The Georgia Supreme Court on Monday upheld convictions against a man who remained undetected for years after he raped and strangled a 39-year-old woman.

In 2010, Michael Harvey was convicted of the 1994 murder of Valerie Payton, whose mutilated body was found in a vacant lot in southeast Atlanta. The Fulton County Cold Case Squad solved the crime through DNA evidence after swabs were sent to a private lab in Dallas, which developed a distinct male profile. This was sent to the GBI, which matched it to Harvey.

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Inventor Lonnie Johnson stands with his Super Soaker water guns at JTEC Energy on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025, in Atlanta. Johnson, a former NASA engineer, is currently working on a new energy technology through his company’s JTEC device that turns thermal heat into usable energy. (Natrice Miller/AJC)