GBI: Autopsy performed, no other information released
Published 11:16 pm Thursday, July 20, 2017
MOULTRIE, Ga. — An autopsy was performed Thursday morning on the body of Mattie Green Harris, which was found Tuesday morning in the 400 block of Third Avenue Northwest.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation has not released how investigators think the 68-year-old woman died, but they are investigating her death as a homicide. Other than confirming the schedule for the autopsy, the agency released no new information on Thursday.
The GBI was called about 7:20 a.m. Tuesday to assist the Moultrie Police Department after Harris’s body was found. Harris lived at 421 Third Ave. N.W., but the GBI has not said whether the body was found at her house or elsewhere in that same block.
Luke Strong and Son Mortuary provided a death notice to The Observer, which is printed on Page 4A of today’s newspaper. It indicates funeral arrangements are incomplete.
The GBI has asked anyone with information — especially anyone who might have been in the 400 block of Third Avenue Northwest between about 6:30 a.m. and 7:10 a.m. Tuesday — to contact Moultrie police at (229) 890-5449 or the GBI’s Thomasville office at (229) 225-4090.
Depending on how one counts it, Harris’s death could be the county’s second homicide of 2017, even though there have already been four fatal shootings:
• Alonzo Cortez, 22, died after being shot in the head by celebratory gunfire about 30 minutes into the new year on Jan. 1.
• Dewayne Williams Jr., 28, was shot to death outside a nightclub Feb. 4. The GBI has said it will release its final report to the District Attorney’s office, but just a couple of days after the shooting, the investigator said it could be a case of self-defense. No one has been charged.
• Peter Torres, 23, died Feb. 16 after being shot, also on Feb. 4, by a Colquitt County sheriff’s deputy responding to a domestic violence call. The GBI said it would submit its final report to the DA’s office, which would decide if charges were warranted.
• Shvensky Collins, 25, was shot to death May 8. Police charged Thomas Lee Tyler, 27, on May 25 in connection with the slaying.
