Speed was not factor in a crash that killed a Texas couple and seriously injured their 2-month-old baby, police said Monday. But Cherokee County investigators have not yet determined if alcohol was. Beer cans were found in the car, and toxicology reports are pending to determine if the father, Rick Dean Headen, was driving under the influence at the time of crash, Lt.

Moments after Ryan Brunn admitted he had killed 7-year-old Jorelys Rivera, he agreed to be re-interviewed by GBI agents wanting more insight into the killer's actions. At the end of the three-hour interview, Brunn invited the agents to visit him in prison.

A two-month old boy badly injured Sunday in a Cherokee County head-on collision that killed his parents was in stable condition Monday, a sheriff's spokesman said. Cherokee sheriff's Lt. Jay Baker said late Monday morning that the child, who was taken to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Scottish Rite, "appears to be doing better.

Woodstock City Manager Jeff Moon said Friday that he demanded the resignation of Chief Financial Officer Henry Bucci because two outside annual audits in a row had found that the city Finance Department had kept poor records. In one case, Moon said, the department neglected to note that it had sent a $600,000 payment on a water and sewer bond, but that was not discovered until the audit.

Gov. Nathan Deal and top legislators have a plan to pay for the beleaguered toll road project along I-75 and I-575 in Cobb and Cherokee counties: lots of gas tax money. The state Department of Transportation is not on board yet, and might have to decide on the expenditure.

Two Cherokee County firefighters have been arrested and charged after an investigation into medications being tampered with on a county ambulance, a sheriff's spokesman said Thursday. Johnathan Wayne Thomas, 34, of Canton, was arrested at his home Wednesday after deputies conducted a search warrant, Cherokee sheriff's Lt.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation released the body of admitted murderer Ryan Brunn to a North Georgia funeral home after a GBI autopsy Friday determined his cause of death. Brunn, 20, pleaded guilty last week to the Dec. 2 sexual molestation of 7-year-old Jorelys Rivera of Canton and was sentenced to life in prison.

On an overcast, gray afternoon, the playground at River Ridge at Canton apartments was empty. It’s been that way, rain or shine, for the last seven weeks, said James McCollum. “You used to see kids out there all the time playing,” said McCollum, who’s lived in the complex for four years.

The admitted killer of 7-year-old Jorelys Rivera was not under a suicide watch when he used his sweatshirt to hang himself in a prison cell, state corrections officials said Friday. Ryan Brunn, 20, was being held in segregation at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson while being processed into the state prison system two days after his guilty plea.

Investigators have not yet determined the name of the person found dead after a Cherokee County fire. One person died in a fire Thursday afternoon, but the body was not found until several hours, investigators said. The log-style home on Knox Bridge Trail, off Ga.

An apartment groundskeeper convicted of molesting and murdering a 7-year-old Canton girl committed suicide Thursday in a state prison, two days after he was sentenced in Cherokee County to spend life in prison without parole. Kristen Stancil, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections, confirmed late Thursday that 20-year-old Ryan Brunn was found unresponsive in his cell at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson at 4:15 p.

Canton Police Chief Jeff Lance resigned Thursday after a scathing independent report said he and his department mishandled the initial investigation into last month's disappearance and gruesome murder of 7-year-old Jorelys Rivera. Canton Mayor Gene Hobgood, who asked for the review last month after criticisms of the department's search for Jorelys, called the 19-page report by LaGrange Police Chief Chief Louis Dekmar "indicting.

An apartment complex groundskeeper coldly recounted how he enticed 7-year-old Jorelys Rivera to a vacant unit, molested and then killed her before entering a negotiated guilty plea on Tuesday. Ryan Brunn, 20, was sentenced to life without parole for murdering Jorelys.

Bob the Turkey survived Thanksgiving, but the new year didn't bring good luck to the city of Woodstock's beloved, albeit unofficial, mascot. Bob, who showed up in town about a year ago and decided to settle down and make a home, was hit by a car and killed Sunday afternoon near the intersection of Ga.

Canton Police officers were looking for a child who might have been hiding or who had perhaps gone to a friend's house without her mother's permission after getting a call last month that 7-year-old Jorelys Rivera was missing. It would be three days before the grim truth was confirmed: Somewhere between her home and the playground at the River Ridge Apartments, Jorelys was snatched.

Two police officers were credited Tuesday with possibly saving a life after they ran into a burning house in Canton and pulled out an unconscious man who apparently had become overcome by smoke. Canton Officer Stephen Delman said he was on patrol when a radio call came across about 2:30 p.

Cherokee County authorities said they arrested seven people and seized nearly $270,000 in cocaine and methamphetamine. Members of the Cherokee Multi-Agency Narcotics Squad were contacted Friday when Cherokee Sheriff’s deputies discovered a large amount of methamphetamine concealed on a Canton man arrested on an outstanding burglary warrant, sheriff’s spokesman Lt.

A Cherokee County grand jury this week indicted Ryan Brunn in the brutal beating, rape and murder of a 7-year-old girl whom he is accused of abducting from a park inside a Canton apartment complex in December. Brunn, a 20-year-old maintenance man at the complex, faces 13 felony counts in connection with the Dec.

Canton has hired LaGrange Police Chief Louis Dekmar to review its police department's handling of the Jorelys Rivera investigation. Dekmar will examine how Canton police conducted the search for the 7-year-old girl, who was abducted and slain at her apartment complex earlier this month.

A man wielding a sword was shot and injured by a Cherokee deputy late Saturday night. Howard Baker with the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office said Sunday that deputies were dispatched to the 2700 block of Old Mill Place near Acworth upon report of shots being fired.

Cherokee County Superintendent of Schools Dr. Frank Petruzielo has dealt with tumultuous change in his 13 years. First, it was building schools fast enough to keep up with the more than 50 percent population boom. Now, it’s maintaining standards in a time of slashed funding amid cries, from some quarters, for more charter schools.

An internal affairs report released Wednesday by the Cherokee County Sheriff reveals a state of confusion prevailed during the second day of the search for 7-year-old Jorelys Rivera, before GBI officials were called in to assist local authorities. Not only did two deputies fail to report seeing blood in a vacant unit that was later determined to be the crime scene, two city of Canton firefighters also did not report seeing the blood during a separate search of the unit earlier that day.

The man seriously injured when he tried to walk across Reinhardt College Parkway improved to stable condition Monday. Pedro Francisco, 20, of Canton, had been in critical condition at WellStar Kennestone Hospital in Marietta since Saturday evening, when he was hit in northern Cherokee County.

Sunday Conversation with ... John Adams, Cherokee County’s chief appraiser As chief appraiser, John Adams is responsible for appraising property in Cherokee County for tax purposes. It’s not an easy job in the best of times, and it’s gotten harder as the real estate market crashed in the wake of the Great Recession.

The Cherokee County deputy who failed to report seeing drops of blood during the Jorelys Rivera investigation must undergo additional training, take a pay cut and will face a 36-hour suspension if he has any further discipline issues, Sheriff Roger Garrison said Friday afternoon.