Jeffrey Hazelwood’s long hair is distinctive, but his SUV was similar to one driven by hundreds of others. Less than 48 hours after the killings of two teenagers, Roswell police used both to identify Hazelwood as the lone suspect, the latest court documents say.
Surveillance cameras from the King Plaza shopping center showed a man with shoulder-length hair running from behind the Publix, the scene of the double homicide. And cameras also captured the man driving a white or silver Honda Passport or Isuzu Rodeo with different colored wheels and damage on one side, but no license plate, according to police. GBI investigators quickly found about 650 similar vehicles registered in Fulton and Cobb counties.
By sorting through that data, investigators identified their suspect in the deaths of Natalie Henderson and Carter Davis: Jeffrey Andrew Hazelwood.
“It is a tool that has been used for years,” GBI spokesman Scott Dutton said. “It works really well when you have not really much to go on to isolate basically geographically. Or if you can narrow down to year models of vehicles, it’ll help.”
Through what the agency calls “offline searches,” investigators found ownership records for hundreds of possible SUVs, and detectives combed through addresses. Through “old-fashioned” police work, investigators narrowed down the list of possible suspects.
Roswell police had previously responded to the home Wayne Hazelwood, who owned a silver Honda Passport, for calls related to his grandson, Jeffrey. Investigators next looked at driver's license photos.
“Jeffrey Hazelwood’s driver’s license photograph shows that he has dark, shoulder-length hair,” a search warrant affidavit states.
That hair, according to police, was the same as that of the suspect seen on surveillance footage from Aug. 1, when Henderson and Davis were found dead on the ground with bullet wounds to their heads. Hazelwood posted numerous photos of his girlfriend on his Instagram account, and at her family’s home just outside the Roswell city limits in Cobb County, police found the silver Honda Passport. The SUV, the affidavit says, had wheels in varying colors and damage to the rear passenger side.
Roswell officers watched the home until the early morning hours of Aug. 3, when Hazelwood left in his SUV and drove to a gas station. It was there that he was taken into custody, barely 48 hours after the killings, according to police.
In affidavits filed last week in Cobb, Roswell investigators detailed why they intended to search Hazelwood’s SUV and his girlfriend’s home. But no documents have been filed revealing what was found during the searches. Similar documents have not yet been filed for searches done in Fulton, including at Hazelwood’s grandparents’ home.
At his probable cause hearing Aug. 19, a detective testified that during hours of interviews, Hazelwood detailed his actions when he allegedly killed Henderson and Davis. But he offered no motive, and it’s not known whether Hazelwood knew either of the victims. His attorneys have said he has several mental health disorders.
Hazelwood's case was initially slated to be presented to a grand jury on Friday, but was delayed, according to the Fulton County district attorney. Hazelwood, who is jailed without bond, did not appear in court Friday morning when prosecutors and one of his attorneys provided an update on the case.
Georgia law requires that a person can remain jailed for up to 90 days before he or she must be granted bond or be indicted by a grand jury. Hazelwood’s attorneys have not requested bond, which means Hazelwood’s case must be presented to a grand jury before Nov. 1.
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