It has been over 25 years since the body of 17-year-old high school student Leon Ellison was discovered, and authorities are still scratching their heads over what might have happened to lead to his death.
Virtually everyone who knew him said Ellison was a bright young student who excelled at weightlifting at Glenn Hills High School and who enjoyed working a part time job at the Depot Food Store where he was well liked by his coworkers.
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Ellison had no known enemies.
Ellison never had any trouble with the law, nor was he known as one who ran with the wrong crowd. By all accounts, Ellison had a bright future ahead of him, but it was a future that would be snuffed out before it could occur.
That Tuesday, March 29, 1994 was like any other Tuesday in the Ellison household, except it was Ellison’s 17th birthday. Regardless of the milestone, though, the family’s routine went on as usual.
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After school, Ellison drove his mother, Leomie Blocker, in the family car to her job at Kmart and was due to pick her up after her shift ended at 11:30 p.m.
Only, Ellison never showed up.
A frantic Blocker, knowing her son was always punctual and would never leave her stranded at work, especially on his birthday, immediately called the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office and filed a missing person report.
Several days went by with no sign of the teenager until the family car was discovered parked at Regency Mall. The mall was still open at the time; it would not fully shut down operations until 2002, so the fact that the car was parked there wasn’t necessarily suspicious.
However, the 1986 Oldsmobile Delta 88 had damage that Blocker said was not there before her son went missing.
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Just over a week after Ellison’s disappearance, on April 8, a body was discovered in a vacant, wooded lot next to a small mobile home colony in the 4400 block of Peach Orchard Road.
The body was badly decomposed and had likely been the target of wildlife. The coroner’s report shows that Investigator (now Captain) Pat Young only found parts of the body. A backbone and rib cage were recovered along with a foot still in a shoe and a decomposed skull.
Identification was recovered with the remnants of clothing found nearby, but it would take dental records to prove that the remains were those of Ellison.
According to the coroner’s report, an autopsy concluded that Ellison’s life ended with one gunshot to the head.
Determined to get to the truth of what happened, sheriff’s investigators interviewed upwards of 50 people, but could not determine a suspect in the case, according to media reports at the time.
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In 1994, DNA analysis was still in its infancy, having first been used in a 1986 case in Great Britain. The so-called “Trial of The Century” in the murder case against O.J. Simpson would begin that year, and Simpson would be later acquitted despite the so-called “mountain” of DNA evidence. At the time, law enforcement agencies and personnel didn’t fully understand DNA analysis, and juries were not ready to rely on it totally.
“We didn’t even collect DNA at the time. We were still relying on blood evidence, fingerprints and trace evidence, but no, we did not do DNA testing at the time,” Capt. Young said.
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While Blocker was unable to be contacted for this story, her Facebook page shows she is a mother still searching desperately for her son’s killer, as multiple pictures of Ellison take up most of her news feed.
If you have any information on the slaying of Leon Ellison, please contact the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office at (706) 821-1020 or The Augusta Press at (706) 834-8677.
Scott Hudson is the Senior Reporter of The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com. Anna Porzio is a researcher and editorial assistant. Reach her at anna@theaugustapress.com.
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