A tip in a cold case from 1997, thought to have been hope for a missing woman’s family, turned out to be a bust.
Fulton County officials said Thursday there were no signs of a body along Rivertown Road in Fairburn. The news came a day after officials began their search inside a well after getting a tip that the woman's remains were there.
Police didn't confirm the woman's ID, but missing person records show a Lori Denise Washington was last seen July 3, 1997. She was in her mid-20s when she went missing and would be 45 this year.
Washington’s family told Channel 2 Action News the tip would’ve brought closure. Washington’s nephew, Timothy Autry, told Channel 2 the tip “sent cold chills down (his) spine.”
Autry said he’s not sure what happened, just that when the family woke up one day that Washington was gone. He told Channel 2 the tip about the well didn’t surprise him.
“That address, there’s people who used to hang out with her that lived at that address,” he said. “So, someone knows about that place and that well.”
The new investigation shocked resident Allin Shropshire, who has lived in the neighborhood for about 30 years.
“So I come out and look out the door and see all this commotion, it’s just hard to believe,” Shropshire told Channel 2 on Wednesday.
Fulton investigators had been tight-lipped about the search. They confirmed a tip they got about the 1997 missing person case, but they didn’t say any more than that.
Autry told Channel 2 he still wants answers for his aunt’s death. “I just want to know why and who.”
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