Wayne Williams Case Study

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Wayne Bertram Williams, a native to Atlanta Georgia, was born May 27, 1958 (Case Study, n.d.). He became the focus of a police investigation that became known as the “Atlanta Child Murders” involving twenty-nine murders (Case Study, n.d.). Eventually, Williams was convicted of two counts of murder and is still the prime suspect in many others (Wayne Biography, 2015).

The investigation began on July 28, 1979 when a woman found two young, black males dead on the side of a road (Wayne Biography, 2015). Both bodies were children, ages 13 & 14, and both had been reported as missing (Wayne Biography, 2015). One of the victims was killed from a gunshot wound, and the other was killed by asphyxiation (Wayne Biography, 2015). Approximately two …show more content…

The bodies have all been found off the road in wooded areas, but approximately a year after the FBI joined the investigation, the killer started dumping the bodies in the Chattahoochee River (Wayne Biography, 2015). It was assumed by investigators that the killer had been following the media reports and learned about the fibers found on the bodies (Case Study, n.d.). Not only were the bodies now being discarded in the river, they were also naked or mostly naked, which revealed the killer tried changing his disposal methods to prevent fibers from being discovered (Case Study, n.d.). But, this actually helped law enforcement, as now they could focus their search on the fourteen bridges for this river (Wayne Biography, 2015). May 22, 1981, police got their first real break in the case (Case Study, n.d.). Early that morning, a police team was staking out one of the bridges and heard a splash in the water (Case Study, n.d.). This resulted in them conducting a traffic stop on Wayne Williams station wagon and questioning him (Case Study, n.d.). Although the circumstances were suspicious, there no evidence of wrongdoing and Williams was free to go (Case Study, n.d.). However, only a couple days later, the police recovered another body from the river only about a mile down stream from

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