In April of 1992, a young man named Conway Utterbeck, a 20-year-old male, was the victim of a brutal murder in Warner Robins, Georgia. His death was not a random act of violence, but a betrayal by those he considered friends and fellow U.S. Navy sailors. The tragic events unfolded during a weekend trip to the home of Edward Vollmer's parents.
During what should have been a period of relaxation and camaraderie, a dark turn of events transpired. After a night of drinking, Vollmer managed to convince another sailor, Travis Clinton Hittson, that Utterbeck posed a threat to them, planting a seed of paranoia that would have deadly consequences. Acting on this baseless fear, Hittson attacked Utterbeck with an aluminum baseball bat, striking him three times. Despite Utterbeck's pleas for his life, the assault escalated, culminating in Hittson fatally shooting him in the head.
The horror did not end with his death. In a calculated effort to conceal their crime, Hittson and Vollmer dismembered Utterbeck's body. They callously took $62 from his person before temporarily leaving the scene to eat at a Waffle House. Upon their return, they proceeded with the gruesome task of burying his torso in a wooded area nearby and later disposing of his other body parts in woods outside of Pensacola, Florida. The discovery of Utterbeck's torso by a logging crew two months later unraveled their horrific secret.
The investigation led to the arrests of both Travis Clinton Hittson and Edward Vollmer. In 1993, Hittson was convicted of murder and several other charges, ultimately receiving a death sentence for his role in the heinous crime. His appeals were unsuccessful, and he was executed by lethal injection in February 2016. Edward Vollmer was also convicted of murder and was sentenced to life in prison for his part in the orchestration of the killing.
