Atlanta Police Department has 32 cold homicide cases

The Atlanta Police Department’s list of unsolved homicide cases include killings as long ago as 1971 and as recently as 2014.

Those whose lives were stolen are a diverse group, age eight to 87, who leave families haunted by a lack of justice served. They include a police officer and a young college graduate; a child and a grandmother; a downtown hotel maid and a man who worked in a Buckhead bar.

The APD has a cold case unit that looks at such cases regularly, a spokeswoman said. The unit may resubmit evidence for processing, re-interview witnesses or follow up on anything new regarding a case.

APD asks people to alert police if they have information about any homicide on the list. Crime Stoppers Atlanta can be reached at 404-577-8477, and the Atlanta Police Department Fugitive Unit at 404-546-4220.

All information is according to the APD website or previous coverage from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Here are the victims, dates and places the crime occurred, and brief information about their cases.

Faye Dollar, 22

Dec. 4, 2014, 1470 Spring St.

Dollar was found in the trunk of her vehicle in the parking lot of the Admiral Benson Inn. Her family had reported her missing on Dec. 1, 1980. She died from a blow to her head.

Patrick Cotrona, 23

May 25, 2013, May Avenue SE near Flat Shoals Avenue

Cotrona, a videogame engineer, was walking from his home in East Atlanta to a local pub when he and

two friends were robbed at gunpoint. The robber shot Cotrona in the abdomen, killing him, then fled in a dark four-door vehicle.

A detective said he believes the killing was connected to two other robberies that night.

“He was a non-confrontational person who didn’t look for trouble and, I assume, didn’t think trouble would look for him,” his sister, Kate Krumm, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 2013. “And he died for nothing.”

Cotrona, a Georgia Tech graduate who grew up in Peachtree City, loved living in East Atlanta, his sister said.

Ronald Clark, 57

April 26, 2013, 2053 Marietta Blvd.

Clark was found shot and beaten in the road next to his van. He was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital, where he later died.

Clark had just cashed a check and gotten into his van to head back to work. As he drove his van in northwest Atlanta, a man emerged from the back of the van and struck him with a hammer. Investigators believe Clark fought back and the man shot him.

Gregory Smith, 47

Gregory Smith, 47 Aug. 7, 2010, 2388 El Paso Road SW

Smith was found shot to death in his red Ford Edge.

Smith had arrived in Atlanta from South Carolina with his wife. They had only been at his mother’s home in the Ben Hill neighborhood for roughly 30 minutes, when he said he was going to step out for a moment. Twenty minutes later, Smith’s older brother, Reginald, found him dead inside his car.

Doo Ran Yoo, 80

Sept. 1, 2009, 2860 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive She was shot to death inside of her family-run laundromat.

Patrick Boland, 43

May 28, 2009, 1073 Piedmont Ave.

Boland was found stabbed to death at Piedmont Park.

Iman Cannon, 21

May 13, 2008, 2521 Donald Lee Hollowell Pkwy.

Cannon was found shot to death behind a building.

Eula Tucker, 77

July 18, 2005, 625 Joseph Lowery Blvd. #11 Tucker was found beaten to death in an apartment.

Mattie Jackson, 87

July 10, 2003, 496 Rankin St.

Jackson was found stabbed to death in her house. A purse strap was found beside her but her purse was not found.

The stabbing may have started with a scam artist knocking on her Old Fourth Ward neighborhood door, a detective said in 2016. Someone stole checks that belonged to the victim and even passed a stolen check before Jackson’s body was found.

The grandmother put up a fight and the killer, or killers, had to cut the purse from her grip, the detective said.

Thirteen years after the murder, her granddaughter, Tracy Jackson, told Channel 2 Actions News that putting a name to the murder matters to her.

Unknown, 25-40 (unidentified bones)

Aug. 16, 1999, 532 Woodlawn Ave.

Skeletal remains were found in the rear of an abandoned house. The bones are believed to have been a black female, 25-40 years old, approximately 5 feet, 3 inches tall.

Johnny Howard, 27

June 1, 1999, 400 Nolan St.

Howard was found shot to death in Chosewood Park.

Melissa Wolfenbarger, 21

April 29, 1999, 858 Avon Ave.

Wolfenbarger’s head was found. A few months later, more of her severed remains were found in the area.

Benita Tolbert, 36

Aug. 25, 1997, 482 Old Wheat St.

Tolbert’s decomposed body was found in an abandoned house.

She was a mother of two. Nineteen years after Tolbert’s death, her mother told Channel 2 Action News that her daughter was a beautiful person who loved life.

Terrance Williams, 21

Sept. 2, 1996, Kings Smith Road and Hutchens Road Williams was shot and killed while he was driving.

Pauline Cerasoli, 56

Feb. 16, 1996, 210 Peachtree St., room 6414

Cerasoli was found badly beaten and strangled at the Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel.

An assailant pushed his way into her room and crushed her skull. She was left in a coma and died 15 years later.

Elia Banderas, 31

Dec. 30, 1995, 210 Peachtree St., room 6010

Banderas was found beaten to death inside of room 6010 of the Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel, where she worked as a maid.

Gloria Raines, 41

June 5, 1991, 896 Westmont Road

Raines was found dead inside of a vacant house.

Felecia McGhee, 19

Sept. 14, 1990

McGhee was found beaten and drowned in the bathtub of her apartment.

Carol Holman, 21

April 6, 1990, 1994 Piedmont Circle, room 334

Holman was found strangled to death inside a Holiday Inn hotel.

John Macomber, 36

July 31, 1987, 41 Irby St. NE

Macomber was found shot and killed inside of Five Paces Inn, the bar where he worked.

Victor Mitchell, 26

Dec. 22, 1986, 5500 S. Terminal Pkwy.

Mitchell was found dead in the trunk of his rental car in a parking lot at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

Keith Manning, 20

April 20, 1985, 14th Street between Crescent Avenue and Peachtree Street

Manning was found shot to death in a vehicle that had crashed. He may have been killed by a man driving a taxi during a road rage incident, according to APD.

Owen Garmon, 33

March 14, 1985, 1440 Middleton St., number 79

Garmon was found beaten to death in his apartment. Elizabeth Bertolino, 48

Feb. 20, 1982, 100 Techwood Drive

Bertolino was found stabbed to death in a walkway connecting the old Omni Hotel and the Georgia World Congress Center. Her purse had been taken.

Robert Mills, 59

Feb. 4, 1981, 1400 Donnelly Ave., Apt. D-2 Mills was found stabbed to death in his apartment.

William Converse, 43

July 17, 1980, 1265 Lakewood Ave.

Converse was found stabbed to death outside the warehouse where he lived. It appeared that the warehouse had been burglarized.

Alfred Johnson, 30

Feb. 16, 1980, 470 Flat Shoals Ave. SE.

Atlanta police officer Alfred Johnson was working off-duty at the Big Buy Supermarket when two men came in to the store, one armed with a shotgun and the other with a .38 caliber pistol. Johnson confronted them and they shot him. He died later that day at Grady Memorial Hospital. The robbers fled with cash and food stamps.

Officer Johnson’s homicide was featured on the TV show “America’s Most Wanted,” filmed in 2011.

Louis Zaglin, 53

Jan. 29, 1978, 2424 Piedmont Road NE

Zaglin was at a flea market when he saw a man in his parked van. When he approached the van, the man shot him and fled.

Judge Marion, 20

Sept. 25, 1977, 1701 Northside Drive, room 240

Marion was found dead in a room at the Howard Johnson motel. He had been beaten and bound.

Sherri Swalley, 8

Dec. 23, 1973, 308 Skipper Place NW

Sherri was found raped and stabbed to death behind apartments.

Johnny Levitt, 33

Aug. 18, 1973, 957 Blue Ridge Ave. Levitt was found shot to death in a driveway.

Obediah Reaves, 28

Obediah Reaves, 28 April 26, 1971, 227 Mitchell St.

Reaves, a security guard, was shot and killed during a robbery attempt inside of the Star Loan Company.