Eric Billingsley was 43 years old when he was killed in Atlanta on Friday, August 24, 2007. The Atlanta Police Department 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 Eric Billingsley has been made public.
No news story about the killing, memorial page or family fundraiser could be found for this account. He surely had family, friends and neighbors who remember who he was, but little of that has entered the public record.
Because so little has been released, even the basic circumstances remain unknown. The record does not say how he was killed, whether he was attacked indoors or on the street, whether he knew his attacker, or whether he died at the scene or later at a hospital. It does not say whether investigators ever identified a suspect.
Eric Billingsley's name also appears in a 2018 Washington Post investigation that listed thousands of homicide victims in major American cities whose killings had not led to an arrest.
Eric Billingsley is also a name shared by other people, including a real estate agent in Arkansas, a business journalist, a landscaper in Alabama and men named as relatives in obituaries across the South. None of their records concern the 43-year-old who died in Atlanta in August 2007, and the overlap makes it harder to find any trace of his own story.
His age stands out. Most homicide victims in Atlanta in those years were in their teens and 20s. A man of 43 would likely have had an established circle of family, co-workers and friends, and people who were part of his daily routine may remember when he stopped appearing.
The location recorded in the database places his death in northwest Atlanta, on the Westside, an area of older neighborhoods west of Midtown and downtown. His death came on a Friday in late August 2007, at the end of a summer week, when people in the area may have been out in the evening and may remember the police response that followed.
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 were young men killed with guns, and many of those killings never led to an arrest. Cases with few public details often faded from view quickly.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Eric Billingsley 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 Eric Billingsley, saw him in the days before he died, or heard talk afterward of what happened to him, 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.
