On Sunday, June 18, 2017, 64-year-old Carson Holliman, his 63-year-old wife Vondell Holliman, and their 24-year-old grandson Christopher Holliman were found dead at their Wolfe Street home in Brunswick, Georgia. Church members at Payne Chapel AME became concerned when the devout family did not attend the regular Sunday service, prompting a welfare check that led to the discovery. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation confirmed all three had been shot, and authorities treated the scene as a triple homicide.

In October 2017, investigators arrested 22-year-old Roger Lee Owens and charged him with three counts of malice murder; police at one point suggested the killings may have been a mistaken-identity home invasion. In June 2021 the Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office dropped the charges after a key witness changed their statement and a knife thought to belong to Owens was determined to belong to a victim. The deaths remain unsolved.