MACON, Georgia — As we count down the final hours of this year, 13WMAZ is looking back at the 10 stories that captured the attention of Central Georgia in 2019.
The list was assembled by reviewing analytic data and took both the total number of visitors and social media ‘likes’ into consideration when considering placement.
Without further ado, let’s count down!
2019 started off with a story out of Forsyth where a 5-year-old got off the bus covered in bruises and scratches. The little girl told her mother that a 12-year-old “grabbed her throat and told her to stop breathing, grabbed her hair and slammed her head against the bus wall.” After reviewing the footage of the bus ride, the investigator told the 5-year-old’s mother that the whole 45-minute ride was complete terror and torture for the child. The 12-year-old was charged and Monroe County Schools released a joint statement with the sheriff’s office saying the bus driver did not see the attack.
A summer street party in west Macon turned deadly, leading to the deaths of two people and a handful of injuries. According to Sheriff David Davis, it all started when a car was doing burnouts near the party and the attendees asked the driver to stop. A fight began and then gunfire erupted from inside the car. Several people at the party had guns, and what happened next was described as 'pandemonium.' Everyone began running away in different directions to the overflow parking lot for the party where a car pulled up and two people in masks began firing into the crowd. Two people died from their injuries -- Gerald Pennyman and Deroderick Ridley -- and two people were charged in connection with the shooting.
8: Lawsuit: Macon, Warner Robins Little Caesars locations operated for months after franchise yanked
The sudden closures of five Little Caesars locations in Macon and Warner Robins prompted concerned citizens to reach out to WMAZ asking for information on why they were shut down. The truth was about as unsavory as cold anchovies on stale pizza. The pizza company filed a federal lawsuit seeking $75,000, legal fees, and other damages from the couple that owned the Macon and Warner Robins stores because they allegedly tried to stay in business for months after their franchise was pulled due to health problems. An April inspection revealed that sanitary conditions at the pizza shops "had deteriorated to the point that [they] posed a significant health risk to Little Caesars customers."
A fight between two employees at a car dealership turned violent as shots were fired inside the building. The corporate manager said via news release that the two employees got into an argument that turned physical and one of the employees hit the other, causing a cut to his eye. As the corporate manager tried to break up the fight, one of the men fired a gun at the other and missed.
The legal case against the man accused of burning and hiding Tara Grinstead's body more than a decade ago became even more perilous in 2019. In January, Dukes was wanted on charges that he raped two women at gunpoint in Bonaire. In March, Dukes stood trial in Wilcox County for the first charges in the Grinstead case and was found guilty on all counts. While awaiting trial on charges related to the Grinstead case in Ben Hill County, Dukes was indicted in October on new charges of a Houston County rape and sodomy stemming from a Jan. 2017 incident. The man actually charged with murdering Grinstead, Ryan Duke, has yet to stand trial as motions continue winding through Georgia's highest court.
Not everything that caught the attention of Central Georgia in 2019 was bad, though. Texas-based convenience store and gas station giant Buc-ee's announced that they'd be setting up shop in Warner Robins, making it the first location in Georgia. Central Georgians went into a frenzy over the news and are sure to show out when the store opens up at the planned target date of late fall 2020.
In a bizarre story from Warner Robins, three men from Guatemala died after a crash at the Robins AFB gate. A driver and his two passengers drove through the Russell Parkway gate trying to bypass security when Security Forces activated a barrier and they smashed into it at a high rate of speed. A news release from the base said the three men were not affiliated with Robins. As recently as mid-December, the HQ Air Force Office of Special Investigations said their investigation was not complete.
In a case that gripped the entire country, a missing Clark Atlanta student was found dead and the suspects were known to her. Police say Alexis Crawford's friend and roommate, Jordyn Jones, as well as her friend's boyfriend, Barron Brantley, killed her. Days before she was reported missing, Crawford reported being sexually assaulted by Brantley. Authorities say the two women got into a fight on Halloween and Brantley stepped in. He allegedly choked Crawford to death as Jones suffocated her with a plastic bag. Crawford's remains were put in a plastic bin and left in a suburban Atlanta park where they were later found.
13WMAZ's anchors couldn't help but notice there was a new filter trend hitting social media, so they took a crack at FaceApp's "Old" feature. We showed the results on-air and apparently you all loved it so much that you made it the second top story in all of 2019. #longlivefrankmalloy
This is it now. The big kahuna. #1.
This story was HUGE. Stories 2-10 weren't even close when it came to the sheer volume of people ACROSS THE COUNTRY that read this story on our site.
From California to New York and of course Central Georgia, people loved that a miscommunication resulted in an unusual birthday cake for a Milledgeville woman. What she asked for was 'Moana,' but what she received was a green cake decorated with a pot leaf and a green My Little Pony character with bloodshot eyes and marijuana leaf tramp stamp. The Dairy Queen cake designer ultimately lost her job. She was later asked to return but declined because she said the company took too long to respond.
Have a safe and happy new year and we'll see you in 2020!
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