On a Sunday afternoon in Marietta, Georgia, a lunch date at El Ranchero Restaurant on Cobb Parkway between 43-year-old Janice Ross and her long-term partner Jose Ramon Lemus ended in violence on December 6, 2020. Ross was pronounced dead at the scene.

Lemus fled into nearby woods, prompting lockdowns at Kennesaw State and Life universities while law enforcement searched the area. He was found about an hour later by a Marietta Police Department K9 officer hiding near a baseball field on Kennesaw State’s Marietta campus. Witnesses at the restaurant identified Lemus, and a Honduran passport belonging to him was recovered in a backpack left at El Ranchero.

Lemus, 53 at the time, was arrested and charged with murder. Family members described the loss at sentencing, including Ross’s 14-year-old daughter who spoke about the permanent effects of her mother’s death. Does anyone have information about Janice Ross, her life in Marietta, or that day at El Ranchero?