On the morning of September 11, 1995, 31-year-old Brenda Jenkins Palmer and her 15-year-old daughter Christine Jenkins were found shot to death in their two-room house in Vidette, Burke County, Georgia. Brenda had been shot twice in the head; Christine sustained a single gunshot to the face. A 15-month-old child with Brenda and her estranged husband, Willshayla Palmer, was found alive and uninjured beside Christine.

Attention quickly centered on Brenda’s estranged husband, Willie Williams Palmer. The couple had separated in May 1995 and Brenda had begun divorce proceedings. Witnesses described a history of abuse and threats by Palmer, and he had been jailed in July 1995 for violating a restraining order. Hours before the killings he was reported to have been searching for his guns and to have threatened, during a confrontation, that there would be no Brendas.

Palmer’s nephew Frederico Palmer later confessed to accompanying his uncle to the house, saying Willie kicked in the front door, shot Christine, and then shot Brenda after Frederico removed the baby; the confession led police to a rifle and other items two days later. Frederico pleaded guilty to two counts of felony murder and received consecutive life sentences. Willie Palmer faced multiple trials beginning in 1997, with convictions and sentences that were later challenged in appeals. Did anyone in Vidette at the time see or hear anything that might shed more light on that night?