The murders of 14 people in the Floyd County area remain unsolved. In a week long series, the Rome News-Tribune revisits their lives and the circumstances surrounding their untimely deaths.
Created by rntcom on May 6, 2010
Last updated: 06/10/11 at 02:19 PM
Tags: Rome Floyd County Crime
Donnie Cantrell, 44, was found on August 6, 1999 near 1139 Thomas Bluff Road by his girlfriend around 2 p.m. that afternoon. He was found lying face up on the ground in front of the trailer with a single gunshot wound to his abdomen. The property owner had allowed Cantrell to live in one of the trailers of the past few months because he didn’t have a place to live.
Jessie Crozier, 67, was found stabbed in his Kingston Avenue Apartment. He had been dead for almost two weeks when he was found at his home. Found dead in his home on March 8, 1994 landlord asked police to check the apartment. He had been stabbed in the neck twice with a knife. At that time, police said he may have been dead as many as three weeks before being discovered. He was last seen Feb 18, 1994.
Rachel Rowe, 58, was struck in the head and face with a blunt weapon. Her body was found by a group of Floyd County Prison work detail on Dec. 6, 1993. Originally identified as a man, her body was found sprawled on the ground clothed but with her black boots lying next to her body. There were signs of a struggle and that the body had been moved a short distance. The area was described as a shortcut for foot traffic from Green and Gold Boulevard and the railroad tracks. In the weeks following the murder, police questioned several suspects but made no arrests.
Juan Mendoza, 36, was reported missing March 25 by family members. Several days later, his blue van was found March 28 abandoned at an Oostanaula River Floodgate only about 10 yards from where his body was found nearly a month later. His body was found in the afternoon of April 25, 1992 by a group of men playing soccer. The motive appeared to be robbery and two suspects were questioned in the incident but not charged.
Clarence Bailey, 65, had not been seen for several days before he was found dead on July 19, 1990. He was found lying face down in his kitchen clutching a tool box handle with a glass bottle under him. Blood was splattered on the walls, back of front door and in kitchen. The motive appeared to be a robbery. Bailey owned B&B Sales located on Maple St. and did painting and carpentry for a local real-estate company.
Vickie Gail Lawson was stabbed to death while working at a Favorite Market food store at 5:40 a.m. on the morning of Dec 5, 1987. Lawson lived long enough to describe her attacker and told the police the man demanded money then struck her in the face with a brick before stabbing her. She died at Floyd Medical Center 11 hours later. A city ordinance requiring the two clerks to be on duty or a video camera surveillance system went into effect a year of Lawson’s death.
Elisha Whatley, 25, was found by a passing motorist near the railroad underpass on Spider Webb Drive. The young woman who worked at Brentwood Nursing Home was kidnapped from her home on Pennington Avenue near midnight and found in the roadway on Spider Webb Drive on the morning of July 15, 1985. She had been sexually assaulted and asphyxiated.
Barbara Edwards’ remains were found by a wood cutter off Rockmart Highway. She was last seen leaving a tavern, Mary’s Supper Club, on May 7, 1982 approximately one mile away from where her remains were found. A report from the Nov. 16, 1982 News-Tribune stated the investigation was at that point focusing on two suspects. They were not identified, but the lead detective in the case said that the investigation keeps pointing at two people. Police also ruled out Judith and Alvin Neelley, a Tennessee couple arrested earlier in the year in connection with the death of two teenage girls.
Sam Chapman, 58, disappeared after leaving work at the Alabama Highway plant late Feb. 27, 1980. His skeletal remains were found inside a burnt structure on Big Texas Valley Road. His pickup truck, a cream-colored 1967 stepside Ford pickup truck, was discovered by police Feb. 28 in the parking lot of Gala Shopping Center.
Ernest Carl Peeler, 28, was found inside the Shorter Avenue Men’s Den, where he was lying in the bathroom after a customer went in the store and saw blood on the floor. He died later from injuries caused by two shots from a .22 caliber weapon, apparently fired while the store was robbed.
Businessman Kyle McConkey, 55, was getting stamps at the U.S. Post office late on a Sunday night. He was accosted and shot near a stamp machine and ran 50 feet then was shot several more times by an unidentified assailant. Police say they found McConkey’s body inside the post office’s parking lot doors. He had been shot twice in the chest, once in the side and once in the back with a small caliber handgun. A 16-year-old man was charged and acquitted of the murder after a series of trials and mistrials.
On the morning of Feb. 25, 1974, employees at Josh Shmukler’s Kwick Kurb convenience store on Dean Avenue called police, saying the store had been burglarized. Police went to the LaPorte Street residence of the 60-year-old Rome businessman to inform him of the incident but instead found him sitting in a living room chair in a daze, severely beaten. A burglar, apparently the same one that had entered the store, had come into Shmukler’s house through an unlocked bathroom window, beaten Shmukler with a weapon, ransacked the house, and then left, taking along keys to the convenience store. Shmukler later died at Floyd Hospital.
On Sept. 4, 1972, 34-year-old gas station attendant Leonard Posey was robbed and killed. Neighbors heard two gunshots coming from the Supreme Oil service station on Calhoun Road near Shannon and spotted a 1963 or 1964 light colored Ford Fairlane speeding away toward Rome with a loud muffler. Suspects were questioned but no arrests were made.
Kelly Ledbetter, 45, of Old Lindale Road was killed Feb. 25, 1968. He was shot dead with a single blast from a high-powered weapon as he turned the key to start his truck, found parked just outside the door of the 7 Division Street Moose Lodge. Witnesses heard shots, then called police when they saw Ledbetter slumped over the steering wheel.
Update Sources