In the early morning hours of Sunday June 22 1980, a man removed the window pane (replaced only the day before by a maintenance man) of a second floor apartment (#7) at 2261 Verbena, where Latonya lived with her family. He deposited the window pane in a dumpster about 20ft away. Neighbor Gladys Durden says she saw the man enter the apartment three times. After the fourth time, the man had Latonya in his arms. This would have been difficult to accomplish. By entering through that window, he would step squarely onto a bed (Latonya’s brothers). He then would have had to walk past her parents’ room to get to Latonya’s room, where she was sleeping next to her sister, and pick her up from her bed. No one woke up. Nevertheless, this is how it was done. The man exited the apartment through the back door, which he left ajar. Next, the neighbor said that the kidnapper stopped in the parking lot to talk to another black man.

Earlier that evening, Saturday June 21 1980, a neighbor of the Wilsons, upon returning home, noticed two males and a female lurking around the back end of the Wilson apartment and walking along the driveway. It was too dark for him to furnish detailed descriptions of these individuals. He also noticed an old type van parked in the driveway. He went to his apartment, which was next to the Wilson apartment, and went into the kitchen. He heard some screaming coming from the Wilson apartment and said it sounded like someone was getting spanked. A “whipping”, he said. Then Latonya’s mother screamed and yelled “Stop”. An hour and a half later, the neighbor left his apartment. He saw Ella Wilson sitting on her balcony. He called out to her but she ignored him. She seemed very upset about something. That night, the kidnapping occurred.

Now, in the parking lot, the two perpetrators argued about why they should take the girl instead of one of the boys. One of them said it was an order that had to be carried out. It is very strongly suspected that Latonya’s parents had something to do with her disappearance. For one thing, they never got involved in searching for her. They were likely involved in the drug traffic run by the cult or where members of the cult. One of their sons was selected as a victim. But the Wilson’s either disrespected some internal code and were punished by being forced to give up their daughter (instead of one of their sons) or they themselves decided to get rid of/give up their daughter instead, possibly because of misbehavior on Latonya’s part (the spanking). This was the order that had to be carried out. It would explain why Ella Wilson seemed so upset. She did not agree with the change of plans.

Basically, Latonya’s parents were in on the whole thing and the abduction was arranged to look like a break and enter kidnapping. The way it actually happened bears this out. There is no way it could have happened the way it did without anyone waking up. Impossible. Even Latonya apparently did not wake up. Only one explanation is possible for this. Latonya was given a sedative by her parents. This would explain the neighbor saying that he did not see Latonya at all that evening after the spanking incident and also why Latonya’s body was limp under the abductor’s arm. The people seen lurking around earlier that evening were the kidnappers who were sent out to do the job and were “casing the joint” waiting for the right time. Once inside, the abductor was told by one or both of Latonya’s parents to take her instead. This would explain why the two perpetrators argued as to why they should take her instead. It would also explain why the abductor went in and out so many times. He either disagreed with the change of plans or simply went in and out to consult with Latonya’s parents and the other perpetrators. Latonya’s brothers, who slept in the bed directly under the window through which the abductor entered, were either given sedatives as well, slept elsewhere, or saw something and were threatened into silence. There is a remote possibility that they too were in on it. It is also strongly suspected that one of the two men in the parking lot was Nathaniel Cater, who lived upstairs from the Wilsons. He could even be the one asked why the girl was taken instead of one of the boys. In any case, he very likely played a part in all this. So did the maintenance man. The putty around the removed window pane was fresh as he had replaced it the previous day. This would have allowed easy removal.

The circumstances and the events as they happened clearly imply premeditation. The way it happened was just too easy. This was not a random abduction. It was carefully planned.

On October 9 1980, 12-year old Charles Stephens went missing. He lived at 1707 Pryor Circle and was no stranger to trouble in his neighborhood. He had once been accused by neighbors of killing their dog and of stealing their tv set. Jerome Clark, another neighbor, had seen Charles playing on a skateboard near the dumpster in front of his house on Pryor Circle on the evening on October 9th somewhere around 8:30 or 8:45 pm. Clark saw a black man emerge from between 1701 and 1714 Pryor Circle. Clark spoke to the man but he did not respond. Three days later, October 12 1980, he saw the same man walking in the neighborhood. He said it was the same man he had seen between 1701 and 1714.

A 15-year old boy told police that he knew Charles Stephens. He said that Charles had a male friend whom he met everyday at about 4 o’clock, except Saturday and Sunday, for two consecutive weeks. They would meet about one block from Stephens’ house. On September 24 1980, about two weeks before Charles disappeared, the boy accompanied him and the man on a ride. Upon returning, they got out of the car and the man said, “Charles, remember what you got to do tomorrow?”, to which Charles replied, “Yes”. The boy also told police that he would on occasion follow Charles to his daily meetings. He would watch Charles get into the man’s car and they would drive off. The car was a brown two-door. The boy described another car that Charles and the man had ridden in. A Ford LTD, red inside and out, with wire-chrome wheels.

The boy told police that he and Charles smoked a joint after their ride with the man. When asked by his mother, the boy said that Charles was selling reefer and that he’d seen Charles with a stack of small yellow envelopes tied together with a rubber band. The boy witnessed Charles selling the reefer to people on the street. Charles’ customers included several adults and also children in the neighborhood.

It is obvious at this point that the black man was a dope dealer and that Charles was selling dope for this man. There was another suspect. And also another witness who told a fascinating story. This witness went to police on October 11 1980, the day after Stephens’ body was found.. He told police that on the same day Charles Stephens disappeared, he had gotten into the car of a client of his to sell drugs. It was around 10:30 pm, October 9 1980. When the drug dealer looked into the back seat of the car he saw a young boy lying lifeless with his head turned towards the trunk and wrapped in a sheet. When the drug dealer asked about the boy, the driver of the car became angry and told him the boy was merely doped up and passed out.

The drug dealer stated to police that he was concerned about the boy because he didn’t look doped up but worse off, possibly dead. The driver of the car told the dealer to forget what he saw. He later threatened the dealer with his life if he had said anything about the boy in the backseat. It was then that the dealer went to police and told them the story. He added that he knew the man to be a pedophile and had on occasions been offered money to find the driver young boys with whom he could have sex. The body in the car was obviously Charles Stephens. It could not possibly have been anyone else.

This suspect is white and is obviously linked with the black man whom Charles sold dope for. The black man passed Charles along to the white suspect for a sexual encounter and this white suspect killed him. The red fibers on Stevens’ body came from the red interior of the black man’s Ford LTD. The white suspect had a common law wife and some homosexual partners who lived in boarding homes located off Bankhead Highway (U.S. 278) and Jackson Parkway. The witness said that he had been to this location and he said that the carpet in this apartment was green. Remember all the green fibers found on several of the victims’ bodies?

This suspect, that apartment with green carpeting is, needless to say, a very big and very important part of the puzzle in solving the Atlanta Youth Murders. It is highly likely that the black man was Parnell Traham or at least someone closely associated with him who helped him run his drug trafficking operations. The white suspect is likely a Sanders family member or, again, someone closely associated with them. Charles Stephens’ body was found near the entrance to a trailer park often frequented by members of the Sanders family. Brown Caucasian hairs were found on Stephens’ body. This only backs up the belief that the second suspect is indeed white. Charles body did come into contact with a Caucasian man who was very likely the one who killed him.

Charles sells reefer for a black man (possibly Traham) who then passes him along to the white suspect (possibly a Sanders) who had asked several times for boys to have sex with, and kills him (the body in the car). This is supported by an April 23 1981 CBS tv news report spoke of a black man who used to live in Miami (Traham used to live in Miami) and who hated children and delivered some of them to whites to kill.