In the hours after two teenagers were found dead behind a Roswell Publix store, investigators watched surveillance footage for clues. They could see images of a dark-haired suspect, but more importantly, they could see his vehicle.
It was a white or silver Honda Passport or Isuzu Rodeo, either the 1998 or 1999 model year, and the wheels were different in color, according to court documents filed this week. The front wheel appeared darker, and the SUV had damage on the rear passenger side, police said, but the tag number wasn’t visible.
With the help of the GBI, investigators found every similar vehicle owned in Fulton and Cobb counties — a search that turned up 650 similar SUVs.
By sorting through that data, investigators identified their suspect in the deaths of Natalie Henderson and Carter Davis: Jeffrey Andrew Hazelwood.
“It is a tool that has been used for years,” GBI spokesman Scott Dutton said Friday. “It works really well when you have not really much to go on to isolate basically geographically. Or if you can narrow down to year models of vehicles, it’ll help.”
Through what the agency calls “offline searches,” investigators found ownership records for hundreds of possible SUVs, and detectives combed through addresses.
“It takes good detective work, so a lot of it is process of elimination, looking at the data a little bit further,” Dutton said.
Roswell police had previously responded to the home of the Hazelwoods, who owned a silver Honda Passport. Then investigators looked at driver's license photos.
“Jeffrey Hazelwood’s driver’s license photograph shows that he has dark, shoulder-length hair,” a search warrant affidavit states.
That hair, according to police, was the same as the suspect seen on surveillance footage from Aug. 1, when Henderson and Davis were found dead outside their cars. Investigators found Hazelwood’s Honda Passport parked outside his girlfriend’s home, just outside the Roswell city limits in Cobb County. That vehicle, the affidavit says, had wheels in varying colors and damage to the rear passenger side.
Roswell officers watched the home until the early morning hours of Aug. 3, when Hazelwood left in his SUV and drove to a gas station. It was there that he was taken into custody, barely 48 hours after the killings, according to police.
In affidavits filed this week, Roswell investigators detailed why they intended to search Hazelwood’s SUV and his girlfriend’s home. But no documents have been filed revealing what was found during the searches.
At his probable cause hearing, a detective testified that Hazelwood detailed all of his actions during the early morning hours when he allegedly killed Henderson and Davis. But he offered no possible motive, and it's not known whether Hazelwood knew either of the victims. His attorneys have said he has several mental health disorders.
Hazelwood's case was initially slated to be presented to a grand jury on Friday, but was delayed, according to the Fulton County district attorney. Hazelwood, who is jailed without bond, did not appear in court Friday morning when prosecutors and one of his attorneys provided an update on the case.
Georgia law requires that a person can remain jailed for up to 90 days before he or she must be granted bond or be indicted by a grand jury. Hazelwood’s attorneys have not requested bond, which means Hazelwood’s case must be presented to a grand jury before Nov. 1.
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