The little yellow house on Daniel Street had been dying for years before they finally killed it.
When a demolition crew showed up in May, they found a decaying shell that needed to be taken out of its misery.
But the crew didn’t know there was still life inside. Janice Durham, a 51-year-old homeless woman, had sought shelter there, and died as the teeth of a backhoe crunched the house to pieces.
Durham and the yellow ranch house had similar stories — they had both seen better days. Though shy, Durham was a lively and happy little girl until a close relative robbed her spirit. And the house where she died had once been the pride of a family that bought the property from Coca-Cola founder Asa Candler and have owned it for almost a century. Now both the house and Durham are gone, and authorities are investigating how a demolition company, hired by the city, failed to find Durham inside before knocking the house down.
In Sunday's newspaper, the AJC takes a deep look at what caused the death of Janice Durham. It's a story you'll get only by picking up a copy of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution or logging on to the paper's iPad app. Subscribe today.
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