William Al Hamilton was a 46-year-old manager at the Discotheque, a downtown dance club in Augusta, Georgia. He was last seen driving his 1987 Ford Tempo after leaving work in the early morning hours of August 15, 1998; he never arrived in Sardis to pick up his girlfriend as planned.

Later that morning firefighters extinguished a suspicious blaze at Hamilton’s home on Elizabeth Road. Investigators found signs of a violent struggle and bloodstains on a bedroom ceiling and walls consistent with severe blunt force trauma. Hamilton’s car and several bags of coins were missing from the residence. Authorities focused on Rodney Alan Richardson, the girlfriend’s ex-husband; a grand jury indicted Richardson in October 1998, and he was later convicted of malice murder, burglary, armed robbery, arson, and theft by taking and given two life sentences plus 50 years.

Hamilton’s body has never been recovered. Law enforcement has followed tips over the years and conducted searches, including an excavation near Brier Creek in Keysville, but his remains have not been found. Did anyone who knew Hamilton or who lived near Elizabeth Road in August 1998 see anything that could help locate his remains?