By Joe Johnson
Shelby Cox suffered a horrendous death this summer when her boyfriend intentionally struck her with an SUV as she waited at an Athens bus stop.
Now, a recently filed court document has shown light on a previously undisclosed element of horror to the domestic violence that the 45-year-old grandmother suffered at the hands of Jeffrey Scott Tate.
On Thursday, an indictment was filed in Clarke County Superior Court showing a grand jury confirmed the charges that had been brought against Tate by the police, voting to charge him with malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, and hit and run.
However, the indictment also includes the additional charge of kidnapping.
It states that on the 11th day of August 2024, Tate “did unlawfully abduct and steal away Shelby Cox without lawful authority or warrant and held (Cox) against her will, by grabbing her by the hair and dragging her out of a store.”
The store is not named, but the indictment states that the kidnapping occurred on the same day as when Cox was struck by the SUV at the Atlanta Highway bus stop and dragged across several lanes by the vehicle.
About a month before her death, Cox announced her engagement to Tate in a post on her Facebook page.
Paperwork in the woman’s purse indicated that earlier in the day she was killed, Cox filed for divorce from her husband and that the filing fee had been paid by Tate.
Tate is scheduled to be arraigned on December 12.
He remains in pretrial detention without bail.
Anyone who is in an abusive relationship can seek advice and support services by calling Project Safe's 24-hour hotline at (706) 543-3331, or by visiting http://www.project-safe.org
Electric chair. Burn the living-daylights out of that scum.