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.

Kevin Underwood is Scheduled to be Executed on December 19, 2024

 Jamie Rose Bolin

It Can't Come Soon Enough

By Robert A. Waters

How did a normal ten-year-old girl wander into a madman's evil fantasy? Jamie Bolin happened to live in the same apartment complex as Kevin Ray Underwood, 26, who became obsessed with kidnapping a young girl, raping her, cutting her up, cooking her, and dining on her corpse. As his demented fetish grew, he spied on Jamie, learning everything about her typical daily movements.

On the afternoon of April 12, 2006, Underwood lay in wait. When his victim returned home from school, he invited Jamie into his apartment. The naive child entered and was never seen alive again.

Jamie attended fifth grade at Purcell Intermediate School in Purcell, Oklahoma. The Purcell Register reported that "Jamie Rose lived with her father, Curtis Bolin, in an apartment across the breezeway from Underwood's downstairs unit. Underwood lured Jamie into his apartment to see his pet rat, Freya, and watch a SpongeBob cartoon video. Once she was inside, he battered her skull and back with a wooden cutting board before choking her and cutting her throat in an apparent attempt to decapitate her."

He lugged her bicycle, which she had been riding, into his home and dismantled it. Hiding the components and parts underneath his bed, he hoped it would stay hidden until the investigation died.

During this time, Underwood began acting in a suspicious manner. He told his father, who had come to visit, that he may have been the last person to see Jamie alive. He said he'd seen her walking toward the school library a couple of blocks away. As soon as detectives heard this, they called Underwood in to the precinct for an interview.  It didn't go well. He told FBI agents she wore a short-sleeve blue shirt as she rode her bicycle although cops had heard from several witnesses that she'd been wearing a pink shirt.

FBI agents and local cops were now swarming the complex, interviewing hundreds of residents. Because of Underwood's inconsistent statements, agents asked the suspect if they could search his home. Underwood agreed. Court documents read: "While looking around the apartment, [Agent Craig Overby] saw a large plastic storage tub in appellant's closet. Its lid was sealed with duct tape."

The child's body lay in the bottom of the barrel, covered by her clothes, including the blue shirt mentioned by Underwood.

It didn't take long for Underwood to confess. Purcell Police Chief David Tompkins told reporters "this appears to have been a plan to kidnap a person, torture them, kill them, cut off their head, drain the body of blood, rape the corpse, eat the corpse, then dispose of the organs and bones."

To back up his confession, investigators found the following items in Underwoods' home: barbecue skewers, a meat tenderizer, numerous knives and swords, a wooden cutting board, and rolls of duct tape.

Before her brutal murder, Jamie loved singing, sewing, riding her bike as well as four-wheelers, and watching movies.  

There was no doubt about his guilt. Underwood was convicted of first degree murder, and the jury found the crime to be "especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel." He received the death penalty.

Now, after nearly 20 years, the killer's execution is approaching. Surprisingly, hundreds of people oppose his "murder by the state." As of this date, the Action Network has received 1,536 signatures in a petition to spare Underwood's life.

The website reads: "During questioning, Kevin confessed to developing a desire to abduct someone, molest them, eat their flesh, and dispose of their remains. Although he tragically succeeded in killing Jamie, he was unable to carry out his cannibalistic and sexually deviant fantasies...Since Kevin's confession and sentencing, numerous concerns have been raised about his mental health. He has a  documented history of severe mental illness, including depression. Initially diagnosed with schizotypal personality disorder, Kevin was recently re-diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, which is a form of Autism Spectrum Disorder. This developmental condition is characterized by diminished cognitive empathy, difficulties in social interaction and emotional regulation, and poor impulse control. Kevin's mental health struggles led him to live a reclusive lifestyle and develop increasingly disturbing fantasies."

Jamie's last words haunted cops and jurors alike. 

"I'm sorry," she said. "My God, I'm sorry."