Full Notification

The story reads like a script on Unsolved Mysteries. Seventeen years ago, on Friday, January 28, 2000, an ice storm was heading towards Atlanta. Christopher Duron was driving Northbound on I-75 on his way to sign a multi-million dollar contract for his tile company. At 6:15 am he got into an altercation with another driver with whom he almost collided. Both men exited their vehicles in the HOV Lane, across from the Ford Plant in Hapeville, and a short scuffle began. The suspect then pulled what is believed to be a 38 or 357 caliber revolver and shot Duron 3 times, killing him on the scene.

Sheriff Victor Hill (who was then Detective Hill assigned to the Robbery/Homicide Division) was awakened by his commander early that morning requesting him to respond to the scene. The few witnesses he could find were unable to give much. It was dark, and they could only recall seeing two silhouettes struggling in the dark and sudden muzzle flashes. Several witnesses, calling the police, described a man, in a knee length tannish color trench coat standing over the body. They were unable to give the race of the suspect. They gave a vehicle description of a dark, possibly blue, Ford AeroStar or similar make mini van.

For the next few days, every morning around the time of the murder, Hill and other Detectives stalked I-75 looking for a vehicle fitting that description to stop for questioning. These efforts yielded no results.

"They always leave something."

Suddenly, the direction of the investigation took a turn that would forever change its course. Now a widow, Mrs. Pat Duron came to the Clayton County Police headquarters and asked to speak with then Detective Victor Hill. Pat handed Hill a pair of Silver L’Amy Rockport brand prescription eyeglasses. The glasses were silver framed bifocals with a saddled nose bridge. Detective Hill instantly recalled seeing the glasses on the scene next to Duron's head which appeared to have fallen off of his face during the violent altercation. She explained that the funeral director asked her if they wanted Christopher's glasses on him for the funeral which was she found odd because her husband did not wear glasses. Pat immediately knew that the glasses must belong to her husband's killer! Detective Hill had the glasses dusted for prints with negative results. The blood on the glasses DNA came back to Christopher Duron; however, the eyeglasses would still prove to offer more clues about the unknown suspect than anyone ever anticipated.

Detective Hill decided to take the glasses to an Optometrist, and the glasses themselves were able to give the young Detective a description of the suspect that no one else could. Based on the L’Amy brand glasses prescription and the pupillary distance, the Optometrist told Hill that he was looking for an older white male likely to be in his fifties or older. An examination of the physical structure of the glasses being a 53/15 indicated that the murder suspect would have a small head. The Doctor also observed what he described as "face cheese" in the corner the lenses which could be grease, oil, or dirt which is indicative that the suspect's type of employment could be labor intensive. The saddle bridge was a one that would have been requested to be installed. The Doctor also told Hill that though the prescription of the glasses is not quite as identifiable as a fingerprint, it can be very close. The Doctor advises that if detectives could find a prescription at a doctors office matching the prescription of the glasses, it would be a very high probability that it would be the suspect they were looking for. The Doctor read the prescription as 75-25 x 81 on the right lens and 75-25 x 116 on the left lens.

For months, Detective Hill and other investigators went to different private optometrists and searched their files to see if they could match the prescription. Thousands of files later, no match was ever found. The murder became an unsolved cold case file. Year after year when driving down I-75 South past the crime scene, Victor Hill now Sheriff of Clayton County would grimly seethe that he never found the suspect who left his eyeglasses where he murdered a man in cold blood.

Seventeen years later, Sheriff Victor Hill got a surprise visitor to his office. "Do you remember me?" she asked the Sheriff, "you worked my husband's murder seventeen years ago." Mrs. Duron wanted her husband's case reopened and asked if the Sheriff would help her do so. The Sheriff gladly obliged.

Sheriff Hill contacted the DA's Office "Cold Case Squad" headed by Chief Investigator Dennis Baker, and he agreed to reopen the case. Baker has made contact with Clayton County Police Homicide Captain Winfred Norwood for assistance as well.

The Cold Case Squad is now asking anyone in the field of optometry to check the eyeglass prescription (75-25 x 81 on the right lens, and 75-25-116 on the left lens) in their files by computer to see if they can find a match for a possible suspect. Investigators are also asking if anyone recalls anyone fitting the description during that time that came to work or home without his glasses and had facial injuries from a fight to contact them as well. DA Chief Investigator Dennis Baker can be reached at 678-898-4549. Homicide Captain Norwood can be reached at 770-473-5919. Mrs. Pat Duron can be reached by email only at [email protected].

Nothing would make Sheriff Victor Hill happier than identifying this killer, and sending his elite Fugitive Squad to hunt him down to give Christopher Duron's widow the closure and peace she deserves.