In the summer of 1987, a horrific act of violence shattered the quiet of a Milledgeville, Georgia neighborhood and ended the life of 22-year-old Sandra D. Reaves. On July 12th, Sandra, her 19-year-old sister Evelyn Reaves, and their 41-year-old mother, Dorothy Hightower, were brutally shot inside their McKinley Street home. The gruesome discovery was made in the early morning hours by Dorothy's brother, Curtis Reaves, who had arrived at the residence to pick up his daughter.
Upon
entering the home, he was met with a devastating scene. Both Sandra and her mother, Dorothy, were already deceased. Evelyn, though gravely wounded, was still alive but would succumb to her injuries two days later. The sole suspect in the brutal triple homicide was Dorothy's husband and the young women's stepfather, John Washington Hightower.
The investigation quickly zeroed in on Hightower. He was apprehended by police just hours after the bodies were discovered, at approximately 4:30 a.m. on the same day. He was found driving his wife's car, and a small-caliber handgun, later determined to be the murder weapon, was discovered on the floorboard of the vehicle. The gun reportedly had traces of flesh and blood on it, a grim testament to the violence that had transpired.
Investigators learned that Hightower and his wife had been experiencing marital problems and had been arguing in the week leading up to the murders. On the night of the killings, after the victims had gone to sleep, Hightower retrieved the gun he had purchased earlier and shot his wife and two stepdaughters. He later admitted to the killings, stating that he shot Dorothy in the head before entering Sandra's room and shooting her twice.
In 1988, a jury convicted John Washington Hightower for the three murders and sentenced him to death. After years of appeals, his sentence was carried out, and he was executed by lethal injection on June 26, 2007. In his final moments, he reportedly offered an apology to his victims.
