In the fall of 2015, the quiet woods near U.S. Highway 27 and Edwards Road in Franklin, Georgia, held a grim secret. On Wednesday, September 23rd, a group of hunters moving through the area stumbled upon a partially decomposed body and immediately alerted the Heard County Sheriff's Office. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation was called in to assist with the troubling discovery. It would take a week for the authorities to piece together the victim's identity through the use of medical records.
The man was identified as Antonio 'Tony' Moore, a 38-year-old retired Navy veteran from Huntsville, Alabama.
The investigation into Moore's life revealed that his family had reported him missing from his Alabama home on Saturday, September 12, 2015, nearly two weeks before his body was found. The GBI Medical Examiner's office determined that Moore had not died of natural causes but had been the victim of a homicide, having suffered a fatal gunshot wound. The search for his killer did not take long.
As the GBI and the Heard County Sheriff's Office delved into the circumstances surrounding Moore's death, their investigation led them to a suspect. Dimitri Merci Jackson, a 29-year-old, was arrested and charged with the murder of Antonio Moore. The investigation was announced as ongoing, with authorities appealing to the public for any additional information that might shed more light on the case. Anyone with information was asked to contact the Heard County Sheriff’s Office or the GBI Columbus Regional Office.
