In a quiet Roswell, Georgia neighborhood on the afternoon of June 5, 2014, 20-year-old Spencer David Long and his friend, Nicholas Farrell Abry, also 20, were fatally shot in a targeted attack. The two young men were sitting inside Long's gray Mazda SUV, which was parked in front of Abry's home on Lynwood Drive, when the tranquil afternoon was shattered by the sound of gunfire. Neighbors reported hearing the shots around 3 p.m. and promptly called 911.
The investigation into the double homicide quickly pointed to a planned and deliberate act, not a random event. Witnesses at the scene described a newer model charcoal gray Audi sedan, possibly an A6 or A8 with chrome wheels and a white temporary tag, leaving the area shortly after the shooting. The driver was described as an African-American man. This information was crucial for the police in the initial hours of their investigation.
Within hours of the shooting, police located a vehicle matching the description in the parking lot of a Kroger on Marietta Highway. The driver, 31-year-old Stephen Oliver Heller of Marietta, was initially taken into custody on a suspended license charge as the investigation continued. Detectives later discovered a handgun believed to be the murder weapon and the white paper drive-out tag that witnesses had reported. Based on this evidence, Heller was charged with two counts of homicide. The motive for the killings appeared to be a dispute over money.
In December 2016, Stephen Heller, then 34, pleaded guilty to the murders of Spencer Long and Nicholas Abry. The Fulton County District Attorney's Office had initially sought the death penalty. However, at the request of the victims' families, prosecutors accepted a plea deal. Heller was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, bringing a legal conclusion to a case that had tragically cut short the lives of two young men.
