'Atlanta's Missing and Murdered: The Lost Children' Episode 3: Investigation leads to Wayne Williams' arrest
Episode 3 of 'Atlanta's Missing and Murders' details the extensive police investigation and the arrest of Wayne Williams, the sole suspect connected to the infamous case.
The FBI intervening was a turning point in the case and potentially helped gather more significant information related to the case. They left no stone unturned, even going as far as to consider the black community's suspicion that the slew of murders may have been the work of the Ku Klux Klan as they had every reason to do so.
The racial tension in Atlanta at the time was at an all-time high, so it was convenient to note that the murderer could have been a non-black individual lashing out at the community and acting on his extreme hatred.
John E Douglas, a profiler for the FBI, however, had another theory. He believed that the killer could be a black person because there was no way that a person of any other race could move around a black community freely, without arousing any suspicion.
As the case progressed, the city's reputation had taken a severe hit and authorities were nowhere close to finding the culprit.
A feeling of embarrassment was starting to settle in within the law enforcement as they continued to feel the weight of the community's pressure on their shoulders demanding that they move things forward faster and work towards making necessary arrests.
However, it seemed that the murders were not stopping any time soon — bodies continued to pile up and the investigation was still at a standstill with no suspects to attribute them to.
Case takes a new direction
It wasn't until April 1981 that the police actually caught on to some new leads with respect to the case. A new forensic team was called in that conducted various tests on evidence material found at the crime scenes, particularly hair and various fibers.
The news about the forensic testing was all over the news, so the community knew that they were taking the case forward. But that also meant that the killer was made aware of the new developments.
Suddenly the killer's modus operandi had changed, and the next few bodies appeared on the shores of the southern river and the Chattahoochee River. The killer's behavior had changed with every murder and he targetted older victims as time went by.
It was obvious that he'd kill them first and dump them in the river hoping that the water would wash off any evidence. The investigation may have had a few new clues, but it still faced many dead ends.
Bridge stakeout
As authorities tried to map out the killer's move, they began to make assumptions that the killer would drive up to a bridge overlooking a river, dump the bodies off the bridge and then drive away.
So they decided to set up 24-hour surveillance on every bridge in Atlanta for a month to see if they could report any suspicious activity, with officers posted on either end of every bridge as well as below the river.
They only made progress in the last week of the planned surveillance. Some police officers that were camping out in their cars surveilling their vicinity heard a splash of something big hitting the water at about 3 am on May 1981.
They spotted a bandwagon headed onto the bridge. They had the driver pull the vehicle over and found 23-year old Wayne Williams in the driver's seat. They mentioned being thrown off because he didn't resemble what they had envisioned the killer to look like.
The police found it peculiar that Williams knew why he had been pulled over, however, the young man said he was a talent scout and on his way to the city to meet with a certain "Cheryl Johnson" for a 7 am appointment.
That made them even more suspicious of him — why would anyone be out at 3 am to get to an appointment that was still four hours away?
However, Williams was let go, as they didn't have enough evidence to make an arrest. Even 40 years later, there is no proof of the existence of a "Cheryl Johnson" at the time and police had searched for her high and low.
Williams becomes a suspect
Profiling immensely helped form a description of the killer and the study of Victimology helped with any further defining details. The crucial points that they had concluded were that the offender was a single black male who lives with his parents and the offender knew his way around thanks to his media experience.
Two days after the 3 am encounter on the bridge, the last victim of the Atlanta Child Murders, 28-year-old Nathaniel Carter's body washed ashore the Chattahoochee River and Williams became a prime suspect.
Firstly, he checked all the boxes of the alleged killer's personality that the profile had defined, furthermore it was found that Williams' car had a police monitor and the lights used in police cars.
While it did point out the fact that he worked for a news channel and used the tools to be the first informed of any crimes so he could gain primary access for his footage, he also came under suspicion for aiding in the killings.
Subsequently, the police issued a warrant to search Williams' house where they found his bandwagon and turned his house upside-down scouring for evidence.
The forensic team retrieved hair from his pet German Shepherd and also fibers from various materials in the house. The police also found boxes of photographs in his house, all of young male kids.
Following the search at his house and his name surfacing as a suspected in this prominent case, the media attention on him amped and he basked in it, almost like he was taunting them.
He was under 24-hour surveillance under the police, who followed his every move. However, all that changed when the police came to his residence to arrest him. Evidence that was deemed insufficient to charge Williams of a murder, had suddenly become the reason for his arrest.
Conviction
Williams was indicted for two murders, that of Nathaniel Carter, 28, and Jimmy Payne, 21, whose bodies were found on the banks of the Chattahoochee.
However, the FBI refused to pursue the other 26 murders which remain unsolved and the case is still clouded with lingering questions. To this day, no one has been convicted of the other murders and the families of the other victims are yet to receive any form of closure surrounding the death of their loved ones.
The killing spree stopped after Williams was arrested, and he still maintains his innocence even 40 years into his sentence. The parents of many of the victims as well as media personnel, who closely watched and provided coverage for the case, also believed that Williams was not the real culprit.
They also repeatedly questioned why other leads weren't pursued when they had popped up. So, it is difficult to determine if Williams was the serial killer or just a scapegoat for the law enforcement whose main concern was to save Atlanta's reputation and bring the case to a close once and for all.
However, the former FBI agents who were interviewed in the documentary say they are confident they had caught the right culprit. So the case was closed with Williams' conviction. He was also blamed for the other murders but never formally charged for them.
The evidence gathered through the course of the case is still questionable and the series also brings that to focus. Even witnesses who testified against him saying they saw him with the victims either weren't compelling or were just circumstantial.
The autopsy report from the medical examiner for Carter's body said that the body had been in the water for at least five to 14 days. Judging by the decomposition, there was no way that two days of being submerged in the water could have done that much damage.
The report for Payne's corpse was along similar lines as well. The body had been found floating in the river in a position that insinuates that he had drowned with his arms and legs spread wide. Furthermore, the only clothing on him was a pair of swimming trunks.
Dr Zaki, who performed the autopsy, changed the cause of death on Payne's report from "undetermined" to "homicide" allegedly after Williams' arrest and possibly due to pressure from the prosecutor.
Such a crucial change in an autopsy report is an extraordinarily rare occurrence leading to many people's belief that something was terribly amiss with this case. "I haven't killed anybody. The only thing that I did was — out of my own arrogance and stupidity – make myself a suspect," Williams continues to maintain his innocence.
Catch 'Atlanta's Missing and Murdered: The Lost Children' every Sunday at 8 pm ET/5 pm PT on HBO.