili, 44, was last seen at her home near Lawrenceville, Georgia, in the early hours of July 9, 2011. Volunteer searchers found her body hidden under vegetation at the entrance to her neighborhood on July 16.
Chris Benoit Family Murders
Professional wrestler Chris Benoit killed his wife Nancy and seven-year-old son Daniel in their Fayetteville, Georgia home over the weekend of June 22-24, 2007, then hanged himself.
Tara Grinstead
Tara Grinstead, a 30-year-old high school history teacher and former beauty queen, vanished from her home in Ocilla, Georgia, in October 2005.
Patrice Endres
Patrice Endres, a 38-year-old salon owner, vanished from her Cumming, Georgia, business within a roughly 13-minute window in 2004.
Jason Johnson (Camoflauge)
Rapper Jason Akeil Johnson, 21, who performed as Camoflauge, was shot on May 19, 2003, outside the Pure Pain Records studio on West 37th Street in Savannah, Georgia, while walking with his toddler son, who was not hurt.
Tara Louise Baker
Tara Louise Baker, a 23-year-old University of Georgia law student, was killed in her Athens apartment in 2001, the crime concealed by an intentionally set fire.
Levi Frady
Levi Frady, an 11-year-old boy, disappeared while riding his bike home in Forsyth County, Georgia, in 1997 and was found shot to death the next day in Dawson Forest.
Shannon Melendi
Shannon Melendi, a 19-year-old Emory University student, was abducted from a DeKalb County softball complex in 1994 and never seen again.
Lita McClinton Sullivan
Lita McClinton Sullivan, an Atlanta socialite, was shot dead at her Buckhead townhouse in January 1987 by a hit man disguised as a flower delivery man, on the day of a divorce hearing.
Atlanta Child Murders Victims
At least 28 young Black children and adults were murdered in Atlanta between 1979 and 1981, causing citywide panic. Wayne Williams was convicted of two adult murders and sentenced to life.
Kyle Clinkscales
Kyle Clinkscales, a 22-year-old Auburn University student, vanished while driving from LaGrange, Georgia, back to campus in 1976.
Barbara Jane Mackle
Barbara Jane Mackle, 20, an Emory University student, was abducted at gunpoint from a Decatur, Georgia, motel on December 17, 1968, and buried in a ventilated box while a $500,000 ransom was demanded.
Mary Shotwell Little
Mary Shotwell Little, a 25-year-old newlywed bank secretary, vanished on October 14, 1965, from the Lenox Square shopping center in Atlanta.