The Georgia Bureau of Investigation says they’ve charged a man in the cold case murder of a Jeff Davis County pastor decades after the killing. It’s been more than 30 years since 54-year-old James Hand was found shot to death on the roof of his church. Authorities say on June 1, 1996, deputies with the Jeff Davis County Sheriff’s Office discovered Hand’s body. According to investigators, the pastor of the Full Gospel Church in Snipesville was repairing the building’s roof when someone opened fire, shooting Hand multiple times.
Hand’s killer remained a mystery until the GBI says new information led them to charge Zachary B. Harper, a 47-year-old Hazlehurst resident with felony murder and malice murder. James Hand was found shot multiple times of the roof of his Georgia church in 1996, authorities say. Georgia Bureau of Investigation Harper is also serving a life sentence at Jenkins Correction Facility on an unrelated charge murder charge. The investigation remains ongoing, and authorities are asking anyone with information to call the GBI Regional Investigative Office in Douglas at (912) 389-4103 or the agency’s tip line at 1-800-597-8477. Once the investigation is finished, the GBI will turn the case file over to the Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office for prosecution.
Source: Inmate serving life sentence charged with 1996 cold case murder of Georgia pastor – CBS Atlanta
For it is written: “As I live, says the LORD, Every knee shall bow to Me, And every tongue shall confess to God.”
Romans 14:11
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