On a quiet Sunday in July, the stillness of a rural Burke County road was broken by a grim discovery. The body of a man, later identified as 58-year-old Morris Harden Jr. of Augusta, was found lying just off the pavement on Watkins Pond Road on July 10, 2022. An investigation by the Burke County Sheriff's Office quickly determined that Harden had been the victim of a fatal gunshot wound. Though found in Burke County, it was soon revealed that Harden had no apparent connections to the area, deepening the mystery of his final moments. He had last been seen alive at his residence in Augusta on July 9, 2022.
The investigation into the death of the Black male took a significant turn less than a month later. On Tuesday, August 2, 2022, authorities announced the arrest of three men from Augusta in connection with the case. The narrative that emerged from the investigation was a tragic one: Harden had been shot and killed inside a residence in Augusta, and his body was subsequently transported and abandoned on the roadside in Burke County.
The three men taken into custody were 51-year-old Willie Warren Johnson, 61-year-old Carl Grady Rouse, and Albert Killebrew III. All three were charged with murder. Johnson and Rouse faced additional charges of kidnapping and tampering with evidence, painting a picture of a carefully planned and executed crime. Killebrew was also charged with possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. At the time of their arrests in the Harden case, Johnson and Rouse were being held in the Burke County Detention Center, while Killebrew was already incarcerated at the Richmond County Detention Center on unrelated charges. The Burke County Sheriff's Office indicated that the investigation was ongoing, suggesting the possibility of further developments and potential for more arrests in the case.
