True Crime On This Day January 3rd

Last Updated on September 20, 2022 by Ben Oakley

January 3rd

On January 3rd in true crime, Atlanta Child Murders, assassination in Grenada, armed robbery, murder in Kenya and missing persons.

1978

In Grenada, the minister of agriculture Innocent Belmar became the first minister of government to be assassinated in the country.

He was shot in the chest at the Bamboo Bar Restaurant in St. Andrew’s. Two men were later charged, but in the overly political trial they were acquitted shortly after.

1979

In San Francisco, Robert Lee Massie held up a liquor store and ended up killing the owner, 61-year-old Boris G. Naumoff. A witness saw Massie wrestling with Chuck Harris who was another staff member.

Massie then pulled out his gun and shot Harris in the leg before shooting Naumoff in the neck, killing him instantly. Massie was on parole for a murder he committed in 1965.

He was arrested the same day, sentenced to death and executed by lethal injection in California on March 17^th 2001.

1980

In Shaba National Reserve, Kenya, 69-year-old naturalist Friederike Victoria Adamson was murdered. Her body was found by her assistant, Pieter Mawson.

Due to their work with lions and other big cats, it was initially assumed she had been killed by a lion. A later investigation found that her wounds were too sharp to have been caused by an animal.

Police were led to former employee of Adamson, Paul Nakware Ekai, who was later sentenced to life in prison for the murder.

Adamson was well-known in the conservation world because of her book, Born Free, which described her experiences looking after a lion cub named Elsa. The book, released in 1960, was later turned into a film in 1966.

1981

In Atlanta, Georgia, 14-year-old Lubie Geter disappeared from near his home. His body was found on February 5^th, he had been strangled to death.

Geter had connections to local male paedophiles and evidence revealed that he had been involved in a same-gender relationship. Geter had been a victim of the infamous Atlanta Murders.

They were a series of murders committed in Atlanta from July 1979 to May 1981 and included the deaths of at least 30 children and adults.

Later in 1981, Wayne Williams was charged with two of the adult murders and sentenced to life in prison. Over the years, police have attributed 22 of the murders to Williams but he has never been charged with them and has maintained his innocence ever since.

In 2019, Atlanta police reopened all the Atlanta murder cases so that they could re-test the evidence available and begin a new investigation.

Investigators still believe that Williams was responsible for most of the murders but there are some that remain unsolved.

1982

In Oklahoma City, on January 3rd, 27-year-old Russell Lee Wilson and 21-year-old Lisa Kay Fritzler were shot dead near Lake Oversholser. Their bodies were found the same day in Fritzler’s car.

Investigators were hampered in the early stages of their probe because both victims carried drivers’ licences which listed conflicting vital statistics.

They had been murdered by brothers Robert Lerand Ardizzone and Marty Ray Ardizzone who were arrested eight days later on January 11^th.

An investigation confirmed that both victims had been shot repeatedly in the head and Wilson had also been stabbed, both were drug-related killings. The Ardizzone brothers were sentenced to life in prison.

1983

In San Francisco, California, 20-year-old college student Jerome Maeth vanished without a trace. He had left his home for a doctor’s appointment but never arrived at his destination.

Maeth was of Filipino background and had a small scar on his left cheek. No trace of him has ever been found, dead or alive. His case remains active with the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD).

Check out the Mega List of True Crime Podcasts