A teenager who had long been jailed awaiting trial in the murder of a DeKalb County locksmith has been released and the charges against him have been dropped.
At the time of the alleged crime in June 2022, the teen was 16 years old. He’s now nearly 18.
He had been held in the murder of Peter McGrath, a 36-year-old father whose body was found when police were asked to check on a burning work van on Mecklinburg Place in the Belvedere Park neighborhood.
The night before, McGrath had left home on a work call, his wife told Channel 2 Action News. A woman called her husband to a spot in Decatur saying she’d locked her keys in her car. Channel 2 reported that police believed robbers killed McGrath before eventually ditching the van with the body inside. Police soon identified an apparent suspect.
The teen was eventually booked in February, on his 17th birthday, on charges of murder, aggravated assault and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon or first offender probationer, according to online jail records.
The day after Christmas, the teen was released from the DeKalb jail.
“No additional suspects have been charged at this time,” DeKalb District Attorney’s Office spokesperson Lisa Myers wrote in an email to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Sunday.
“While the current charges against the defendant were nolle prossed, the investigation into Peter McGrath’s murder is still open and pending in our office,” she wrote. “As such, we are unable to offer additional details regarding the case at this juncture.”
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