One month later, death of Athens man remains a mystery

By Joe Johnson

Authorities still don’t know how a 40-year-old man ended up dead last month in his home in the Athens Gardens apartment complex.

They continue waiting on an autopsy report from the backlogged state Crime Lab run by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

Because there were no obvious signs that a crime was involved in the death of Thomas Lamar Carter, analyzing and reporting the results of his autopsy apparently is not a priority for the GBI.

That is despite some unusual circumstances surrounding the death.

The last time anyone saw Carter alive was when he used a neighbor’s phone to call the police.

According to the Athens-Clarke County Police Department, its 911 records indicate that Carter had called to report two people at his apartment “who should not be there.”

The neighbors gave police the name of a man with whom Carter had been fighting, saying that the man “was mad at Carter after the fight.”

A police report noted that the back door of Carter’s apartment was unlocked and handprints were on an open window as though someone had pushed it up in order to get into the apartment.

A tire iron was found under a couch next to Carter’s body.

According to police, there were no visible injuries, and nothing at the scene suggested that a crime had been committed.