Remembering Jennifer

By Charles Shiver

I have worked at the Adel News Tribune during the time that two tragedies shook the community to the core: First, the broad daylight double murders of Adel store owner Carroll Bennett and his employee Becky Browning in November 2000, and then the tornado disaster that took the lives of seven people in Sunshine Acres Mobile Home Park during the early morning hours of Jan. 22, 2017. (You might know of other dark days in local history.)

While doing historical research on an unsolved murder case in the late 1980s, I was astonished to read on the front page of the Wednesday, July 30, 1986, issue of the Adel News about two horrific stories that had the shared headline, “Night of Murders.” Those crimes must have truly stunned and revolted the citizens of Cook County.

One article was about Wayne Taylor, owner of Taylor Cash & Carry on Elm Street in Adel, being shot and killed Monday night, July 28, in an apparent robbery. The other article was about Jennifer Atkins, a 3-year-old girl, being murdered the night of July 28 or early morning hours of July 29 in an apartment at the I-75 exit in Sparks. It must have taken a demon in human form to commit such vile acts as detailed in the initial article to a small child.

The Taylor case remains unsolved, to the best of my understanding. I would like to revisit that case in a respectful manner and offer a fresh perspective with the family’s permission.

As for Jennifer’s murder, the article quotes former Sparks Police Chief Charlie Peters, who said the 3-year-old girl was found dead in her mother’s Sparks apartment early Tuesday morning, July 29.

Peters said he received a call from a woman about 4 that morning. She told him that a child was dead in the apartment. Peters said when he arrived at the apartment, he found the child lying on a couch. The mother told Peters that she had found the child in a bed in the bedroom and carried her to the couch.

The child was taken to the Emergency Room in Adel for an examination. Without getting too graphic, the police report states that the girl suffered bite marks and had possibly been sexually assaulted. (The newspaper at the time, in my opinion, gave too much detail about the girl’s ghastly injuries. I could see such descriptions published if the manner of injuries came up in trial and were relevant to the murderer’s conviction. Otherwise, it seemed inappropriate and excessive.) The State Crime Lab performed an autopsy to determine the cause of death.

The mother had a 5-year-old daughter in the apartment at the time the incident took place. The 5-year-old went to stay with her grandmother and was examined by the Department of Family and Children Services. She was found to be unharmed. The mother also had a 7-year-old son who lived in Atlanta.

Also living in the apartment was Robert Lee Johnson Jr., 20 at the time, who was arrested and charged with burglary and theft by taking. Johnson broke out a plate glass window at Snuffy Smith’s I-75 Shell station in Sparks and stole a bicycle and $14.

Peters said Johnson was arrested about 4 a.m. Tuesday, July 29, after he was seen riding a bicycle like the one taken from the Shell station. Snuffy Smith said he would be taking a warrant against Johnson in the burglary.

A subsequent article in the Wednesday, Aug. 6, 1986, issue of the Adel News, had the headline, “Two charged with child’s murder.”

Pauline Atkins, the child’s mother, and Johnson, Ms. Atkins’ live-in boyfriend, were both charged with murder in the child’s death, according to former Cook County Sheriff Charlie Bryant.

Funeral services for Jennifer Marie Atkins were held Saturday, Aug. 2, 1986, at St. Matthew Grove Baptist Church in Lenox. Burial was reported to have been in the Lenox Cemetery. Jennifer was survived by several family members. Reverend Arnold officiated at the funeral. Lane Memorial Chapel of Adel was in charge of arrangements.

What brought up this nearly 40-year-old murder case for me? I recently saw where Robin Postell on her local history Facebook page had posted a photo of the Sparks apartments and asked if folks knew the location. Also, I recently interviewed a retiring judge, and he remembered four decades later the arrest warrants he signed for such a disturbing case.

I recently stopped by the service station by the old motel to get gas for my truck on the way home late one afternoon. With full knowledge of the murder, I either imagined or felt that I was being watched through the darkened old apartment windows, and I sensed I was being asked to help the community remember little Jennifer, whatever your beliefs may or may not be about such spiritual matters. I felt that if I had the right mind’s eye, I would have glimpsed a small hand pulling back a curtain and a small face with imploring eyes looking out at me.

I researched the murder again in the old papers and found out what happened to the perpetrators. A follow-up article in the Adel News stated that the girl had been beaten to death. I haven’t yet been able to locate an article or articles about the defendants’ convictions, but I found on the Georgia Department of Corrections website that Robert Johnson Jr. was sentenced to life in prison for murder and 20 years in prison for cruelty to children. Incarceration began Aug. 7, 1987. He was subsequently convicted of sale and delivery of marijuana (crime commit date, Sept. 1, 2008) in Tattnall County and was sentenced to four years. He remains incarcerated in state prison (active). I will be honest and say that how he evaded the death penalty escapes me. As for Ms. Atkins, she was convicted of murder and cruelty to children, party to a crime. She was sentenced to life in prison for the murder and 20 years for cruelty to children. Her incarceration began Sept. 10, 1987, and ended with parole on June 6, 2018.

Most true crime documentaries will provide mug shots of the defendants, and I have these criminals’ photos post-conviction. But I got to thinking that wasn’t fair because the paper never published a photo of the victim, too. The remaining family may have photos of her. I don’t know. It’s very sad to think that this child’s photo was never taken because her family was too poor to afford it, or her immediate caregivers didn’t care enough to get a picture of her.

Anyway, it occurred to me to find Jennifer’s final resting place. Some of her extended family members might still remember her, but the community seems to have forgotten her story.

I first went to Lenox City Cemetery by the I-75 exit in search of a child lost to history. What could be a more sacred quest than that?

I became frustrated on that chilly winter morning because I couldn’t find Jennifer’s place of rest.

I thought about it for awhile, and then went to look on the Find a Grave website (www.findagrave.com). I found an image of the grave and the cemetery, but it looked nothing like the Lenox City Cemetery.

Then it occurred to me. Sadly enough, the graves of Blacks and Whites were still segregated in the South even in those relatively recent times, and they still are to a certain extent now.

I called Lenox City Hall, and a nice lady told me about a cemetery on the other end of town, at the back end of a mobile home area.

I drove over to Lenox again and went past some structures that are frankly in shambles and reached the cemetery, which is surrounded by a chainlink fence.

I parked by the dirt street and walked into the cemetery because the gate was open. I wandered among the graves, and asked over and over, “Where are you, dear?” The cemetery is well-maintained as far as the grounds are concerned, but it is still a desolate place to me, as are all graveyards.

At last I found the grave of the forgotten child in a family plot on the far end.

A couple of containers of white  and yellow plastic flowers were set out months ago and are fading due to the harsh elements. The headstone markings are very simple, with only Jennifer’s name, birth date, and date of death. If she had survived, she would be 42 years old now. The markings have deteriorated to the point that they are barely readable, and the concrete and metal slab is mostly covered by spreading rust.

I put my hand on Jennifer’s cold headstone and told her hoarsely as I fought back tears of sadness and outrage, “I’m sorry for what that monster did to you. He took away the rest of your life, days when you might have played with your friends as a child and days when you were grown up and might have enjoyed loving your own children and grandchildren. So much was unfairly taken away from you, Jennifer. I’m so sorry. I can’t imagine the horror and pain you experienced. If I had the power, I would go back in time and stop all that, and put things to right.

“But you are loved and remembered, and I will write about you so that the community will know your story again. Rest easy, little darling.”

When I wrote this tribute to Jennifer, I really didn’t have the intent of it being a true crime story about the lurid details of her death 40 years ago. It was so difficult to compose. Whatever you may believe, the Lord has been laying it on my heart to do this.

My hope is that when others in the community read this story, they will please take the time to visit Jennifer’s marker and let her know she is loved and remembered by them, too. Even if she is now asleep in Christ, maybe the angels will whisper in her ear as they sing their endless lullabies that she is remembered, she will smile with that knowledge when she wakes again at the Rapture, and she will run up skipping along in a snow-white dress, a symbol of her pure innocence, and give us all a great big hug in the new morning’s sunshine.