nathaniel cater and jimmy payne, both adults found in the same area of the chattahoochee river. cater s body was nude, but his hair was caked with mud. digging through that silt, i was able to recover dog hair and fibers that were close to his scalp. the dog hair was consistent with sheba, the wayne williams family dog. in cater s hair was one of those unusual green carpet fibers. under a microscope, peterson could see the boomerang shape just like those in the williams carpet. this is an actual piece of that carpet, which the fbi s harold dedman said was quite rare. it s got an unusual carpet fiber. it was manufactured a limited amount of time. it was a ten-year-old carpet. on jimmy payne, the other victim, dedman found yellow rayon fibers stuck to his cotton
the city announced a $100,000 reward, soon to grow to $500,000. the task force was swamped with sketches of suspects, none of them alike, many suggested by psychics. at the state crime lab, larry peterson was sifting through thousands of fibers, nylon, rayon, acrylic, acetate. is it like looking for a needle in a haystack? like looking for multiple needles in multiple haystacks. then in january of 1981, a breakthrough. peterson realized they were seeing one green carpet fiber with a unique shape. this is a cross-section of the fiber magnified many times. this particular fiber had two very, very large lobes and one short lobe. the lobes are the three ends of the boomerang shape. the shape was the most distinctive part of the fiber. he showed me a slide taken from another carpet.
recruit, jumped to his feet down beside the chattahoochee river. i was really startled. it sounded like a body entering the water. he looked up at the bridge. and i saw brake lights of a car coming. i saw red lights. the car started slowly moving away from me across the bridge. campbell radioed the other team members up above him. i asked, did a car stop on the bridge? because i couldn t believe what i saw. and each person told me they didn t see it. then a policeman in a chase car hidden on the other side came on the radio. he just said, the car is pulling in the parking lot here turning around in front of me and started coming back across the bridge, coming back in my direction. this is that white station wagon. police followed it and stopped it nearby. fbi agent mike mccomas rushed to the scene. the driver was standing by the highway. he was talking with the officers. saw a black male. he had on a baseball hat. had on glasses. the young man was wayne wi
this is the first time wayne williams has talked on tv in at least a decade. why do you think you were convicted? fear. what do you mean? atlanta, at the time, was in a panic. they wanted any suspect that they could find. and let s just be honest. it had to be a black person, because if it had been a white suspect, atlanta probably would have gone up in flames. it came very close to that. do you think you ll ever be free? no doubt it s not a matter of if to me. it s a matter of when. some 30 years after wayne williams trial and conviction, there is still debate and some doubt. this time, you can be the judge and the jury. we ll lay out the evidence on both sides and you ll hear from wayne williams at length. then we ll invite you to reach your own verdict, guilty, innocent, or a third choice, not proven. the first clue was found on a dead boy s tennis shoes. the victim was eric middlebrooks. his body left here in a rainy alley. a foster child who rode his bic
atlanta georgia. in all, more than two dozen victims. most of them strangled. by may, 1981, the police and f.b.i. were hiding in the brush beside and below theiver bridges. this was toe be the last niekt. almost the last hour. i heard the splash. reporter: bob campbell, a police recruit, jumped to his feet. i was really startled. it sounded like a body entering water. he looked up at the bridge. and i saw brake lights of a car. i saw red lights. the car started slowly moving away from me across the bridge. reporter: campbell radioed the other team members up above him. i asked did a car stop on the bridge. i couldn t believe what i saw. and each person told me they didn t see it. reporter: then, a policeman in a chase car hidden on the other side came on the radio. he just said the car is pulling in the parking lot. they re turning around in front of me and started coming back across the bridge. reporter: this is that white station wagon. police followed i