A true crime author was the

one who figured out that DNA technology could help solve the 25-year-old

murder of Liddie L. Evans.

Of course, Bruce Jordan's day

job is as director of investigations for the Fayette County Sheriff's

Department, so it was easy for the "author" to follow up on

his hunch.

Jordan stumbled upon the case

while researching his first book, "Death Unexpected," about

murders in Fayette County.

"I didn't write about

it because I thought I might be able to solve it one day," Jordan

said.

Jordan didn't have time to

look into the matter until the murder case against Fayetteville resident

Jim Watson was settled last summer. Four months ago, he convinced Fayette

County Sheriff Randall Johnson to reopen the investigation into Evans'

death, and in December Jordan discovered the key piece of evidence that

led to the murder.

Jordan declined to discuss

what the evidence was, but he said he found it in December in the evidence

room of the Clayton County Police Department, which had also investigated

the murder of a woman whose body was found floating on the Flint River

"I guess one department's

trash is another department's treasure," said Clayton County Police

Chief Ronnie Partain, referring to the evidence found there that broke

the case. "We had quite a stockpile of evidence from this case in

1977."

Partain credited Clayton County

detective Russell Blankenship for doing a detailed and thorough investigation

when it began 25 years ago. Blankenship spent three years working the

case, officials said.

"Thank God they had a

good area for maintaining it," Johnson said of Clayton County's evidence

room.

Johnson was a spry, young and

newly elected sheriff with 11 months under his belt when the case began

to play out in the Flint River Dec. 20, 1977. He had never seen such a

grisly scene.

It started with a woman's body

that was found floating in the Flint River by a duck hunter. Then they

found the sleeping bag that led to the dead body of Liddie Evans, which

was just inside the Fayette County line running under the Flint River.

Evans's body was chained to

a concrete block; detectives determined she was shot to death, judging

"They pulled it up and

they felt something heavy slip out," Johnson said of the sleeping

bag. "When they came back up the second time they had a white female."

Days later, Johnson arrested

a suspect, Carl Millard Patton Jr., who was eventually released when then-district

attorney Johnnie L. Caldwell concluded there wasn't enough evidence to

keep him.

"We knew at one time who

did it, we just had to have proof," Johnson said.

Now, Johnson has Patton in

custody again and the sheriff says this time there's much better physical

evidence, partly in thanks to DNA testing technology that wasn't around

in 1977.

"It's not going to be

just one or two items (of physical evidence)," Johnson said. "It's

going to be several items."

Johnson was reticent to give

details about the physical evidence in the case, but so far it's clear

that detectives have the following to consider:

The chain and concrete block

that weighted Evans down to the river bed bottom.

Blood samples taken from Patton's

vehicle after he was originally arrested for the murders in 1977. The

blood was tested but didn't match Evans's blood type.

The sleeping bag that officials

believe contained Evans' body and was found just before her body was discovered

in the Flint River.

Sheriff Johnson said Evans'

body was located "just inside" the Fayette County line. He joked

that Clayton County's police chief at the time, Ronnie Thornton, and he

were standing with others near the center of the Flint River bridge on

McDonough Road when the body was found and Evans's body was in Fayette

"He gave me that one,"

Johnson joked. "He already had two (bodies)."

Johnson suggested that Patton

might have been some kind of "hit man" based on the information

the sheriff's department got in the early days of the investigation.

Patton's arrest may also solve

three other murders in other jurisdictions, officials said. The first

dead woman found in the Flint that day, Betty Jo Ephlin, may also be one

of Patton's victims, officials said. Another of the victims, Joe Cleveland,

was Evans' boyfriend at the time.

Fred Wyatt, another murder

victim, was also shot in the head, although someone made it appear that

he died by getting run over by a train, Jordan said. The bullet in his

head wasn't discovered until recently when detectives had his body exhumed,

the chief detective added.

Jordan said Ephlin was killed

Oct. 13, 1977, followed by Wyatt Nov. 12 the same year. And the following

Dec. 17, Evans and Cleveland were killed, the chief detective said.

All four victims had one thing

in common, Jordan said: they knew Marie Jackson Wyatt, who is now deceased.

Were she alive today, she would also be considered an accomplice to Patton,

Jordan added.

When the case first broke in

1977, Johnson had about six or eight deputies; now he has more detectives

than that, not counting all his other deputies and jailers.

The extra resources allowed

Johnson, now in his seventh term of office, to assign three detectives

to the case full-time for four months.

And it didn't hurt that new

technology could better interpret the evidence.

"It's just really good

investigative work, and we have to thank the crime lab and the chiefs

in the adjoining county, too," Johnson said. "... We had to

get out and hustle to get what we got."

Jordan worked the case along

with Sgt. Det. Tracey Carroll and Sgt. Det. Dwayne Prosser, Johnson said.

This is believed to be the

oldest criminal case in Georgia that could possibly be resolved with a

conviction due to DNA evidence. It will also smooth out old emotions for

a sheriff who constantly thought "what if" he could have convicted

Liddie Evans's killer.

Johnson just may get his shot

at convicting Patton.

"It's just kind of there

and it always weighs on your mind," Johnson said of the only unsolved

murder in Fayette under his tenure as sheriff. "If you can get rid

of that, you'd have a clean slate.

"... I'm just glad to

get this behind us."

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