Unsolved Murder of Anita Redmon

 The Stone Mountain Murder

By Robert A. Waters

Anita Redmon (pictured above) trailblazed the way for women to become police officers at the Doraville (Georgia) Police Department. She began as a dispatcher, but soon began working a beat as the first DPD female officer. 

Melinda Duncan, Anita's daughter, told reporters that officers "would call her when they were having problems trying to arrest somebody and [the offender was] refusing to get in the back of the car. She could talk to them and for lack of a better term, sweet talk 'em into getting into the back of the police car and everything was fine."

Sergeant Anita Redmon retired after 25 years of service.

Only three months before her murder, Anita began working part-time as a gate attendant at Stone Mountain Park. The park is owned by the state of Georgia and has the largest bas-relief carving in the world. The stone carvings depict Confederate heroes Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and Jefferson Davis. In addition to the historical rock sculpture, the park has 3200 acres of entertainment, including a railroad, a time-machine depicting life-size dinosaurs, a grist mill, covered bridge, hiking trails and rides.

At 12:30 A.M. on Saturday, July 16, 2005, Anita worked the West Gate of the park. Her job was to collect an $8.00 parking fee from visitors.

Suddenly, the park radio crackled to life. Officers of the Stone Mountain Police Department heard Anita shout, "44, 44, 44," which is police jargon for a robbery in progress. The first police officer arrived just 45 seconds later and found Anita lying on the floor and the suspect gone. The former cop had been shot once in the abdomen. The killer used a .25-caliber semiautomatic handgun.

Anita died in the hospital, as surgeons worked to save her life. 

Her killer has never been identified. Pictured below is an image of a possible suspect seen leaving the scene shortly after the shooting.

A few days after the murder, detectives arrested a career criminal named Mark Anthony Woolf. An associate accused Woolf of plotting to rob a teller at the West Gate of Stone Mountain Park, but Woolf was never charged with the murder. (It's possible that his "friend" was attempting to collect the $25,000 reward posted by the governor of the state of Georgia.)

It's been nearly 20 years since Anita's murder.

No one has ever been charged.

If you have information concerning this case, please contact the Georgia Bureau of Investigation at 1-800-597-8477 or the Stone Mountain Park Police Department at 770-498-5675. A $55,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest of the person or persons responsible for Redmon's murder.