On the evening of March 6, 1986, in Newton County, Georgia, 11-year-old Lisa Renee Chapman was at Chapman's Grocery with her aunt, Martha Ann Chapman Matich, who worked there. After closing, Melbert Ray Ford, a former boyfriend of Matich who had been harassing her since their breakup, arrived with an accomplice, Roger Turner, who drove the getaway car. Ford shot away the lower portion of the locked glass door to gain entry. Turner later said he heard screams and gunshots from inside.

A deputy answering the store alarm at 10:27 p.m. found Matich dead behind the counter with three gunshot wounds. Lisa was discovered alive in the bathroom with a gunshot wound to the head; she was transported from the scene but later died. Turner confessed to his role and received a 20-year sentence; he was paroled in 1991. Melbert Ray Ford was convicted on October 24, 1986, of the murders of Matich and Chapman and related charges and was sentenced to death.

Did anyone in the area at the time notice suspicious activity around the store in the days before the shootings?