Randy Willis was 25 years old when he was killed in Atlanta on Wednesday, May 7, 2008. The Atlanta Police Department Homicide Unit investigated, 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.
Only a little about his life has been made public. A short obituary listed him as Randy Willis of Atlanta, 25, who "passed Wednesday, May 7." His funeral was held a week later, at 1 p.m.
on Wednesday, May 14, 2008, at Mt. Carmel Baptist Church, with burial afterward. No news story about the killing, memorial page or family fundraiser could be found for this account.
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 the person who killed him, 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.
Randy Willis is also a common name, and searches for it are dominated by other men: a Cartersville man remembered by his Little League, a Minnesota sheriff, a North Carolina store owner and a Philadelphia man tried in an unrelated New Jersey case. None of those people is the 25-year-old who died in Atlanta, and none of those stories is about his death.
His death came on the same day that another man, 43-year-old Lewis Adams, was killed south of downtown. Nothing in the public record connects the two cases, but the day was a violent one in the city.
The location recorded in the Post's database places his death in west Atlanta, a few miles west of downtown. People who lived in that part of the city in early May 2008 may remember Randy, and may remember the police activity that followed his death in the middle of the week.
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 that period never led to an arrest, and the Post's 2018 investigation counted Atlanta among the cities with large numbers of unsolved homicides. Most victims were young men like Randy, and cases with few public details often faded from view quickly.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Randy Willis could be found in news archives or public records. More than 18 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who knew Randy Willis, attended his funeral at Mt. Carmel Baptist, 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.
