‘No such thing as a false fire alarm,’ Ga. Tech fire safety manager says
An October burn demonstration led by Atlanta Fire Rescue to kick off the sixth annual Fire Service Psychology Association conference illustrated just how intense a fire can become without a sprinkler system.
Within two minutes, a small room was buried in flames and reduced to ruins. In the same room with working sprinklers, the fire lasted for about 15 seconds.
For residences without sprinkler systems, functioning smoke detectors are essential to a fast fire rescue response. A working smoke detector raises the chance of surviving a house fire by 85%, said Burton Clark of the Fire Service Psychology Association. Evacuating a home before help arrives is also critical to improving outcomes not just for the residents, but for the crews rushing into the flames to try to rescue them.
“Do not take any fire alarms as being false. There’s no such thing as a false fire alarm. There’s something that made the fire alarm activate,” Georgia Tech Fire Safety Manager Bridget Mourao said during the demonstration. “It takes less than two minutes for a fire to become deadly, so getting out is the only way to stay alive.”
Metro Atlanta’s cold cases solved using forensic genetic genealogy
Several metro Atlanta cold cases have already been solved using forensic genetic genealogy, and many more are still pending as investigators work to trace their ancestry.
Debbie Lynn Randall, 1972
One of the more recent cases to be solved using forensic genetic genealogy is also one of the oldest: the 1972 rape and killing of 9-year-old Debbie Lynn Randall. She was abducted while going to a laundromat across the street from her Marietta home that January. Her body was found in a nearby wooded area 16 days later.
In September 2023, the Cobb County district attorney identified William B. Rose of Mableton as her killer, though it was too late for him to face justice. He took his own life in 1974, having never been on investigators’ radar.
Baby India, 2019
In May 2023, Forsyth County officials announced they had identified the mother of a newborn who had been placed in a plastic bag and left in the woods along an isolated stretch of Daves Creek Road in June 2019. A family returning from a vacation heard her cries, which led them to her.
The child, nicknamed Baby India, survived. Her mother, Karima Jiwani, was found after genetic genealogy led investigators first to the father and then to Jiwani, who was charged with criminal attempt to commit murder.
Rebecca “Becky” Burke, 1993
In March 2023, DeKalb County officials identified a woman whose body was found in September 1993 in a wooded area just outside Tucker. They believe 52-year-old Rebecca “Becky” Burke likely died due to blunt-force trauma two weeks earlier. Her body appeared to have been intentionally concealed behind an electrical unit covered in pine straw and branches.
Detectives still need help learning what led to Burke’s death and who might have been responsible. She was last known to have lived in Cobb County.
Lorinzo Novoa Williams, 1999
In 2020, Cobb officials identified 48-year-old Lorinzo Novoa Williams as the suspect in three rapes dating to 1999. DNA from rape kits did not return a match at the time, but re-testing and submitting the profile to GEDmatch ultimately led investigators to Williams, who had been living in El Dorado, Arkansas.
He was found dead from an apparent suicide a day after being questioned.
Lorrie Ann Smith, 1997
Fulton County police arrested Jerry Lee in 2018 after investigators used genealogy to link him to the 1997 killing of 28-year-old Lorrie Ann Smith. She had been shot several times in the back at her home on Stonewall Tell Road.
Lee was the first Georgia murder suspect to be identified using forensic genetic genealogy.
Marlene Standridge, 1982
In 2021, Gwinnett County police identified human remains found in unincorporated Stone Mountain in 1982 as 22-year-old Marlene Standridge, who was believed to have been kidnapped from Piedmont Park in the early 1970s while taking a stroll with her two children. The children were later found alone.
Detectives uncovered Standridge’s identity when they matched her DNA to her daughter, Janis Adams. They consider James Willie Brown a likely suspect in Standridge’s killing due to his similar offenses in the ‘70s. Brown was executed in November 2003 for a 1975 killing and has been tied to at least two others.
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