It was the small sigh of relief two communities desperately needed after nearly three days of heartbreak. The man suspected of killing two 17-year-olds with single gunshots to the head was arrested, Roswell police said Wednesday afternoon.
But the arrest in the shooting deaths — a story that has made national headlines — raised even more unanswered questions. Who is Jeffrey Hazelwood, and why would the 20-year-old shoot and kill Natalie Henderson and Carter Davis?
“Everyone I’ve talked to closest to Natalie has no idea who that guy is,” Joey Taylor, a former Roswell High School color guard coach, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
According to Roswell police, Hazelwood is responsible for shooting Natalie and Carter behind a Woodstock Road Publix supermarket in the early-morning hours Monday. Around 6 a.m., a delivery driver called police after seeing the teens' bodies on the ground.
It was cellphone records, as well as messaging apps, that helped investigators link Hazelwood to the crime, Roswell police Chief Rusty Grant said.
Hazelwood, of Roswell, was taken into custody early Wednesday at an area gas station, Grant said, and was being held during the day at the Roswell detention center before being taken to the Fulton County jail. There, he will be charged with two counts of murder in the deaths of Natalie and Carter, both of Roswell.
Hazelwood was already in custody by the time officers executed a search warrant at a small ranch house on Gilhams Road, off Mabry Road and just outside the Roswell city limits. Grant declined to discuss how that search was related to the case, but said currently there are no other suspects.
“We believe he acted alone,” Grant said.
Neither Hazelwood’s mother nor his maternal grandparents could be reached by phone Wednesday night. But Trudy Darlene Dinwiddie of Moscow Mills, Mo., said that she is Hazelwood’s paternal grandmother, although she hasn’t seen Hazelwood since he was an infant.
She said Hazelwood’s parents split many years ago and that his maternal grandparents had raised him.
“I always thought he was a good kid,” Dinwiddie said. “I’ve never heard anything bad about him. But I haven’t seen him since he was a baby, so I really don’t know a lot about him.”
Natalie and Carter were also good kids, according to classmates and friends. Students at separate schools grieved the sudden and violent deaths of two classmates, who were both set to begin their senior years.
In addition to participating on the color guard at Roswell High School, Natalie was a lifeguard, played guitar and volunteered with an animal rescue group.
Carter, not originally from Georgia, attended River Ridge High School in Woodstock, where he also excelled academically and played lacrosse.
About two hundred classmates attended a vigil Tuesday night in Woodstock to honor Carter, and a vigil is planned today at 7 p.m. in downtown Roswell to celebrate Natalie. Dozens of friends posted social media tributes to both teens.
“She’s not only a friend but she’s like a sister to me and I’m going to miss her so much,” one classmate posted on Facebook. “Carter just the same, for I didn’t know him well, but in the few times I got to hang out with him he seemed like a great young man.”
A memorial service for Natalie will be held Friday at 10 a.m. at Roswell Presbyterian Church, 755 Mimosa Blvd., according to her obituary. Funeral arrangements were not finalized late Wednesday for Carter.
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