Story
last updated at 12:32 AM on Aug. 9, 2004
Still few leads in missing cases
By Joe Johnson
joe.johnson@onlineathens.com
With the roll of missing Athens residents continuing to grow - two gone for
more than a year and possibly dead - police now fear the worst for yet another
local woman, who hasn't been seen or heard from in more than a month.
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Believing
her disappearance to be suspicious, Athens-Clarke police on Thursday used a
cadaver dog in their continued search for 40-year-old Bonnie Lane resident
Terry Lynn Hunter.
For
months now, police have believed foul play was involved in the disappearances
of Shanta "Dena" Dowdy, a 22-year-old Martin Circle mother of two,
and Larry Bailey, a 39-year-old North Bluff Road resident with two sons, both
of whom were last seen April 18, 2003.
There
is more optimism that Stedham "Chip" Maddox III, a 28-year-old
University of Georgia cafeteria worker last seen when leaving work the evening
of July 31, will be found because he suffers from mental illness and has gone
missing before.
And
possibly today will be the day officials will release the identity of a woman
whose body was found Wednesday in Wilkes County, and thought to be that of
29-year-old Kathryn Anne Grant, who has been missing since July 31.
The
Georgia Bureau of Investigation's State Crime Lab on Friday had yet to complete
the identification process, using dental and fingerprint records provided by
Grant's family, according to Mike Siegler, special agent in charge of the GBI's
Thomson office, which is handling the case.
"What
I can say is there was no detection of trauma, which lessens the likelihood of
foul play, although that has not been ruled out," Siegler said.
The
body was found in a wooded area near the Little River, some 200 yards from a
Ford F-150 pickup truck belonging to Grant, an employee of UGA's Veterinary
Teaching Hospital.
Grant
was reported missing to Athens authorities last Tuesday by her father, Randy
Grant, when she did not show up for work for two days. She lived with a
roommate at a Barnett Shoals Road apartment, who reported last seeing Grant at
about 2:30 p.m. July 31. A UGA co-worker saw Grant at the Super Wal-Mart on
Lexington Road later that same day. Police determined she had purchased a
bottle of over-the-counter sleeping pills at the store.
The
roommate said Grant had been depressed over the recent death of a friend.
The
prospect of finding Hunter alive has become bleaker, with the decision by
police to use a cadaver dog in their search for her.
Said
to be an avid walker, Hunter would make frequent daily contacts with friends
and family members as she made her rounds. The last time she was seen was July
6, when several people spotted her in the vicinity of the Parkview Homes public
housing project, police said.
Acting
on information from a source, the dog searched trails in wooded areas off
Fourth Street in east Athens, but the search was called off after about four
hours because the dog became exhausted by the heat, Athens-Clarke police Lt.
Gregory Paul said. The area is not far from the missing woman's residence.
Paul
said the dog, a privately owned dog trained to search for bodies and on loan to
police, will probably be used again as additional information is developed,
police said.
Hunter
is described as a black woman about 5 feet, 11 inches tall, weighing 160
pounds, with brown eyes and black hair.
Police
said the investigation had not turned up any such leads as credit card
transactions made by the woman since July 6, and that there was ''no word on
the street'' as to what may have occurred.
"It's
still a missing-person case, but one under suspicious circumstances," Paul
said. "There is no reason to believe this is a homicide, at least not at
this point."
The
officer conceded the likelihood for a happy ending to Hunter's search lessens
with each passing day.
Besides
the date of their disappearances, a common link between the April 2003
disappearances of Dowdy and Bailey was their association with 27-year-old
Marcus Jamar Hall, who police said has an extensive criminal history involving
arrests for drugs and violence and is presently awaiting trial on kidnapping
and rape charges.
Hall
is the father of Dowdy's two young children, the youngest of whom was born in
January 2003, three months before his mother's disappearance.
According
to police, Dowdy left her children in the care of a cousin in order to go out
with Hall the evening of her disappearance, and witnesses reported seeing the
couple arguing later that same night, with Dowdy walking away from Hall's car.
Hall
did not have a driver's license because of a host of felony convictions,
according to police, and sometimes relied on Bailey for rides.
Athens-Clarke
police Lt. Clarence Holeman of the robbery/homicide unit said he believed the
disappearances of Dowdy and Bailey were related, and added, "These are
more homicide cases than they are missing-persons cases."
The
police lieutenant said the theories leading investigators to believe both
missing persons have been murdered resulted from extensive interviews of
persons who have known Hall, Dowdy and Bailey.
Acting
on information that Bailey and Dowdy might be buried somewhere in the county,
extensive searches have been conducted at certain locations, although Holeman
declined to say where or what methods were used.
Since
both people went missing, Hall has had two serious scrapes with the law.
He
was arrested on July 20, 2003, on charges of kidnapping a woman at gunpoint in
Jefferson with the intention of bringing her to Athens-Clarke County. Along the
way, however, the car Hall and three other males were in was stopped by a
Georgia State Patrol trooper for a traffic violation.
It
was found out at the time he was wanted on outstanding warrants, but he was
later released on bond, after the charges were reduced to misdemeanors.
Attorney
David Crowe, who is representing Hall on another criminal matter, said his
client has denied involvement with Dowdy's disappearance.
Most
recently, according to police, a 38-year-old woman reported that while driving
around with Hall the evening of May 26 of this year, he punched her repeatedly,
then took her to a residence in the Garnett Ridge neighborhood off Jefferson
River Road, where he beat and raped her.
Hall
was indicted by a Clarke County grand jury in June on charges of kidnapping,
rape, two counts of aggravated assault and possession of a firearm by a
convicted felon in connection with the Garnett Ridge case.
The
most recent missing person report, involving Maddox, was filed Wednesday by
Lenox Road resident Dennis Gibson, the missing man's grandfather. Gibson said
Maddox was last seen by co-workers at about 11 p.m. July 31, as he was leaving
his job as dishwasher in the cafeteria of UGA's Georgia Center for Continuing
Education on the university's South Campus.
Because
of a slight mental disability due to a severe head injury as a child, Gibson
said, Maddox has been known to wander off for days at a time before returning
home.
"He's
done it before, but we're worried about him," Gibson said, adding that
because of his disability, and a helpful disposition, his grandson has
disappeared in the past due to people "taking advantage of him."
Maddox
is described as white male, 5 feet, 6 inches tall, weighing 135 pounds, with
short dark hair. He usually wears blue jeans and earrings.
Anyone
with information about any of the missing-person cases should call
Athens-Clarke police at (706) 613-3337. Anonymous callers may phone the Crime
Stoppers Tip Line at (706) 613-3342.
Published in the Athens
Banner-Herald on Monday, August 9, 2004