An arrest has been made in connection with a double murder in Paulding County nearly 17 years after the bodies of two men were found in the trunk of a burning car, the sheriff’s office announced Thursday.
Andrew John Shadrix, now 44, is charged with two counts of malice murder in the double slaying, officials said.
The charges stem from the deaths of Shad Andrew English and Dennis Jeffrey Jackson, who were found in the car in 2002 after each had been shot to death.
In the early morning hours of Sept. 15, Atlanta fire and police officials were sent to investigate a vehicle fire on I-20 just inside the western city limits.
“Atlanta authorities quickly discovered that there was more to the vehicle fire than they expected,” the Paulding sheriff’s office said in a statement.
Investigators found the bodies of English, 21, and Jackson, 19, both of Paulding County, in the trunk.
“I’ll never be able to forget it,” English’s sister, Leslie Tibbits, told Channel 2 Action News. “It was the worst day of my life.”
Atlanta homicide detectives continued to investigate the double murder, but the trail soon went cold.
Paulding deputies assigned to the FBI Gang Task Force began working the case again early in 2018, authorities said. On Wednesday, they said they secured a confession from Shadrix, who told them the murders were drug-related in nature.
Shadrix was already in the Paulding jail on unrelated charges, officials said. He would have been 27 years old at the time of the killings.
Investigators said Shadrix confessed that the murders happened at a home in the 100 block of Cohran Store Road in Douglasville, which is located in Paulding County.
For years, officials speculated that the murders happened in Paulding, but no conclusive evidence led investigators there.
The house where the slayings took place no longer exists, officials said. It was destroyed years ago for reasons unrelated to the killings.
Tibbits told Channel 2 she is happy about the new developments in the case.
“Now I can put some of that behind me and think back on the good things,” she said.
Shadrix remains in the Paulding jail without bond.
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