In the summer of 1980, a shadow of fear had already begun to stretch across the city of Atlanta. A then-unidentified predator was targeting the community's most vulnerable: its children. It was in this climate of growing dread that 10-year-old Earl Terrell, an African American boy, vanished. On July 30th, he had been at the South Bend Park swimming pool. After getting into a minor scuffle, he was asked to leave. It was the last time he was seen alive.
His family's search for him grew more frantic as the hours turned into days. A disturbing phone call to his aunt's home in the early morning hours of July 31st briefly offered a twisted glimmer of hope. The caller, described as a white man with a southern drawl, claimed to have Earl in Alabama and demanded a $200 ransom. He promised to call back the next day, but the phone remained silent.
Months dragged on with no word of Earl's whereabouts. The city's grim tally of missing and murdered children continued to rise, each new case compounding the public's terror. Then, on January 9, 1981, a resident in a wooded area off Redwine Road reported that his dog had discovered something unsettling. Police investigating the scene uncovered the skeletal remains of two young boys. Dental records would eventually confirm that one of the victims was Earl Terrell. His body was found alongside the remains of another missing boy, Christopher Richardson. Due to the advanced state of decomposition, the official cause of Earl's death could not be determined. The discovery sent another shockwave of grief and fear through Atlanta.
The investigation into Earl's death became intertwined with the larger 'Atlanta Child Murders' case, a series of at least 28 slayings of African American children, adolescents, and young adults between 1979 and 1981. Near the location where Earl and Christopher's bodies were found, investigators collected several items, including magazines that yielded fingerprints. However, the individual to whom the prints were matched was not considered a strong suspect. Ultimately, a man named Wayne Williams was arrested and convicted in 1982 for the murders of two of the adult victims. While authorities attributed many of the child murders, including Earl's, to Williams, he was never formally charged with or tried for them. The cases of many of the children, including Earl Terrell, officially remain unsolved. In March 2019, Atlanta's mayor announced that the evidence from the child murder cases would be re-tested in the hopes that new technology could bring about long-awaited answers and a final measure of justice.
