The murder of a Marietta mother and daughter and investigators’ long-running battle to solve the crime will be profiled Sunday in an episode of On The Case with Paula Zahn. The show will air at 10 p.m. Sunday, April 28 on Investigation Discovery.
Sharon Brady, 40, and her 13-year-old daughter Samantha were found raped and stabbed to death inside the kitchen of their apartment unit on Sept. 12, 1986. The mother and daughter were found dead at the now-demolished Fort Hill Homes community in the city's downtown. Sharon Brady's 3-year-old daughter, Brandi, was also found in the apartment but was unharmed.
The episode, titled ‘Never the Same,’ will include interviews with Wayne Kennedy, the Marietta police detective who investigated the case; Cobb cold case detective John Dawes; Chief Assistant District Attorney Jesse Evans, who prosecuted the killer; and Brandi Brady who, as a toddler, lost her mother and sister in this attack.
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Kennedy was tasked with finding the perpetrator, but the case turned cold. Kennedy retired from the force with the case still unsolved. The investigation was reopened in 2012, and DNA testing helped police identify a suspect, Ronald Lee Kyles, who originally lived two doors down from the family.
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In 2015, Kyles, who was serving a prison sentence in Pennsylvania on an unrelated aggravated assault conviction, was served with an arrest warrant charging him in the Brady case.
Kyles returned to Cobb County in May 2017 to face the charges. In October 2018, he pleaded guilty during a court hearing about a week before his trial was to begin. Kyles was sentenced to two life sentences after entering his guilty plea.
Check your local cable listings for the Investigation Discovery channel number. If you have information about an unsolved murder or sexually-motivated crime in Cobb County, you can provide an anonymous tip by calling the Cold Case Unit tip line at 770-528-3032 or emailing coldcase@cobbcounty.org.
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