re: OT- Lake Oconee Murders

This is where I'll be in July.


The X marks their house.

The circle marks the likely location where the wife's body was found, based on:

1: 5.5 mile by boat from house as described in report
2: In a wide bend just north of Wallace dam



This will be my investigation headquarters.

Another factoid.... murders likely occurred early morning...


Another release from the case file says the wife was dressed for a day on the town, husband was in "morning coffee clothes" as described by Sheriff. I would imagine this to be a robe and slippers, or something to that affect.

The killer(s) would have presumably committed their acts early in the morning, not at night.

However, you don't carry dead bodies around and move them around in boats in the daylight.



Maybe the killers committed the murders early, but then waited until night to start disposing? Maybe they started to dismember the husband during the day with the plan to dismember both of them for disposal, realized what a pain in the arse it would be after cutting his head off, decided to just wait until nightfall and get a boat to dump them. Then after dumping wife, something spooked them and they said frick it, let's just get out of here.

They had been missing for days before discovered, so alot could have happened. Alot of time to clean up, cover their tracks, etc.

quote:

---

Absolutely. A couple of things:

Cutting off somebody's head isn't just killing them. It's a sign of rage or meant to be a sign. I mean...sitting down and lopping off a head would be a pretty tough job for an old lady. The head being taken too is a sign that this wasn't just an act of passion. This also wasn't a pro - but more like savage pro - which points to terrorism, drug cartel or gang bangers.

Also, drowning is universally considered a shitty way to go. I don't have any statistics but would imagine it's rare to kill yourself this way. I find it hard to believe that somebody would purposely drown themselves with cinder blocks.

A few thoughts:

Focus was on him. She was taken out and then dumped into lake. It wasn't meant to be permanent...meant to get her out of the way temporarily so they could focus on him. Kill him - cut off his head and toss it. It has to be a sign to somebody else.

---

Or you cut off his head to show whoever took a hit out that the job was completed and the wife was just collateral damage and dumping her body was just a by product of getting to the house by boat. There was some rumors going around that the son that was killed in the drug deal was actually a CI or turned states evidence and maybe this was payback after someone caught in the sting got out of jail. This happened in a small town and community and it could have just been a small town rumor though. I grew up in the area so I know how that goes.

I believe that wife was killed before the husband and that the husband wasn't killed at the house. Possibly using the wife as bait to get him to deliver whatever information they were looking for and he either game them what they wanted and they pushed her over or he didn't give them what they wanted and they pushed her over after hitting her in the head. I think the husband was decapitated in the same area the wife's body was found due to knowing the lake it is not as populated there and they were somewhat secluded and the absence of a lot of blood at the crime scene. You decapitate someone and there is gonna be a shite ton of blood and you aren't going to be able to clean it all. They then brought the body back to the house to send a message.

quote:

---

I believe ... that the husband wasn't killed at the house

---

I don't believe someone would return to the house after already kidnapping them, just to return the body, and further risk being spotted or leaving evidence just to "send a message". The decapitated body could have been left anywhere, and the message would still be sent. I think the murders happened on the property.


Wife's head showed traumatic injury, so it's not a leap to assume husband was killed the same way, since the rest of his body has no significant injury. No bullets, stab wounds, etc.

When you bash someone's head in, there's isn't a lot of blood if they die quickly. As soon as the heart stops beating, the blood stops flowing. Nobody has the man's head to determine this, but the wife's head, skull, would show exactly where and how hard her brain was hit. If it's a hard enough hit in the right place, it's pretty much instant death, very little blood.

I think the lack of blood at the crime scene is misleading.

You could wipe it all up with paper towels and throw them in the lake to float away.

Why clean up if you’re going to leave a headless corpse?

Obviously they killed him before taking his head. Aside from something unexpected - there are only two reasons to try and hide the wife’s body:

1) You’re hiding her from him pre- murder
2) You want it to appear she did it and disappeared.

I lean towards 1 except ....there are much easier ways to hide a body temporarily than tying blocks to them and throwing them in the lake. Just throw them in the bushes if your real target is the husband.

Whoever did this wanted her to appear to have gone missing for the long term and just screwed up.

Might want to check out the public boat ramps in the area (Long Shoals and Lawerence Shoals) since that could have been where they could have put the boat in at and both are in the area where the bodies were found. Fairly secluded and little to no traffic in the area along HWY 16 which has easy access back to the interstate in either direction

quote:

---

These people were originally from New Jersey before moving south. One son killed in a drug deal gone bad. Other son lives in Florida in the "wholesale food" business. My theory is that the family was involved in the drug trade, in a large way. Owed big money to one of the drug cartels. Son in Florida is now running the family enterprise, and won't pay up. Dad is killed and decapitated, so head can be sent to son as a message. Mom was kidnapped, for leverage against the son (we'll do the same to her if you don't pay!), but something went wrong with that, and either she died in a struggle, or they killed her because she was screaming, and dumped her body in the lake.

---

I tend to agree with your assessment. A meth head isn't going through all this trouble, to me it was a professional hit. Being from Jersey I tend to think mafia more than drug cartels, but this wasn't some random act of violence.

quote:

---

Why clean up if you’re going to leave a headless corpse?

Obviously they killed him before taking his head. Aside from something unexpected - there are only two reasons to try and hide the wife’s body:

1) You’re hiding her from him pre- murder
2) You want it to appear she did it and disappeared.

---

3) They intended to dismember both of them before realizing it was too much work. Decided to dispose of wife first in lake, then before they took the husband, something spooked them and they abandoned the operation. It might have never been the intention to leave the husband's corpse behind.