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Suspect charged 24 years after Georgia woman found stabbed to death in her home

Uh, thank you for being here today. Uh, my name is Steve Wilson and I’m the sheriff here in Walker County. I want to introduce, uh, those that are with me here today. I have to, my left here, Lieutenant, uh, Billy Davis with the sheriff’s office. Uh, we have Daniel Nicholson here with the GB I Earl Glover, ***, ***, the GB I Calhoun and the special agent in charge. Uh, Joe Montgomery here, uh, with the GB I in Calhoun. Uh, thank you again for being here today. We’re here for the purpose, uh, to announce an arrest in the 2000, uh, the June 11th, 2000 murder of Julie and mcdonald, uh, on Arnold Lane here outside of Latte. Um, we’ve been working on this case, uh, uh, it’s 24 years old and, uh, we never give up on these cold cases. Uh, we have continually worked on it. Uh, we were fortunate enough in, uh, 2015, 2016, uh, to re, uh, open and re examine the case and made *** lot of headway at that time. Then in 23 and 24 additional, uh, work was done on the case and Uh Thanks to technology and the GP I crime lab. Uh we were able to make uh more headway uh in this investigation. Uh last week, uh 63 year old Clarence D George of uh Birmingham Alabama was arrested by us marshals in Jefferson County, Alabama uh on murder and aggravated assault warrants out of Walker County. He is currently being held in the Jefferson County Alabama jail and is awaiting extradition uh to Walker County. Uh Julie Anne mcdonald was found on *** Sunday afternoon, uh, *** hot Sunday afternoon. I recall, uh, in her home, uh, evidence at the time revealed that she had been stabbed multiple times and had been deceased, uh, uh most likely for three or four days upon her body being found. Um, the investigation, uh, did determine that uh George and uh, the deceased ms mcdonnell had known each other uh, previously prior to the crime occurring. Uh Currently, we are working with uh Alabama authorities to extradite George back to Walker County. Uh We have asked for *** governor’s warrant, uh to be issued, uh, so that we can bring him back here to Walker County at this time. Uh I’ll let Joe take uh, the podium here and talk *** little bit about the work uh, that the GB I has done on, uh, as the sheriff was saying back in 2015, 2016, we reassigned the case, uh, Detective Mike. Hence with Walker King Sheriff’s office specialist Herman Taylor, uh both made *** tremendous progress in the case. Um We resubmitted evidence uh for testing, but those tests were unable to identify *** perpetrator at the time. Um Later on in 2023 and 24 the case was reassigned to Lieutenant Billy Davis of the Water county sheriff’s office and Daniel Nicholson with the GB I, they re examined, uh the whole case. They reinterviewed *** lot of people and were resubmitted the evidence for testing the efforts of all these detectives and these agents led to the murder and arrest, uh, charges for, uh, Clarence George on Jillian Donald’s murder. All I can say is there was some really good work done. It wasn’t all scientific work, but there was *** lot of good scientific work done. There was *** lot of leg work and door knocking which it takes, um, *** lot of times in these cases, the GB I never, never stops working, unsolved homicides. They’re reassigned *** lot of times. Uh, and this is one of those cases. We had agents, retire, agents transfer out, so we reassigned that. So it’s kinda like *** football announcer. You have *** group of guys that takes the ball so far. Another group of guys that take the ball *** little bit far and finally *** group of guys who, who finally take it and, um, get the ball in the evidence. I mean, get the ball into the end zone. So, um, sorry, but I it’s *** tremendous effort on all these agents and detectives, the hard work that they did the dedication to keep going even, uh sometimes they would run into *** brick wall and they keep, they kept going and never gave up. So, um my hats off to them and, and the good work that they did and I’m very proud of the work they did. This is the sixth unsolved case that are the, the regional one, Kelly. No, this is so in the last six years, uh it’s the second one. Agent Nicholson’s uh solved. So we’re very proud of that work. We work anywhere from 30 to 50 death investigations *** year. So you have that many active cases. Sometimes it is hard to go back and look at these old cases and solve them. But he took the time to do that along with Lieutenant Davis and made it happen. Um Another person we haven’t mentioned is major. Uh Mike Freeman. Mike is always behind wanting us to look at these cases and, and pushing and pushing and pushing and Mike’s kind of the driving force of *** lot of these cases that got solved here can because he’s all the time, you know, hey, we need to get back on this case. We need to get back on this case. So my hats off to Mike for never forgetting about these cases and continuing to, to push everybody to to move forward. Any questions, uh, from, uh, the media. Um, how many suspects do you think that you guys? Yeah. And then I probably four or five, he had become *** suspect early on in the case. He was found with the m mcdonald’s checkbook in Causa County early on the investigation. It kind of came up on the radar. And Sheriff Wilson, you did say that, uh, that Mr George, how old was he again? And you say he’s currently 63 years of age, he would have been 39 when the murder occurred back in 2000. I mean, he’s at 6363 now currently. And you said they know they’ve known each other before the crime. They knew each other. Uh, they, uh, I wouldn’t want to characterize it as friends because I don’t think friends murders their friends, but they were acquaintances and they knew each other. It was not *** stranger crime, it was known, they knew each other al also too. The United States Marshal Service has always been *** great help with us. Um, whether we have suspects in Georgia or out of Georgia, we always contact them to help us do the man because they’re so good at Jip Ashley and, and, and the Marshals task force. I don’t remember we *** time we haven’t picked up the phone and called them and have it come through. So, um, *** big thank you to the Marshals service and the work that they did, um, since making the US, have you guys been able to figure out *** possible motive? Uh, we’re kind of leaving that for, maybe, I guess time is closer to court. So, and who you also, y’all working with the Berman? Is it the Birmingham PD or who the sheriff’s office? He’s, uh, currently, uh, uh, housed at the Jefferson County Alabama sheriff’s office in the jail there and we’ll be working with those authorities to extract him back here. Uh The arrest was made using uh, the marshals service. Uh, they were able to locate him in the Alabama area and chef, uh Wilson, and you can answer as well. I guess what does it mean for you all to be able to finally solve this case? It’s been *** long time, um, just to bring him back here to Walker County. Well, it’s, uh, as Joe said, you know, we all have *** desire to never let these unsolved cases go un worked. And, uh major Freeman and the rest of the guys standing behind me here. Uh I think it’s always the drive we have. If it’s possible to try to solve the case, we work hard toward that. Uh But the, the biggest gratification that I’ve seen in work in these cold cases is given the family some relief. Uh, knowing that someone has been found guilty in *** court of law by their peers and that someone is held accountable for *** death that’s, uh, totally unnecessary. Uh, that’s what I think is, uh, the biggest, uh, uh, victory when you, uh, are able to get *** conviction in these cases and, uh, some sense of relief that the family can, uh, put it behind them and, and go on, not that it, uh, gives them great joy. But I think, yes, uh, just the fact they know that *** person has been held accountable for that death. Uh You know, when 24 years goes by, *** lot of people have passed away from natural causes. That’s the case here. Uh We think, uh, we’ve reached out to, uh, *** nephew and niece of the deceased. Uh, but several other members have passed away since then and we’ll never know on this side, uh, what it means. But, um, there are families, uh J and mcdonald has *** niece and nephew out there and we’ve made them aware of the arrest. I think that’s the biggest thing is the families, but also too is, it tells everybody we’re not going to give up on these cases. It may have been 24 years. It may have been 30 years. We’re not going to give up on fa for us and we brought to justice. We’re coming. It may not be today, may not be tomorrow, but we’re coming and on that. How, uh did this one come back into light or more in *** general sense? How do these come back into light. I, I think we got to, we look at these quite often and I think we got to re examine in this one and we felt like there was some more stuff that we could do on it. So *** lot of that goes back to Major Freeman sitting back there reading all these cases all the time saying, hey, we need to follow up on this lead. We need to follow up on that lead and that’s what happened in this case. We need to follow up on this lead and the advancement in uh in technology lab work, you know, the advance that advancement is uh help law enforcement. Uh so many crimes that went unsolved but 25 years ago, but not have been solved and it’s getting better every day. So, I mean, we just hope for some of the other cases that we couldn’t solve, you know, 20 or 30 years ago, we have that ability and who the local agencies that uh were *** part of this. And those is it the GB I Calhoun, what was it again? Ok. I GB I Calhoun and the Walker County sheriff’s office and the US Marshal’s office helped in the arrest and the GB I crime lab is instrumental in, in their work. No. All right, no other questions. Uh We will finish up here, right? We will be uh sending photographs of the suspect and the victim uh out here in about the next 20 minutes or so along with *** short press release. Uh, I do wanna make sure uh that the, the spelling uh on uh Clarence George uh is spelled CL er *** N ce D for the middle initial. The last name is common spelling George. All right. Thank you very much for being. Thank you.

Suspect charged 24 years after Georgia woman found stabbed to death in her home

More than 20 years after a Georgia woman was stabbed to death in her own home, authorities say they’ve captured the man responsible.Above video: Authorities announce arrest in Georgia cold case killingOn Friday, the Walker County Sheriff’s Office announced that Clerence D. George, 63, of Birmingham, Ala., had been charged in connection with the murder of Julie Ann McDonald.McDonald, 42, was found dead in her home on June 11, 2000. Officials say she had been dead for about three to four days before her body was discovered.At the time of her death, she worked as a pharmacist at Memorial Hospital in Chattanooga, Tenn.According to news reports at the time, authorities believed McDonald knew her killer because there were no signs of forced entry.George, who was 39 at the time of the killing, was taken into custody on Aug. 22 by U.S. Marshals at his home in Jefferson County, Alabama.Investigators say the pair were acquaintances.According to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the case was reassigned several times over the years before evidence was recently resubmitted for testing. That contributed to charges being filed.George is charged with murder and aggravated assault. He awaits extradition back to Georgia.

More than 20 years after a Georgia woman was stabbed to death in her own home, authorities say they’ve captured the man responsible.

Above video: Authorities announce arrest in Georgia cold case killing

On Friday, the Walker County Sheriff’s Office announced that Clerence D. George, 63, of Birmingham, Ala., had been charged in connection with the murder of Julie Ann McDonald.

McDonald, 42, was found dead in her home on June 11, 2000. Officials say she had been dead for about three to four days before her body was discovered.

Walker County Sheriff’s Office, Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office

At the time of her death, she worked as a pharmacist at Memorial Hospital in Chattanooga, Tenn.

According to news reports at the time, authorities believed McDonald knew her killer because there were no signs of forced entry.

George, who was 39 at the time of the killing, was taken into custody on Aug. 22 by U.S. Marshals at his home in Jefferson County, Alabama.

Investigators say the pair were acquaintances.

According to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the case was reassigned several times over the years before evidence was recently resubmitted for testing. That contributed to charges being filed.

George is charged with murder and aggravated assault. He awaits extradition back to Georgia.