In the early morning hours of May 1, 1989, in Brunswick, Georgia, 40-year-old Patrick Russell Kappus and his 15-year-old daughter Emma were found shot to death in a shed on their property, concealed beneath a mattress. Neighbors reported hearing a single gunshot around 7:00 a.m., a man yelling, then three more shots. Both victims had been fatally shot.

Investigation centered on Roddy Elroy Childress, a family member who had moved in with the Kappuses months earlier. A warrant was issued within a day of the discovery; Childress fled the state and was later located and arrested in Colorado in August 1990. Prosecutors said Childress had been molesting Emma and that discovery of that act led to the killings. Childress maintained that Patrick shot Emma, that Jolene Kappus then shot Patrick, and that he only helped move and hide the bodies.

In May 1994 a Glynn County jury convicted Childress of two counts of murder; he was sentenced to death for Emma’s murder and to a consecutive life term for Patrick’s. The Georgia Supreme Court overturned those convictions in March 1996 because Jolene Kappus had discussed her testimony with other witnesses, and after further litigation Childress was resentenced on May 26, 1999 to two consecutive life sentences. Does anyone have additional information about the family’s life in Brunswick before May 1989 or recall unusual activity in the neighborhood that morning?