GRIFFIN, Ga. (AP) – Experts with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation say half the evidence collected from the scene of the 1983 slaying of a black man has vanished, but witnesses have come forward to say the defendant admitted to the killing just hours after the body was found.
Frank Gebhardt is on trial for what prosecutors describe as the racist slaying of Tim Coggins.
The case went unsolved for decades. Prosecutors now believe Gebhardt and another man, William Moore, stabbed, cut and dragged Coggins behind a pickup truck because he was dating a white woman.
Frank Gebhardt listens to testimony Thursday, June 21, 2018, in Griffin, Ga. Testimony is under way in Georgia in the cold-case slaying of a black man whom authorities have said was killed because of racism. Frank Gebhardt is charged with malice murder in the killing of Timothy Coggins near Griffin, Georgia, in 1983. The killing remained unsolved until last fall, when authorities announced the arrests of the 60-year-old Gebhardt and another white man. (Bob Andres /Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports GBI experts testified Thursday that Coggins’ blood-stained pants, underwear and the sheet his body was wrapped in was recovered, but the DNA pulled from the blood evidence did not match Gebhardt or Moore.
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Information from: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, http://www.ajc.com
Daniellla Stuart, left, a Georgia Bureau of Investigation special agent and crime scene specialist, with Marie Broder, assistant DA, shows the jury a burned shirt she found in the defendant’s well that had cuts consistent with stab wounds during trial Thursday, June 21, 2018, in Griffin, Ga. Testimony is under way in Georgia in the cold-case slaying of a black man whom authorities have said was killed because of racism. Frank Gebhardt is charged with malice murder in the killing of Timothy Coggins near Griffin, Georgia, in 1983. The killing remained unsolved until last fall, when authorities announced the arrests of the 60-year-old Gebhardt and another white man. (Bob Andres /Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)
Terry Reed testifies about jail house conversations he had with Frank Gebhardt during trial Thursday, June 21, 2018, in Griffin, Ga. Testimony is under way in Georgia in the cold-case slaying of a black man whom authorities have said was killed because of racism. Gebhardt is charged with malice murder in the killing of Timothy Coggins near Griffin, Georgia, in 1983. The killing remained unsolved until last fall, when authorities announced the arrests of the 60-year-old Gebhardt and another white man. (Bob Andres /Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)
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