On the trail of Cain

On the trail of Cain

By Charles Shiver

After reading my recent article about the unsolved 1973 murder of Claude Wood, a family member asked me to report on another “cold” unsolved local case, the May 1989 murder of Benjamin “Benny” Dale Nolan, 42, of Route 1, Sparks.

According to a front page article in the Wednesday, May 31, 1989, issue of the Adel News, several leads had developed in the homicide investigation of Mr. Nolan’s death the previous week.

Mr. Nolan was found dead in his Brushy Creek Road home the previous Saturday morning when family members decided to drop in and pay him a visit, Sheriff Charlie Bryant (now deceased) told the Adel News.

According to reports, some members of Mr. Nolan’s family had gone by to visit him the previous Friday night. They saw that his car was gone, and the lights were out, which led them to believe that Mr. Nolan had gone out for the evening. The next morning, they returned and went into the house to make sure things were all right.

This is when they found Mr. Nolan’s body lying on the floor. His hands and feet were bound, and a string of miniature Christmas tree lights was wrapped around the victim’s neck, reports said.

For some strange reason, how Mr. Nolan’s body was found reminds me of a 1974 horror movie “Black Christmas,” in which a murder victim’s body is found asphyxiated in an attic. I am not being facetious. It makes you wonder if the local real-life killer had seen that early slasher film or a similar flick and was diabolically inspired by it. To use a strand of Christmas lights for strangulation, either the killer had plundered through Mr. Nolan’s property and found the lights in storage, or Mr. Nolan had left them on display in his house with summer approaching. Oddly, too, the first article about the murder is the only one in the series that mentions the use of holiday lights to strangle the victim.   

After finding the body, the family members contacted the Cook County Sheriff’s Office. Sheriff Bryant called in the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, and the two law enforcement agencies began working on the investigation together.

Mr. Nolan’s body was removed from the scene by Cook County Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) and was transported to the state crime lab in Moultrie [now closed]. From there, the body was taken to Atlanta, where an autopsy was performed.

According to then-Cook County Coroner Mike Futch, the autopsy revealed that the cause of death was asphyxiation by strangulation. Mr. Nolan was strangled with the string of Christmas tree lights that were found wrapped around his neck when his body was discovered. Mr. Nolan’s body was in the house between three and five days before it was found.

“There were no other signs on the body, other than the strangulation,” Futch told the Adel News at the time. “There was no evidence of being beaten.”

B and B Cabinet Shop in Hahira, Mr. Nolan’s employer, reported that he had not been seen at work since around 4 p.m. the previous Monday. According to Sheriff Bryant, they also said that it was not unusual for Mr. Nolan to miss a few days of work every once in a while.

Sheriff’s Deputies last saw his car traveling through Sparks on Tuesday, May 23, 1989, between 6 p.m. and 6:15 p.m. They did not know if Mr. Nolan was driving the car at the time.

According to the article, “it is possible that several items, including his wallet, may be missing from his residence.” Sheriff Bryant expressed hope that if authorities could find the car, that would lead them to the killer.

“Mr. Nolan was a loner, but he was a good citizen,” Sheriff Bryant told the Adel News. “People that we have talked to in the area have said that Mr. Nolan was bad about picking up hitchhikers. He wanted to help strangers, and would often pick somebody up off the side of the road.”

It was believed that this “willingness to help others” might have led to Mr. Nolan’s death. Sheriff Bryant said he felt that the killer was not a local resident, but a hitchhiker that Mr. Nolan might have offered a ride.

Authorities began searching for Mr. Nolan’s 2-door Ford Falcon car.

In the Adel News’ next issue, it was reported that a composite sketch of the suspect was to be distributed nationwide. The suspect was believed to be between 5’6” and 5’8” inches tall. He had sandy blonde hair, and was described as “clean cut,” and might have had in his possession a gold-colored suitcase. He was possibly driving the victim’s car, a faded turquoise 1966 Ford Falcon.

I have looked diligently on the Internet and in subsequent issues of the Adel News, and have been unable to find any “composite sketch” of the murder suspect.

In the next issue, the Adel News reported that Mr. Nolan’s Ford Falcon was found in Jacksonville, Fla. “Police in Jacksonville thoroughly fingerprinted the vehicle, and copies of these prints have been sent to the Georgia Crime Lab in Atlanta,” the article states. “Criminologists are in the process of comparing prints, in hopes of matching them to Nolan’s killer, Sheriff Bryant said.”

According to the article, deputies from the Sheriff’s Office, GBI agents, and Florida officers met to go over the evidence, and compare the information found: “ ‘All in all, things are going well,’ said the sheriff.” Reports from the crime lab were expected to be ready the next week. …

Then the murder investigation seemed to fade away from public perception. Again, I searched diligently, and could find no more follow-up articles. It is unclear to me what happened with the case.

In another issue, a letter-to-the-editor writer did maintain that the “crime rate in Adel and Cook County can be brought down through spiritual battling” against Satan. The letter writer referred to another major local crime around that time in which a clerk at the Suwanee-Swifty store on West Fourth Street in Adel was shot in the head during a robbery, but survived with critical injuries.

Mr. Nolan’s murder going unsolved adds to the tragedy, but it is not completely unexpected. Around 50% of murders go unsolved in the U.S., meaning roughly that percentage of murderers get away with it, at least with the unsolved cases since they may get caught committing other crimes and are punished. The “clearance rate”  for murders has declined significantly over the decades, from about 90% in the 1960s and 71% in 1980 to approximately 50-58% in recent years, according to analyses of FBI data. This has occurred despite advances in law enforcement technology, such as DNA analysis and the ability to preserve evidence and share it between law enforcement jurisdictions across the state and nation, as well as improvements in forensics training for criminal investigators. The main reason that I can think of is a much higher wall of legal protections that prosecutors must climb over to successfully pursue murder defendants, thus causing more homicide cases to have to be closed prematurely, even though there is no statute of limitations on murder.

The GBI website contains a number of unsolved murders from this area. As examples:

• On Monday, July 9, 2001, the body of Frances Lunsford was found in-between a vacant mobile home and a pond in Tifton, Tift County, Georgia. Ms. Lunsford had been strangled by a piece of clothing. Ms. Lunsford was last seen alive on the Saturday prior to her body being found.

• On Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2002, Candida Marion Cook’s body was found in a wooded area located near the airport in Tifton, Tift County, Georgia. Ms. Cook had been manually strangled. It was determined that Ms. Cook was last seen on either the night of Friday, September 19, 2003 or Saturday, September 20, 2003 at her residence in Tifton, Tift County, Georgia.

I also do not think it is idle speculation on my part to question whether or not there may be one or more serial killers active in South Georgia and hiding their tracks (although not necessarily in the cases I have mentioned specifically).

As for Mr. Nolan, according to an obituary back in 1989 from Boone Funeral Home, he was born April 19, 1947, in Berrien County and had resided in Cook County most of his life. He was a member of Massee Baptist Church. Officiating ministers for the service were the Rev. Bill Smith, the Rev. Felder Rowan, and the Rev. Bill McClellan. Interment was in Sparks Cemetery. Mr. Nolan was survived by several family members.

As always, anyone with information regarding the death of Benjamin Nolan is asked to please contact the GBI Douglas Office at (912) 389-4103, or their local law enforcement agency.