On June 9, 1980, 12-year-old Christopher Phillipe Richardson, a Black boy, was last seen walking toward the community pool at the Midway Recreation Center in DeKalb County wearing blue shorts and a light blue shirt. He never reached the pool and was reported missing by his family.

In January 1981 skeletal remains of two children were found in a wooded area; dental comparison identified one of those sets of remains as Christopher Richardson. He was found clothed in swim trunks that were not his own. The medical examiner ruled his cause of death undetermined.

Christopher’s death was included among the series of Atlanta Child Murders. A man named Wayne Williams was arrested and later convicted for the murders of two adults; authorities attributed a number of the child deaths, including Christopher’s, to Williams, and the investigation was closed with him as the prime and only suspect.