Tuesday, November 7, 2017

An investigation into Atlanta's unsolved strangulations over 40 years


The nation's largest suspicious cluster of unsolved female murders occurred over a 40 year period in Atlanta, Ga., according to a new series of investigative reports by WXIA-TV, the NBC affiliate in Atlanta. The Murder Accountability Project and members of its Board of Directors participated extensively in producing this report.

Veteran investigative reporter Brendan Keefe is leading a team examining 133 female strangulations in Atlanta stretching back to the 1970s. Three-quarters of these crimes were reported to the FBI as unsolved. These cases were identified by a computer algorithm developed by the Murder Accountability Project to spot victims of serial murder among FBI computer files.

"This is the nation's largest cluster of female homicides that we believe have an elevated probability of containing serial murders," said MAP Chairman Thomas K. Hargrove. "We are grateful to WXIA, the Atlanta Police Department and Dr. Michael Arntfield's researchers at the Cold Case Society at Canada's Western University for re-examining these many dozens of unsolved homicides, some of which are quite recent."

MAP's algorithm has reported the suspicious cluster since it was first run nearly eight years ago. To see this cluster, go to the "County Clusters" page under the "Murder Clusters" tab and set the Year selector to cover the period 1976 to 2016. Another way to view these crimes is at the "Search Cases" tab available by clicking here.