For many metro Atlantans, 2014 will be remembered as the year that began by stopping us in our tracks.
A late January snow storm looked pretty at first as it quickly moved across the metro area. But as we scrambled to get home, thousands got nowhere fast. Even by Atlanta rush-hour standards, this was bad, with many drivers' commutes topping eight hours. And those drivers were the ones fortunate enough to make it home.
In 2014, thousands of stories were published on ajc.com. From breaking news to coverage of the Atlanta Braves and the latest on Real Housewives of Atlanta, readers clicked on ajc.com headlines to get informed, comment on blogs or just take a break when the boss wasn’t looking. We’ve compiled a list of the year’s “most read” stories on ajc.com, based on page views, or the number of readers who clicked on the story.
Winter storms, times 2: Just when it seemed like things were finally getting back to normal after a January winter storm paralyzed the metro area, snow returned two weeks later. Thousands of people lost electricity, two people died and others were injured, and again, roads were a mess. A winter wonderland it wasn't.
For ajc.com, the winter storms were the biggest story of the year. Readers turned to ajc.com for forecasts, school closings and help when stranded or in need of help.
But it wasn't all bad news. There were tales of the winter storm that made readers smile. Remember little Grace Anderson's birth? She was so ready to be born, she wouldn't let her parents make it to Northside Hospital on the icy interstate. Grace was born on I-285.
By most accounts, the area was more prepared for the second round of winter weather. But spring couldn’t arrive fast enough for many.
Death of 2-year-old Cooper Harris: In the parking lot of a Cobb County shopping center, a frantic father tried desperately to revive his toddler son, but it was too late. The 22-month-old was dead after being left in his car seat inside a hot SUV for seven hours while his father worked.
“What have I done? What have I done?” witnesses heard Justin Ross Harris scream. “I’ve killed our child.”
The toddler’s death on June 18th made national headlines. The arrest of the boy’s father and subsequent murder charge launched a debate over whether Cooper’s death was even a crime.
Could a father have accidentally forgotten his own son? Or had he planned the death?
Search warrant affidavits released later in June revealed that Ross Harris had researched child deaths inside vehicles. Cooper's mother, Leanna Harris, also researched children dying in hot cars, according to police. Leanna Harris was not charged in her son's death.
At a July probable cause hearing, a judge denied bond for Ross Harris. A standing-room only courtroom heard evidence of Harris allegedly sexting underage girls and going to lunch with two friends on the day his son was left inside his SUV.
In September, Ross Harris was indicted on murder charges. He remains in the Cobb County jail awaiting trial.
Fighting Ebola: It's a virus blamed on thousands of deaths in several west African countries. But with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention based in Atlanta — and the successful treatment of four patients with Ebola at Emory University Hospital — the virus made numerous headlines on ajc.com.
The Emory staff showed the nation it could successfully treat Ebola, and in August, two Americans who contracted the virus in West Africa were released from the hospital.
“Today is a miraculous day.” Ebola patient Dr. Kent Brantly said. “I am thrilled to be alive, to be well and to be reunited with my family.”
But it was a story of one doctor’s criticism of the CDC’s management of Ebola that was highest read on ajc.com.
Two days after a man in Texas was diagnosed with Ebola, a Missouri doctor showed up at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport on Oct. 2 dressed in protective gear to protest what he called mismanagement of the crisis.
Dr. Gil Mobley checked in and cleared airport security wearing a mask, goggles, gloves, boots and a hooded white jumpsuit emblazoned on the back with the words, “CDC is lying!”
“If they’re not lying, they are grossly incompetent,” said Mobley, a microbiologist and emergency trauma physician from Springfield, Mo.
The boy hidden behind a wall: The story of a 13-year-old boy missing for four years had a happy, though bizarre ending. After he was found hidden behind a wall in a Clayton County home, the boy was reunited with his mother.
Five people in the house, including the boy’s father and stepmother, were arrested after a tip led police to the home in late November. Gregory Jean, 37, and Samantha Joy Davis, 42, were arrested and charged with false imprisonment and child cruelty and remain jailed without bond.
Via text messages to his mother in Foorida, the boy led police to a tiny crawl space between the garage and attic of his father’s Jonesboro home — even as his father and stepmother denied knowing the boy, according to Clayton Officer Joanne Southerland. Officers found the boy in a space behind the linen closet early Nov. 30 after returning to the house for a second time to find him.
Shooting at FedEx: Early on the morning of April 29, 19-year-old Geddy Lee Kramer shot six of his co-workers before killing himself at a FedEx facility near Kennesaw.
The North Cobb High School graduate was a package handler at the facility. But on a Tuesday morning, he arrived as though heading to war, with bullets strapped to his chest “like Rambo,” according to witnesses.
Among the six people injured, two had critical injuries. But the most seriously injured was a security guard, Christopher Sparkman, who had been shot at close range. Sparkman underwent numerous surgeries before being released in July from the hospital, where he and his wife celebrated their first wedding anniversary. The Army veteran continues to recover from his injuries.
The investigative report on the mass shooting, released by Cobb police in September, detailed Kramer's prior plans that included a massacre at his high school. Those plans did not go forward because Kramer lacked the money for his arsenal, he wrote in the manifesto.
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