Karen Patterson was a 13-year-old Black girl from North Charleston, South Carolina, killed in the early hours of October 27, 1985. She lived in a small tenant house behind a duplex with her parents, Aaron Polite and Fatha Patterson. Their landlord’s son, Joseph Ernest Atkins, had been in escalating conflict with the family for months.

Shortly before dawn, Atkins cut the family’s phone line, then returned armed with a sawed-off shotgun and a machete. He forced his way into the house, entered Karen’s bedroom and fired a single shot to her head while she lay in bed. Aaron was shot at as he fled. Atkins then crossed to the duplex and shot his adoptive father, Benjamin Atkins, who bled to death from a shoulder wound. Neighbors and an off-duty officer followed Atkins as he fled on a motorcycle; he crashed and was arrested.

Prosecutors charged Atkins with the murders and related counts; in 1986 a jury convicted him and recommended the death penalty. The victim was a child; the family’s loss remains central to the case. Does anyone have memories of the neighborhood or information about the Patterson-Polite family from that time?