JEREMY GRICE - 4 yo (1985) - Augusta GA

Any time Lt. Becky Edmonds looks over the black-and-white photo of 4-year-old Jeremy Grice, who disappeared from his North Augusta home 25 years ago Monday, she said her heart breaks.

The boy has never been found, but Edmonds admits that she occasionally sees boys who would have been his peers who resemble the blond-haired, hazel-eyed boy and wonders if he is Jeremy.

His peers, however, have left the playgrounds where the 4-year-old once played. They have graduated from high school or college and may have children of their own by now.

Grice would be 29 years old.

"I'll have 30 years with the sheriff's office in January ... and I was hoping someone would have come forward before now," she said.

The morning Jeremy disappeared, Edmonds said, it was cool and rainy. Her supervisor, Jim Whitehurst, first told her about a missing boy.

"He told me to grab my partner, Daisy Stallings, who has since died, and told us to go help out," she said.

When the two went to Grice's home on Miller Street, she said the child's mother, Donna Arrington, was visibly upset.

"She was frantic," Edmonds recalled.

The evening before the little boy disappeared, his mother checked in on him on her way out for work. She never saw him in his bed, but the blankets were pulled up and she didn't disturb him.

"She assumed he was asleep," Edmonds said.

His mother left for work and never saw her son again. His stepfather was at home with the boy, but no one in the family ever reported seeing or hearing anything suspicious that night.

There was "nothing," "no evidence" of foul play, said Capt. Troy Elwell, a spokesman for the Aiken County Sheriff's office who was also once a juvenile investigator.

Like many unsolved or cold cases, investigators periodically review the Grice disappearance. Elwell and Edmonds are no exception.

The white cardboard boxes that hold the Grice files are stuffed with yellowed FBI reports and dozens of copies of the original reward fliers that Edmonds put together.

The flier shows the photo of the smiling blond-haired boy. Above his photo is the $2,500 reward offer.

Edmonds said she can still remember going door-to-door with those fliers.

"I remember it like it was yesterday," she reflected.

The updated posters show the same photo of 4-year-old Jeremy as well as an age-progression image created by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

The most recent photo was updated this week.

At the bottom of the most recent flier is information about the day Jeremy disappeared. Jeremy was last seen by a neighbor about 8:45 a.m. the morning of Nov. 22.

He was standing barefoot near a mailbox in his pajamas, a neighbor told police. She said she saw him with his bike, but that lead was never substantiated, investigators said.

"At that time, we were getting calls all the time," said Edmonds. "Anytime someone saw a child with a man, they would call. It would inevitably turn out that the child was his son."

But the community was on alert and nervous, not only for Jeremy, but parents were also fearful their children would be abducted.

The disappearance came only four years after 6-year-old Adam Walsh was kidnapped from a department store in Florida and later found murdered. His murder gained national attention and struck fear into the hearts of parents across the country. Aiken was no exception.

Years later, reflecting on the investigation, Edmonds said she only wishes they had modern-day resources available.

"Any of the technology today, such as an Amber Alert or a notification system, would help," Elwell said.

Edmonds spoke up, "We had nothing but foot power."

She said investigators spent days on end in the community, searching for something. They drained two nearby ponds and followed up with every suspicious person.

Over the years, especially early on, a few persons of interest surfaced, but no one has ever been implicated in his disappearance.

"I think every investigator has their own theories and beliefs, but all we can say officially is he is missing and it is an open case," Elwell said.

Although cold, the investigation is not closed.

"There is never a day that goes by that I don't see a child and think about him," Edmonds said. "Now, all I can say is if any person can shed light on this case, they should come forward."

Anyone with information should contact the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at (800) 843-5678 or the Sheriff's Office at 642-1761.

Charley Project flier (includes age progressions):

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/g/grice_jeremy.html

From 1999:



Police question slaying suspect

By Greg Rickabaugh| Staff Writer
Friday, April 30, 1999

William Ernest Downs says his list of victims stopped at two.



Police aren't taking his word on it, but North Augusta Public Safety Director Lee Wetherington is inclined to believe the murder suspect after long discussions with him.

Police said Mr. Downs, 31, has confessed to sexually assaulting and strangling two boys: 10-year-old James Porter in March 1991 and 6-year-old Keenan O'Mailia on April 17.

"I would be surprised if there were more," Chief Wetherington said. "He's been pretty up-front with us. If there were more, I don't know why he wouldn't have told us."

Investigators are busy checking his background, corroborating his statements and thumbing through files of suspicious child deaths or missing children across South Carolina and Georgia. Specifically, investigators have questioned Mr. Downs on six children who are either missing or dead, the chief said.

Because Mr. Downs could face the death penalty in two states and has refused a lawyer until Thursday, investigators can't see a motive for him to remain quiet about other victims.

Tiffany Nelson and Jeremy Grice were two of the children Mr. Downs was questioned about.

Tiffany, 9, was last seen on June 6, 1994, riding her red 10-speed bicycle on Richmond Hill Road at Lumpkin Road in Augusta. Authorities never found her body or her bicycle.

Richmond County detectives interviewing Mr. Downs about James' death threw out Tiffany's name, according to Chief Deputy Ronald Strength.

"We brought up the name, and he didn't know what we were talking about," Chief Strength said. "We don't even know if he was in the Augusta area."

Then there is Jeremy Grice of Bath.

Jeremy was a sweet-faced, blond 4-year-old, who disappeared while waiting in front of his home for the school bus in November 1985. Mr. Downs would have been 17 at the time. He told police he didn't know about the case.

Authorities say they also asked Mr. Downs about child missing from Greenwood, S.C. The Web site for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children lists just one missing child from Greenwood: Malakia Zali Logan.

The South Carolina chapter of the organization has been keeping up with the investigation of Mr. Downs, offering North Augusta any of their resources and checking their files for cases with possible connections to Mr. Downs.

As detectives with North Augusta, Richmond County and South Carolina's State Law Enforcement Division worked feverishly Thursday to retrace Mr. Downs' adult life, the murder suspect spent his first full day at the Aiken County Detention Center.

On Thursday, he accepted a court-appointed attorney, Wallis Alves, who was selected by the Aiken County Public Defender's Office.

Mr. Downs is expected to appear before a Circuit Court judge as early as Monday for arraignment on charges in Keenan's killing. The boy's body was found in a wooded area near North Augusta's Georgetown Villas, where he lived with his mother, Nina O'Mailia.

Warrants have also been issued in Richmond County charging Mr. Downs with aggravated child molestation and James' slaying.

James' mother, Kathy Porter, reacted angrily to the arrest, saying the announcement confirmed her beliefs that her son did not drown. She accused the police of ignoring her requests to keep the investigation open.

On Thursday, Richmond County Coroner Leroy Sims, who filed an autopsy report from the Georgia Crime Lab calling the death an accidental drowning in 1991, defended the report and the work of lead Detective Jim Gordon, formerly with the Augusta Police Department.

James' family reported the boy missing March 14, 1991. A fisherman discovered his body hung up in the bushes and tree limbs of the Savannah River on May 17, 1991.

The boy's face was unrecognizable and pathologists couldn't obtain a fingerprint, requiring dental records to identify the body as James.

"A body that's been in the river for two months is really decomposed," Mr. Sims said. "If that person is strangled and the body's been in the river for two months, there is no way you can tell the person was suffocated or strangled. We did the only thing we could do."

With no other information to go on, the case was ruled a drowning.

Mr. Sims had 25 years experience in the homicide division of the Augusta Police Department before retiring. He has been a medical examiner for more than a decade.

Detective Gordon, who investigated the case, works with the violent crime division of the Richmond County Sheriff's Department. He has chosen not to comment on the original investigation, according to Chief Deputy Strength.

But Chief Deputy Strength said he looked at the case file and found no mention of Mr. Downs' name by the Porter family. He defended Detective Gordon as a competent and thorough investigator.

Greg Rickabaugh can be reached at (803) 279-6895 or scbureau@augustachronicle.com.

http://old.chronicle.augusta.com/stories/1999/04/30/met_260279.shtml