In September 2017 a young Black female was found dead in the middle of a street in northwest Atlanta with multiple gunshot wounds and no identification at the scene. She was later identified as 17-year-old Denetta Franks after her family recognized a police sketch. Franks, who had been in foster care, had been reported missing from Columbus, Georgia, weeks earlier.

Investigators linked two men, Wayne Rendell Bailey and Eddie Byrd, to the case. Police believed Franks had been involved with Bailey and Byrd in an armed robbery days before her death and that she had indicated an intention to cooperate with police about that robbery, a development authorities thought may have led to her murder. Warrants were issued for both men.

Legal proceedings followed. Eddie Byrd was found guilty of Denetta Franks’s murder; prosecutors said he killed her to prevent her from speaking to police about the robbery, and he received life without parole. Wayne Rendell Bailey was acquitted of the murder charge.

Did anyone in Columbus or northwest Atlanta at the time have information about Denetta’s movements in the weeks before she went missing?