Terrance Sydney was 23 years old when he was killed in Atlanta on Tuesday, August 28, 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 Terrance Sydney 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.
Terrance Sydney'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. Online cold-case listings that carry the Post's record give his age as 23, list the cause of death as murder and name the Atlanta Police Department as the agency, but add no details.
One detail in the record stands out. The same day, Tuesday, August 28, 2007, another 23-year-old man, Venancio Garcia, was also killed in Atlanta, and the locations recorded for the two deaths are less than a mile apart on the city's north side. The Post's list names them one after the other. Nothing in the public record says whether the two deaths were connected, and they may have been separate events, but people who remember one may remember the other.
His name may also have been recorded in more than one way. Public records in Atlanta list a Terrance Sydney Hayward, which raises the possibility that Sydney was a middle name and that the man who died used another surname. That could not be confirmed, and the record should not be read as proof of it, but it may help explain why his story has been so hard to find.
The location recorded in the database places his death on the north side of Atlanta, in the general Buckhead area, a part of the city of offices, shopping centers and apartment complexes. Residents and workers there at the end of August 2007 may remember the police response that day.
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 Terrance Sydney 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 Terrance Sydney, saw him in the days before he died, or heard talk afterward of what happened on August 28, 2007, 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.
