It has been 12 years since Teresa McElderry‘s body was discovered on a quiet dirt road leading off the 300 block of Prep Phillips Drive, but investigators still have unanswered questions preventing them from making an arrest.
Her niece, Jarita Holman describes 53-year-old McElderry as a vivacious woman with a bright smile.
“She was always dancing – always smiling. She was just a really fun person,” Holman said.
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Holman said her aunt had gotten caught up in drugs for a time, but McElderry had remained close to her family and loved her four children despite her struggles. Holman adopted her aunt’s children several years prior to their mother’s passing.
When Holman and her husband retired, they moved to Augusta and brought McElderry with them, hoping to help her stay clean and get her life back on track.
“She was a very loving person,” Holman said. “She just had her own issues.”
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According to Holman, when they first helped her aunt move to Augusta, McElderry was doing well. She was staying clean, spending time with family and not getting into any trouble.
“The kids were happy. We were happy. We were vacationing and doing things together, so yes, I have to give her credit for that time,” Holman said.
It wasn’t until much later when she got a job at KFC and started spending time downtown with co-workers that McElderry was pulled back into a troubled lifestyle and stopped coming home, according to Holman.
“We would see her down on Broad Street periodically… We would talk to her and give her money. Tell her to come home. We could get her some help,” Holman said. “Then, we just got the phone call one day that they had found her.”
On the morning of Sept. 11, 2009, Augusta emergency services received a call from a man stating that he had found a woman’s body lying on the ground. According to the coroner reports, the man told authorities that he often visited the area before going into work in the morning.
When then-Chief Deputy Coroner Mark Bowen arrived on the scene, he found McElderry lying on her side, partially undressed, his report states. Her black, red and grey striped shirt was pulled up slightly, and her black Levi jeans had been pulled down around her right ankle – caught on her white, blue and lime green tennis shoe. The matching shoe was found 15 to 20 feet away from her head, and a black wig was found on the ground behind her.
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Bowen found ligature marks around McElderry’s throat and a puncture wound on her cheek, according to his report. She also had at least one abrasion on her knuckle, and someone had busted her lip.
McElderry was pronounced dead at 10:45 a.m., and her body was transported to the GBI in Atlanta for autopsy. The autopsy determined the official cause of death to strangulation. Contributing factors included blunt force trauma to the head, according to the coroner’s report.
“My mom lost a good friend. The kids lost a good mother,” Holman said. “In spite of her issues, she was a really fun person.”
In the report from the sheriff’s office, Richmond County investigators wrote they believed that McElderry was forced to undress by the person who ultimately beat and strangled her to death. The report describes the perpetrator as being irrational because that person committed the act in broad daylight, on a perfectly clear morning.
Investigators assigned to the case discovered that McElderry had turned to prostitution in order to support herself, according to former Richmond County Investigator Scott Peebles.
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Investigators believed that the killer was specifically targeting local sex workers, and they worried that he would kill again. In fear for their own safety, other sex workers living and working downtown started offered their full cooperation in hope that the perpetrator would be caught.
According to Peebles, he and his team were able to determine a person of interest in the case, but a lack of evidence meant their hands were tied.
“I remember that case well,” Peebles said. “We worked very hard to get to an arrest…our gut instincts told us we had the guy. We just could not produce enough evidence for an arrest.”
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Even though years have passed since McElderry was abruptly and violently taken from them, her family remains hopeful that someday the killer will be brought to justice.
“We were just left wondering,” Holman said. “We talk about her all the time. It would be great to have a memorial for her at a gravesite and let her know, and know that she’s at peace.”
If you have any information on the slaying of Teresa McElderry, 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 Correspondent for The Augusta Press. Reach her at anna@theaugustapress.com.
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