William Jones III was 39 years old when he was killed in Atlanta on Sunday, August 29, 2010. 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 William Jones III 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.
Because so little has been released, even the basic circumstances remain unknown to the public. The record does not say how he was killed, exactly where it happened, whether he knew the person responsible, or whether he died at the scene or later at a hospital. It does not say whether investigators ever identified a suspect.
The suffix in his name stands out. Being the third William Jones in a family means his father and grandfather carried the same name, and his relatives may have known him by a nickname such as Trey or Will. He was 39 and was killed on a Sunday at the end of August, near the end of summer.
William Jones III is also a common name. Searches for it are dominated by other people who share it, which makes it harder to find any trace of the man who died in Atlanta in 2010 and may help explain why his story has been so hard to follow. Searches return a corporate director, a Maryland man charged in an unrelated 2016 double killing and many obituaries for other men named William Jones, none of them connected to his death.
His name could not be found on the online cold-case listings that carry many unsolved Atlanta killings from those years, and no family appeal, memorial page or anniversary post about him turned up.
The location recorded in the Post's database places his death in southwest Atlanta. People who lived or worked in that area in August 2010 may remember William Jones III, and may remember the police activity that followed his death.
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 William Jones III could be found in news archives or public records. More than 16 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who knew William Jones III and saw him in the days before he died, or who heard talk afterward of what happened, 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.
