The murder of 18-year-old Rhonda Sue Coleman in Hazlehurst, Georgia has remained unsolved for over 30 years despite leads, eyewitness accounts and evidence.
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Showing posts with label Jeff Davis County Sheriff. Show all posts
Will Rhonda Coleman’s 1990 homicide be the next to be solved?
GBI says "we're closing in on him"
April 30, 2026, 3:46 PM CDT
By Meghan O'Brien
On July 1, 2023, the Coleman-Baker Act was enacted in the state of Georgia, allowing families to request that a cold case be re-examined by law enforcement. The act is, in part, named after Rhonda Sue Coleman, an 18-year-old whose body was found in a wooded area in Montgomery County, Georgia, on May 20, 1990.
Rhonda Sue Coleman
Dateline featured Rhonda’s story in our “Cold Case Spotlight” series in 2018. At the time, we spoke with Layla Miller Marshall, a classmate of Rhonda’s, who found her abandoned car on the side of the road in Hazlehurst, Georgia, on the evening of May 17, 1990, and called the police. “When her dad drove up was one of my most vivid memories. He was asking ‘Layla, where’s Rhonda?’ I said, ‘Mr. Coleman, I don’t know.’ And his eyes immediately filled up with water,” Layla said. “I could tell he knew something was very wrong right then.”
Rhonda’s body was found three days later in a wooded area by a hunter. The location was about 15 miles from where Layla found Rhonda’s car.
According to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, “an autopsy was completed on Rhonda at the GBI crime lab and no cause of death was determined.” Dateline contacted the GBI for the latest on Rhonda’s case. Director of Public & Governmental Affairs Sara Lue responded by email that Rhonda’s case has “remained active with an assigned agent since her death.” Following the passage of the Coleman-Baker Act and the formation of the GBI Cold Case Unit, the bureau is “reviewing and investigating” leads and “conducting an extensive evidence review to ensure all testing is completed.” Lue wrote that the GBI “has conducted over 150 interviews and investigative acts in the past year with the aim of confirming previous and newly obtained information, as well as generating new investigative leads.”
The other namesake of the Coleman-Baker Act is University of Georgia law student Tara Baker. Tara was in her first year of law school when she was murdered in her Athens, Georgia, home on January 19, 2001. Her case went cold for 23 years. In 2024, an arrest was made, and earlier this year, justice was served.
Tara BakerKevin Baker
For this week’s Dateline episode, “A Window of Time,” on Tara’s case, Blayne Alexander interviewed local podcaster Cameron Jay Harrelson, who helped create the Coleman-Baker Act.
Cameron became involved in Tara’s case when he was a student at UGA and came across an article in the university’s student paper. “I have never had my life changed so much by someone that I’ve never met,” he told Dateline. “And Tara Baker did that for me.”
In 2020, Cameron created a podcast called Classic City Crime. Season 1 of the podcast was dedicated to telling Tara Baker’s story to “make sure she was never forgotten.”
But as Cameron dug into Tara’s story, he took a look at Georgia politics as well. “I really started researching and found that there was a federal law called the Homicide Victims’ Families’ Rights Act,” he said.
That law, which was introduced in 2021, allowed families to request a review of their loved one’s case. But Cameron saw a problem: it only applied to cases within federal jurisdiction. “That left every single unsolved murder in Athens and their family behind,” he said. “That left Tara Baker behind.”
When he learned about Rhonda’s cold case, Cameron brought the families together to craft what would later become the Coleman-Baker Act.
Tara’s mother, Virginia Baker, remembers first meeting Rhonda’s family. “They’re the most precious people,” she told Dateline. “My heart broke for them. And I thought, ‘Together we can do this.’”
In the spring of 2023, the act passed unanimously in the Georgia House and Senate. It allocated $5 million in funding to a GBI Cold Case Unit. The act also established a reporting requirement for every law enforcement agency in Georgia to begin researching and collecting their unsolved murder count.
Meredith Baker Schroeder, Cameron Jay Harrelson, Virginia Baker, Kevin BakerCameron Jay Harrelson
“Our win was getting the Coleman-Baker Act passed. Governor Kemp signed it right here in Athens with us present. It was amazing,” Cameron said.
“That day was a bit of a blur,” said Virginia Baker. She thought it was too late for Tara, but hoped the Coleman-Baker Act would help other families. “I wanted to see it help someone else, and I wanted to see it be part of [Tara’s] legacy,” she said.
Neither Virginia nor Cameron expected what happened next.
“You can only imagine the shock – the emotions that hit all of us – when we learned that not only did the Coleman-Baker Act bring about resolution in Tara’s case, but she was the very first case that they solved as a result,” Cameron said.
More than three decades later, Rhonda’s case is still unsolved. But the Coleman-Baker Act ensures it is still active with the GBI.
“We would like to have some sort of closure,” Rhonda’s mother, Gayle Coleman, told Dateline in 2018. “I don’t know if we will ever get all the answers, but we’re not gonna stop trying.”
In 2021, the reward for “information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the person, or persons, responsible” for Rhonda’s death was increased to $150,000.
On the third anniversary of the bill’s passage earlier this week, the Rhonda Coleman Facebook page posted a statement from her family. “We have already seen what this law can do. The Coleman-Baker Act has helped lead to the resolution of cases like the murder of Tara Baker and others in our area and across the state. These are not just cases being closed, they are families finally getting answers,” they wrote. “For our family, this has meant something we have not felt in a very long time: hope. Hope that Rhonda’s case will be looked at with fresh eyes. Hope that someone will connect the pieces that have been sitting for decades. Hope that answers are still possible.”
The Baker family finally got the answers they needed. Rhonda’s family is still waiting. “I pray for them every day because I know how hard it is,” Virginia Baker said.
If you have a case to submit to the GBI for review under the Coleman-Baker Act, you can do so on their website.
The murder of 18-year-old Rhonda Sue Coleman in Hazlehurst, Georgia has remained unsolved for over 30 years despite leads, eyewitness accounts and evidence.
Coming in July 2022 a new documentary film examined the case. Our award winning journalist goes behind the scenes to interview all the key players... including the main suspect "John S********d".
The families of two high-profile unsolved homicides in the State of Georgia have joined together with the hopes of having Georgia's legislature lead the nation by passing the Georgia Homicide Victims' Families Rights Acts. The legislative push is modeled after a federal piece of legislation introduced by Congressman Eric Swalwell (D-CA) and Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Tx).
Rhonda Sue Coleman was murdered on May 17, 1990 in Hazlehurst, Georgia. For more than 30 years, her family has sought justice and answers in her case despite the lack of information and substantive leads. A recent inquest into the case by Sean Kipe and Foxhunter Podcast has led to public interest and a demand for action by the community.
University of Georgia Law student Tara Louise Baker was killed on January 19, 2001 in Athens, Georgia the day before her 24th birthday. Twenty years have passed as the family has continued to press police and the public for answers. Tara's case was featured on Season 1 of the Classic City Crime Podcast hosted by Cameron Jay, where new leads were uncovered and demands for answers grew.
The two seek to honor their daughters by passing legislation that can not only help them, but countless families across Georgia by establishing an independent review board for homicide cases, increasing the rights of victim's families to access information about their loved one's case, guaranteeing the District Attorney access to homicide case files, authority of the Attorney General to investigate bias in homicide investigations, requiring the issuance of a preliminary death certificate to victims' families, and greater funding for forensic testing of evidence in homicide cases.
In making the announcement, Rhonda Sue Coleman's family said, "We are excited by this new endeavor with the Baker family to bring justice for not only Rhonda and Tara but also for the hundreds of Georgia families that have been denied answers for so long. We are grateful to the state legislators who have already reached out to us privately and shown an interest in working with us to make "Rhonda's Law" and "Tara's Law" a reality.
Sean Kipe, who was instrumental in bringing new attention to Rhonda's case through his "Fox Hunter" podcast, stated that "The Coleman's petition and podcast have shown that there is proven support and interest from the public for this law and numerous families have begun to come forward with experiences similar to that of the Coleman and Baker families."
The Baker family along with the Classic City Crime podcast community is honored to have another family join them in the fight for lasting change in our state. "The sad reality is that we know we're not alone, that there are other families out there that are still seeking answers," Baker's sister Meredith said, "It's time to ask for help, set pride aside, and give families throughout Georgia the hope that answers and justice can be found."
Both families would ask that the public join in their efforts to bring Georgia to the forefront of victims' families advocacy by contacting their state legislators to let them know that they support this historic piece of legislation. House and Senate members from both parties have expressed interest in putting forth this bipartisan piece of legislation during the 2022 session. The families also invite other families to join with them in fighting for justice for their loved ones
