Kate Furlow, 79, was found shot to death in her Coweta County home after being last seen by her daughter-in-law on the evening of December 4, 1985. Her son, unable to reach her by phone the next day, discovered the front door glass shattered and the living room in disarray before finding her in bed with a fatal gunshot wound to the head; the scene suggested a violent struggle.

A neighbor reported a young man appearing in her kitchen in the early hours of December 5 and saying the name Ronnie; she later identified that man as William Anthony Lipham. Ronnie Simon told police he had given Lipham a ride that night and dropped him near Furlow’s house, and said Lipham was carrying a .25 caliber pistol. Simon’s girlfriend later saw Lipham with the gun and a small bag of change and costume jewelry; she reported he said, Not bad for a night’s work. Police recovered a .25 caliber pistol from Lipham’s brother that ballistic testing matched to the murder.

William Anthony Lipham was arrested January 14, 1986, in Douglasville, Georgia, and was tried and convicted of murder, rape, armed robbery, and burglary in connection with Kate Furlow’s death. Does anyone have memories of the neighborhood or information about Furlow’s last days that could shed more light on what happened?