Richard Rice was a 63-year-old garage owner in Elbert County, Georgia. On February 13, 1984, he responded to a call about a green Chevrolet near dumpsters on Bobby Brown Road and went out in his wrecker to tow the vehicle. Witnesses saw him hook the car and begin driving away. While the Chevrolet was being towed, someone in that car leaned out the driver’s-side window and fired two or three shots. Rice’s wrecker later stopped on Woodlawn Church Road; a resident found him slumped over inside, dead, still clutching an automobile bumper jack. The autopsy described multiple close-range head and neck wounds, one through the face, another lodged in the skull, and a graze to the shoulder.

Investigators focused on George Bernard Davis Jr., who was found in Lincoln County, brought to Elbert County, questioned, and gave a written statement saying he had arranged the false call, fired into the truck as it towed his car, shot Rice after the vehicle stopped, and took Rice’s wallet containing more than $800. Officers recovered a weapon that matched ballistics evidence and Rice’s wallet. A jury in Elbert County convicted Davis of armed robbery and the murder of Richard Rice; the Georgia Supreme Court upheld the convictions on direct appeal in 1986.

Did anyone in the area at the time remember seeing a green Chevrolet or a tow truck on Bobby Brown Road that rainy afternoon?