In the winter of 1986, the life of 16-year-old Aleta Carol Bunch was tragically cut short in Augusta, Georgia. On March 4, the teenager drove her blue Mustang to the Regency Mall for a modeling assignment and to do some shopping. She was last seen leaving the mall at 3:30 p.m. Her family's world was shattered when, 11 days later, her body was discovered in a remote, wooded area. An investigation revealed she had been the victim of a brutal attack.
The evidence led police to 17-year-old Alexander Edmund Williams IV, who was arrested on March 12. Williams had been seen driving a blue Mustang, later identified as belonging to Bunch, on the evening of her disappearance. He had also used her parents' credit cards. During the investigation, Williams made several incriminating statements to friends, admitting to the murder. He confessed to meeting a girl at the mall, forcing her into her car, driving to a secluded location where he sexually assaulted her, and then shooting her to keep her quiet. Bunch had been shot five times, once in the chest and four times in the head. Her body was found nude from the waist down, and the scene showed signs of a struggle.
In August 1986, a Richmond County jury convicted Alexander Williams of murder, rape, armed robbery, kidnapping with bodily injury, motor vehicle theft, and financial transaction card fraud. He was subsequently sentenced to death for the murder of Aleta Carol Bunch. However, Williams's case drew considerable attention over the years due to his documented history of severe mental illness, including a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia. After years of appeals and international outcry from death penalty opponents, his death sentence was commuted to life in prison without the possibility of parole in February 2002, just hours before his scheduled execution. The decision was made after psychiatrists confirmed his severe psychosis. In a final, grim chapter to the story, Alexander Williams, then 34, took his own life in his prison cell later that same year.
