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DECATUR, Ga. (TCD) — A jury convicted a 46-year-old woman of one felony and acquitted her of other charges almost 25 years after her young son’s decomposing body was discovered near a cemetery.
On Wednesday, Jan. 10, the DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office announced that Theresa Ann Bailey Black was found guilty of concealing the death of another in connection with her son William DaShawn Hamilton’s death. WAGA-TV reports Black was cleared of murder, aggravated assault, and cruelty to children.
The 5-year-old boy’s remains were discovered in a wooded area Feb. 26, 1999. Investigators concluded the victim was a Black male between 5 and 7 years old and he had been dead for most likely three to six months. The child’s body appeared to be “significantly decomposed.”
The boy could not be positively identified, so he became known as John Clifton Doe.
In 2000, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) published artist renderings of what the victim would have looked like, but there were no leads. Nineteen years later, a forensic artist with the NCMEC created a new reconstruction, which led to a breakthrough tip in 2020.
Someone called the NCMEC and said they knew the boy and his mother. Investigators reopened the case and collected DNA from Black. John Clifton Doe was positively identified as Hamilton in February 2022.
According to the district attorney’s office, in 1998, Black “abruptly” withdrew her son from school and moved them to Atlanta from Charlotte, North Carolina. She went back to Charlotte in 1999, but without Hamilton. She reportedly “told differing stories about his whereabouts.”
When detectives told her in 2022 that Hamilton was deceased, she reportedly “initially expressed surprise.” Then, she admitted her son was sick, but she did not seek medical help. She left his body in the woods after he died. The statement says Hamilton had diphenhydramine and acetaminophen in his system, which are medicines commonly used for colds or allergies.
WAGA reports DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston said she and her team “respect the jury’s verdict” but are still “disappointed” that Black did not get convicted on the other counts.
Sherry said, “We still believe she is responsible for young William’s death. Teresa Bailey may have walked away and abandoned her son in 1999, but today I’m proud to say that the people in this room and in this community never did. Today, William DaShawn Hamilton has his name back, and he will never be forgotten.”
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