In the spring of 1980, a shadow of fear had already begun to stretch across the city of Atlanta as children, predominantly African-American, were disappearing with alarming frequency. It was in this atmosphere of growing dread that 11-year-old Jeffery Lamar Mathis vanished. On March 11, the young boy, a student at Joel Chandler Harris Elementary, was sent on a simple errand by his mother to a local service station.
Witnesses would later report seeing him, with one account describing him getting into a blue car occupied by two men. This would be the last time he was seen alive. For his mother, Willie Mae Mathis, and his family, it was the beginning of an agonizing 11-month vigil, a period marked by both hope and the grim reality of the city's unfolding tragedy.
The search for Jeffery ended in a briar-covered patch of woodlands in southwest Atlanta. It was there, in February 1981, that his skeletal remains were discovered. The condition of his body after nearly a year of exposure made it impossible for the medical examiner to determine a precise cause of death, though it was ruled a homicide. The discovery brought a devastating conclusion to his family's search and added another name to the growing list of victims in what would become known as the Atlanta Child Murders. The funeral for the young boy was held at the Westhills Presbyterian Church, a somber gathering of family, friends, and a community gripped by fear.
The investigation into Jeffery's death became intertwined with the larger task force effort to solve the string of child murders. While numerous theories and leads were pursued, the name that would become most closely associated with the crimes was that of Wayne Williams. Williams, an Atlanta native, was arrested in June 1981 and subsequently convicted in 1982 for the murders of two adults. Law enforcement officials publicly attributed a number of the child murders, including Jeffery Mathis's, to Williams, effectively closing their cases. However, Williams was never formally charged with or tried for the murder of Jeffery Mathis, and the state did not officially attribute his death to him. Despite the convictions in other cases, Williams has maintained his innocence. In the years that followed, the cases of the Atlanta Child Murders have been subject to renewed scrutiny and, in 2019, were reopened by Atlanta police in the hope that advances in forensic technology could bring more definitive answers to the deaths of children like Jeffery Mathis.
