It changed Sunday when a group of activists, family members, and local business owners banded together to unveil a memorial for Anthony Bernard Carter, who was found stabbed to death in July 1980 when he was 9.
The headstone, which is made of granite and features small engraved flowers, was placed near where the family believes Carter was buried, in a cemetery in his hometown of Hogansville, Georgia, to provide some closure for his family, who hope the reopened investigation into the Atlanta child murders definitively solves Carter’s case.
Carter’s death has loomed particularly large for Hazel Jenkins, his 85-year-old aunt.
Carter stayed with Jenkins often after his mother Vera left for Atlanta for an unknown reason in the late 1970s, Jenkins, who is Vera’s older sister, told CNN over the phone.
“He didn’t have a good life. He never had a chance,” Jenkins said, crying. “He was a sweet child.”
Piecing together history
Carter was born on Aug. 31, 1970, in Hogansville, of Troup County, which, in 1980, was home to roughly 50,000 people, according to US Census data published by the Associated Press.
Nicholas Burnston remembers playing with his younger cousin when they were boys.
“Anthony was a smiling, muscular young man that was very smart who had just moved onto the fifth grade,” Burnston told CNN. “He was a smart kid. He was fast. He had speed that no one could match, no one. He always smiled.”
Carter liked eating bologna and spiced ham sandwiches, along with fried chicken, his favorite food, Burnston said.
“I thought he would have been a football player,” Burnston said.
Carter lived primarily with his grandmother but would move among the homes of other family members and on more than one occasion, was caught sleeping in a Hogansville baseball field, Burnston said.
One of the homes where Carter stayed belonged to LaTunya Bright’s great-grandmother. Bright is also Carter’s cousin.
“Anthony was a very nice, intelligent little boy. He was a little shorter than everybody, he…
Source : cnn
