Teresa Ann Bailey Black, William DaShawn Hamilton (Law&Crime file)
A Georgia mother was sentenced this week for concealing the remains of her 6-year-old son, whose badly decomposed body was found in 1999 in a case that remained cold for 23 years until facial reconstruction helped identify the boy.
Teresa Ann Bailey Black, 46, was found guilty of concealing the death of another — her 6-year-old son, William DaShawn Hamilton, according to a Friday news release from the Dekalb County District Attorney’s Office. Black was acquitted on charges of felony murder, cruelty to children, and aggravated assault. She was sentenced to 10 years in prison, the state’s maximum for that charge.
Judge Stacey Hydrick was appalled, Atlanta’s ABC affiliate WSB-TV reported.
“As a mother, I cannot fathom how you could leave your child in the woods to rot. There are so many other options, and it did not have to end this way. But your choices in leaving William’s body in the woods, never reported him missing and lying about his existence for over 20 years are not only appalling but also resulted in the complete destruction of any evidence that could have determined what happened. We’re left here still with no answers. You are the only one who knows what happened,” Hydrick said.
Jurors said it was a difficult decision.
“Yeah, it was emotional for all of us,” Nathan Mittleman said. “There was one lady who was crying in the jury room. We all wanted to see things go differently, but at the end of the day … we had to go with what the law was.”
DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston said she was disappointed.
“While we respect the jury’s verdict, I would be lying if I didn’t say I wasn’t disappointed,” Boston said, Atlanta NBC affiliate WXIA-TV reported. “We still believe that she is responsible for William’s death.”
Authorities discovered the extremely decomposed remains of the then-unidentified boy on Feb. 26, 1999, in a wooded area. He was believed to have been dead for three to six months.
The boy became known as “John Clifton Doe” and remained unidentified for decades.
In 2000, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) became involved in the case.
The case received renewed attention in 2019 when a lifelike facial reconstruction rendering was released. In May 2020, someone who knew Black and her son in 1998 saw that rendering and contacted NCMEC, and DNA linked Black to the remains.
“When investigators interviewed Black in 2022 about the death of her son, she initially expressed surprise that he was deceased,” prosecutors said. “She later conceded that she had been present when William died and left his body in the wooded location where it was found.”
Black said William had been sick for days before his death, but she did not seek medical attention. Tests of muscle tissue from the remains showed the presence of diphenhydramine and acetaminophen had been in the boy’s system at the time of his death.
Black was indicted in 2022, arrested near her home in Phoenix, Arizona, and extradited to Georgia.
Alberto Luperon and Christina Bubba contributed to this report.
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