When Michael Lee Curry was arrested Wednesday for killing his pregnant wife and children with a bush ax, it was a surprising step in a 24-year-old murder case.
With Curry's indictment on Tuesday, newly-minted District Attorney Julia Slater was able to do what law enforcement officials had struggled for decades to accomplish — present new evidence to identify and charge a suspect.
"This is a pretty good start for her," Columbus police chief Ricky Boren said of Slater, who's been in office since January.
Curry, 51, was arrested in Dalton and returned to the Muscogee County jail where he'll wait without bond to be tried for the murders of his daughter Erika, 4, his son Ryan, 1, and his 24-year-old wife Ann Johnson Curry, who was eight months pregnant.
But was it the proverbial "new sheriff" in town, or the new information she found that convinced a grand jury to indict Curry?
"A little bit of both," Boren said of the Chattahoochee Judicial Circuit's first female DA.
Slater was presented with the case shortly after she defeated her boss, then-incumbent Gray Conger, in the November election.
"There was evidence I was able to see that previous DAs weren't," Slater said, though she wouldn't discuss what that new evidence was.
Gruesome murder
Curry was 27 when the murders happened, and has been charged with six counts of murder, two counts of feticide and three counts of aggravated assault.
At the time, a frantic Curry told authorities he had come home to find his family butchered.
Authorities are accusing him of using the bush ax to hack Ann Curry and her children to death in a gruesome manner.
Boren, then the lead homicide detective who'd recently turned down a job offer with the FBI, described a chilling scene when the bodies were discovered on Aug. 29, 1985.
"It was about 90 degrees in the house," he said. "I saw the look on all these seasoned officers' faces who were standing outside the house and could barely talk about the scene inside."
Boren said he entered and saw Ann Curry with severe injuries to her throat, and "a head that was almost severed."
Lying nearby, he found Ryan's body lying nearby with skull fractures and Erika's similarly injured body in the kitchen.
On the floor of the den near Ann, Boren said he saw the bush ax, covered in blood.
"Who could do that to their wife and children?" asked Columbus Mayor Jim Wetherington, then chief of police. "I can't imagine what [Ann's parents] Mr. and Mrs. Johnson have gone through the last 24 years."
Redemption
James and Bernice Johnson found solace by becoming victim's advocates, starting a chapter of Victims of Crime Assistance League in Columbus when their youngest daughter and her children were killed.
"We wanted to help other people," James Johnson said.
"We had no idea what the criminal justice system was all about," Bernice Johnson said. "As it turned out, over the years we really helped ourselves."
The sources they developed to aid other victims often found information on the murder of Ann and the children, they said.
"And everything they learned, they told me, no matter how small," Boren said. "We've always had detectives on the case ... a fresh set of eyes."
The FBI, the U.S. Secret Service, The Georgia Bureau of Investigation and local agencies from across the state contributed to the ongoing investigation, Boren said.
Slater brought with her the newest perspective, and she said she plans to prosecute the case herself.
"This is the right thing to do," Slater said.
Boren said he was pleased to see charges finally brought in the case.
"It feels good when you can bring a case like this to a conclusion," he said.
Wetherington said he is proud his protégé Boren was with the department when the indictment came down.
Both said they look forward to Slater handling this, and other cases in court.
"She'll be indicting more unsolved cases," Boren said.
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