Q: About 30 years ago, a sensational murder case occurred in Valdosta. The man convicted was a Valdosta businessman who owned a successful business. As I recall, the man killed a secretary and buried her body in a rural area. Could you please tell us what happened to the convicted killer?
—William Rich, Atlanta
A: The investigation, trial and events leading up to and after Hellen Hanks’ disappearance and death are something akin to a John Grisham novel.
That’s what former Georgia Attorney General Michael Bowers said last week when he recalled the details of the case and legal ordeal of businessman Keller Wilcox that gripped Georgia’s attention in the early 1980s.
This sensational murder case goes back to Aug. 31, 1972, when Hanks, who worked for the Wilcox Advertising Agency in Valdosta, never arrived home.
She had a husband and three children and was about to change jobs, so her family knew something was dreadfully wrong.
Hanks wouldn’t have just left.
Her disappearance baffled police and folks throughout the state for eight years until her buried remains were found in Lowndes County in November 1980.
Wilcox and his father, who owned the advertising agency where Hanks worked, were among the suspects. People and investigators said she had refused the son’s advances, leading to the murder.
Seven months later, Wilcox was charged, and in 1982, was convicted and sentenced to life.
The story doesn’t end here. Articles from the AJC, Valdosta Daily Times and Macon Telegraph helped piece together the events.
Wilcox’s attorneys argued he didn’t receive a fair trial, and a judge, citing inconsistent testimony, ordered his release in 1985. Wilcox returned to prison in 1987 when a court of appeals overturned the ruling and remained there until he was paroled in 2008.
As the state’s attorney general, Bowers worked to send Wilcox to prison in the 1980s, but later, in private practice, was part of the team that advocated his release. Bowers was attorney general from Aug. 1, 1981 to May 31, 1997.
“I went down and talked to Keller,” Bowers said. “I had never met him, but I found him to be so earnest. He said he was never going to get out of prison. I had him take a legitimate, first-class polygraph test and he passed it.”
Bowers knows where Wilcox lives, but refused to reveal the location.
“I won’t do that to the man,” he said.
They occasionally see each other, and the last time was at a hunting lodge about a year and a half ago.
“He’s not bitter toward anyone,” Bowers said. “He said, ‘My faith is the only thing that kept me going.’ ”
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