Joseph Williamson was 58 years old when he was killed in Atlanta on Friday, April 20, 2007. The Atlanta Police Department Homicide Unit investigated his death, and the Washington Post's homicide database, which tracked killings in Atlanta from 2007 through 2017, lists it as a homicide that remained open with no arrest.
Beyond his name, his age and the date of his death, almost nothing about Joseph Williamson has been made public.
No news story about the killing, obituary, memorial page or family fundraiser could be found for this account. He surely had family, friends and neighbors who remember who he was, but none of that has entered the public record.
One report may be connected to his death. In November 2009, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on a suspected serial killer who had waived a court hearing. The article quoted an investigator identified as Velazquez as saying that a fourth victim, Joseph Williamson, also may have been killed by the same person in 2007, and that investigators were looking into it. Only a short excerpt of that article was available for this account, so it is not possible to confirm from it that this was the same man, who the suspect was, or what came of that line of inquiry. No charge in Joseph Williamson's death appears in the available record.
Because so little has been released, even the basic circumstances remain unknown to the public. The record does not say how he was killed, whether he was attacked indoors or on the street, whether he knew his attacker, what time of day it happened, or whether he died at the scene or later at a hospital. It does not say whether investigators ever identified a suspect.
His age stands out. At 58, he was far older than most of Atlanta's homicide victims in those years. Older victims are more often killed at or near home, or by someone who sees them as an easy target, but nothing public says how he was killed or whether he knew his attacker.
The location recorded in the Post's database places his death in west Atlanta, well west of downtown. People who lived or worked in that area at the time may remember the police activity that followed his death, and may know more than they realize about what happened.
Atlanta, the capital of Georgia and the center of a metro area of more than 5 million people, recorded roughly 75 to 130 homicides a year between 2007 and 2017. Most victims in those years were young men, and most were killed with guns. Many killings from those years never led to an arrest, and the Washington Post's 2018 investigation counted Atlanta among the cities with large numbers of unsolved homicides. Cases with few public details, like his, often faded from view quickly.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Joseph Williamson could be found in news archives or public records. More than 19 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who knew Joseph Williamson, or who remembers the 2009 reports of a possible serial killer and has information about a 2007 killing, may be able to help. Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a car seen leaving the area or a conversation remembered, can help detectives move a case forward. Anyone with information can call the Atlanta Police Department Homicide Unit at 404-546-4235, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers Greater Atlanta at 404-577-TIPS (404-577-8477), which may pay a cash reward for information that leads to an arrest.
