JAN 1998

Tuesday's Atlanta Police Dept. press release sent shock waves through Atlanta.

On the sixth anniversary of this city's unsolved triple homicide, media inquires about the status of the case brought forth a startling revelation. A report had been "found" at the forensic lab by an Attorney General's Prosecutors Assistance investigator.

The report indicated that human tissue had been found under Gerri Faye Butts' fingernails, and it wasn't hers. And, according to DNA evidence, neither did it belong to Kevin Hailey --once considered the main suspect in the murders who spent almost three months in jail before being released on bond and then No Billed by a Cass County Grand Jury, charges dropped.

The reaction to the news varied.

If you were friends or family of Hailey, you were exhilarated, delighted, vindicated.

If you were friends or family of the victims, you were angered, infuriated, furious.

If you were friend nor family of neither -- a member of the community, an observer -- you were left scratching your head, bewildered, confused, baffled.

But in unison -- no matter which category you were in -- the question was the same. Where was this evidence six years ago?

Where was it before Hailey was arrested? Where was it during the probable cause hearing? The Grand Jury?

And -- equally as important -- if the tissue was not Hailey's, whose is it? Who else needs to be tested? When will they be?

For this reporter, trying to find an answer to those questions evoked another response -- frustrating. I don't know, or I can't
say, seemed to be the responses of choice.

I started at the APD, the originator of the press release. Chief Mike Dupree was as open and honest with me as he always is.

I don't know where the report was six years ago, Dupree said. "I do know that the timing of the release of the information had nothing to do with the anniversary. That's just when the media began asking the status of the investigation.

This is not a closed case. It's an open investigation, added the chief.

District Attorney Randal Lee, also said he didn't know about the DNA report at the time of the murders, when he was Assistant DA. I prefer to let the Atlanta Police answer that, he said. I don't know when the report was received.

A call to the Attorney General's Office, to investigator Mac Cobb, didn't get any further. I'm not at liberty to discuss or confirm
anything, he said. You need to talk to the district attorney.

Classic runaround, right? Time to give up. Nobody knows. Nobody's talking. Who cares?

I do. I don't claim to be Woodward or Bernstein (Watergate investigative journalists for all you youngsters out there), but I still wanted some answers. Something.

Don't the Butts' have a right to know? Doesn't Hailey and his family? Don't any mothers with small children who lock their doors at night or get spooked at shadows or bumps in the night? Doesn't the community that has also lived with this stigma for six years?

What did I find out? Nothing from official channels, as documented earlier. They clammed up tight.

But the Bulletin did obtain copies of the autopsy reports (public record), dated Feb. 18, 1992. Although no direct mention of human tissue under Gerri Faye's fingernails is made (the autopsy after all is made to determine the cause of death), there is mention of fingernail clippings being submitted as evidence. Jessica's autopsy, too, notes fingernail clippings submitted as evidence.

According to the affidavit for an arrest warrant, dated March 19, 1992, Hailey gave consent to obtain samples of his head and pubic hair and his blood on Feb. 7. The blood sample was taken to the Southwestern Institute of Forensic Sciences in Dallas on Feb. 10.

On March 20, 1992, one day after Hailey was arrested, then-Atlanta Police Chief Mike Scott stated, We wanted to be extremely sure, and have all the information in from the lab. There was a DNA test, but I prefer not to get into that right now. I feel very confident about this case because of the evidence, and the investigation has been so extensive.

On June 10, 1992 the final day of the probable cause hearing, then-Cass County DA Neal Birmingham, questioned Scott, Chief,is that all we have," he asked, "the hairs and the palm print?

Yes, sir, Scott answered.

Given those pieces of the puzzle, the next natural place to turn was Scott and Birmingham, both now retired.

We had those reports, Scott told the Bulletin Friday night, and we turned them over to the DA. I don't know why the results
are just now coming out.

And Birmingham. They (the DNA reports) were not turned in to me. That's a damnable lie, insisted the former DA.

And so here we are again.

He said vs. he said.

Did so vs. did not.

It's 1992 revisited.

Meanwhile. Three people are still dead -- a triple murder unsolved. A man spent almost three months in jail, finally released due
to lack of evidence.

And the investigation?

Stalled. Stalemated. Six years old.

Who killed the Butts?

That's the ultimate unanswered question, and there's a lot of people who want a straight answer.

Soon.


Sonny