Police seek public's help to solve dismemberment case

By Marcus K. Garner

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Investigators are asking for the public’s help to find out how Linda Myrick was killed.

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Family photo Linda Myrick was the mother of three daughters and a grandmother.

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Family photo Myrick was found dead Monday in a vacant lot in northwest Atlanta.

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The 44-year-old Myrick’s dismembered body was found in a vacant lot west of downtown Atlanta on March 22.

Her head and hands had been severed from her body.

“We would love to know her last whereabouts,” Atlanta police Det. Danny Egan told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “She could’ve easily been killed outside the city.”

Described as a “free spirit,” Myrick was known to have been away from home for several weeks at a time, family said.

But they didn’t know her to have any enemies, her mother, Martha Myrick, told the AJC.

“I really don’t have any idea who would have done this,” Martha Myrick said.

After exhaustive canvassing of the neighborhood where her body was found, investigators and cadaver dogs weren’t able to locate Myrick’s head or hands, police said.

Police still haven’t determined a cause of death, and a toxicology report hasn’t returned from the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s office yet.

What investigators do know is that Myrick apparently died up to two days before her body was discovered – likely on a Saturday.

They know that she frequented the area around Moreland Avenue and Memorial Drive, and that her family acknowledged her struggle with drug abuse.

Police may have had a harder time identifying Myrick’s body had it not been for scarring on her legs and ankles that matched surgical records, authorities said.

The flow of information stopped there, however.

“We’ve been having difficulty tracking her last steps,” police major crimes commander Maj. Keith Meadows told the AJC. “We don’t have a starting point. That’s why we’re appealing to the public.”

Investigators are asking that anyone who can identify Myrick’s known acquaintances or the people she may have been seen with before or on Saturday, March 20, contact them.

Anyone who may have seen anything suspicious relating to this case is asked to call Crime Stoppers Atlanta at 404-577-8477.

Calls can be made anonymously, and information leading to an arrest could result in up to a $2,000 reward.