In June of 1981, a chilling discovery was made in a Fulton County apartment complex on Roswell Road, shattering the community's sense of security. The body of 22-year-old Patricia Berry was found inside her apartment, partially clothed and submerged in her bathtub. The cause of her death was determined to be strangulation.
Investigators were immediately struck by the haunting similarities between Patricia Berry's murder and two other recent homicides in neighboring DeKalb County.
In those cases, two other young women, also 22 years old, had been found strangled in their bathtubs. The grim pattern suggested the work of a serial killer, a terrifying prospect that put local law enforcement on high alert and spread fear throughout the metro Atlanta area. The media would come to refer to the unknown assailant as the 'Bathtub Strangler.'
As the investigation intensified, detectives from both Fulton and DeKalb counties began to share information and collaborate on the cases. The similarities were too stark to be a coincidence. The focus of their investigation would eventually lead them to a man named James Samuel Walraven. He was later arrested and charged in connection with the string of brutal slayings. The arrest brought a sense of relief to a community that had been on edge, but it did little to ease the pain and loss for the families of the victims.
