A man wanted for a 15-year-old rape and murder in southwest Atlanta is in jail, investigators said.
Robert Lee Cowans, 49, turned himself in to police Monday after relatives saw his face last week on Crime Stoppers stories on the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and WSB-TV, police said.
Police had been looking for him in connection with the 1996 strangling death of Patricia Sheffield in her apartment in the 800 block of Booker T. Washington Road.
“We questioned him, and served a warrant for murder and rape,” Atlanta Police cold case Det. Vince Velasquez told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Cowans turned himself in, however, to authorities in DeKalb County, where he was wanted for probation violation.
It is unclear what his probation is for, but he has previous arrests in DeKalb for failing to appear in court on unspecified charges. In Fulton County, Cowans’ arrest record includes simple battery, theft by receiving, and forgery.
Atlanta police returned him to the DeKalb County jail after he was questioned, Velasquez said.
Sheffield was 38, the mother of three sons and an infant daughter, when she was killed on that June 17 night.
“I didn’t get to know Mom,” her oldest, 27-year-old John Sheffield, said.
That night, Sheffield’s father couldn’t reach her by phone and began coming by the apartment and leaving notes. After four days of trying to get in touch with her through phone calls and messages, he had the apartment manager open the unit.
She was found dead there, police said.
Official charges are pending while DeKalb officials sort out Cowans’ prior offenses.
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