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Written by: E. George
Published March 14, 2023 @ 8:40 PM ET
Bartow County (March 4, 2023) – At approximately 9:00 PM, a man, Shannon Tapley, walked up to the bonding window at the Bartow County Jail and told the officer he had information about a 2008 murder cold case. He stated he wanted to confess a crime.
Bartow County Sheriff’s officers searched for the victim’s name in their eagle system, an old reporting system, and located the case from March 18, 2008. The victim’s mother had called in to report her son, Lance Jay Banister, 19, missing and explained that she had last seen him on March 15, 2008.
The responding deputy had entered his name into Georgia Crime Information Center as a missing person at the time, but he was no longer considered missing. Officers could not locate any more information in their records for Mr. Banister related to the crime Tapley wanted to provide more information about.
Continuing the search to identify a possible victim, an officer discovered a 2008 obituary for the victim and an article revealing he had been located, deceased, in Carters Lake three weeks after being reported missing. Carters Lake is in Murray County.
Following an investigation, officers arrested Tapley and charged him with murder on March 5, 2023. This case is pending in court.
Officer’s Narrative:
[Please note: The following is a direct transcription from the official initial incident report. The Georgia Gazette does not fix any spelling or grammatical errors that may exist. Any changes or redactions made by our staff are placed inside brackets. Some errors may exist. All subjects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. The topics discussed may be sensitive to some readers. Discretion is advised.]
On Saturday, 3/4/2023 at about 9:08 PM, I received a call from Lieutenant Crutchfield in the Bartow County Jail about a male that came to the window.
Lt. Crutchfield advised me a male (Shannon Tapley) came to the bonding window of the jail and said he had information on a cold case from 2008 and the victim’s name was [VICTIM #1] . We were able to locate a case in the eagle system (old system used for reporting) case# 08-008228, that was done on 3/18/2008. [VICTIM #1]’s mother ([REDACTED]) called to report [VICTIM #1] a missing person and the last time she saw him was on 3/15/2008. He was entered into GCIC as a missing person by the responding deputy, according to the report. I was unable to locate anything else on [VICTIM #1] and he was not in GCIC curently as a missing person.
I spoke to Shannon and asked him if he had information on what happened to [VICTIM #1] or if he wanted to confess to a crime. He stated he wanted to confess to a crime. I did not ask him any other questions.
I was able to locate an obituary from 2008 for [VICTIM #1] and an artical stating he was located in Murray County Georgia deceased in Carters Lake a few weeks after being reported missing.
I spoke to Investigator Abernathy about the incident and he arrived on scene at the jail to speak with Shannon. The investigation was turned over to him.
[End of Narrative]
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