Georgia authorities have announced the formal indictment of an individual in a homicide that has remained unsolved for several decades. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) has unsealed a man’s indictment for the murder of a pastor in Jeff Davis County, a crime that has puzzled police for years.
More than thirty years have passed since the discovery of the body of James Hand, then 54, who was found lifeless with multiple gunshot wounds on the roof of his church.
On June 1, 1996, officers from the Jeff Davis County Sheriff’s Department located Hand’s body. According to investigators’ findings, the pastor of the Full Gospel Church, in the Snipesville region, was carrying out repairs on the roof of the building when he was hit by fatal shots.
The person responsible for Hand’s death remained unknown for a long time, until the GBI disclosed that recent information allowed it to charge Zachary B. Harper, a 47-year-old Hazlehurst resident, with first-degree murder. The reopening and resolution of old cases like this highlight the persistence of investigative units in seeking justice, even after time, using new methods or testimonies that emerge decades later.
Harper, the accused, is already serving a life sentence at the Jenkins Correctional Center, the result of a conviction for another murder case unrelated to the pastor.
The investigation into the murder of James Hand remains ongoing, and law enforcement agencies ask that anyone with relevant information contact the GBI Regional Bureau of Investigation in Douglas at (912) 389-4103 or call the agency’s tip line at 1-800-597-8477.
Upon completion of the investigation, the Georgia Department of Investigation will forward all elements of the case to the Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office, where the case will proceed legally.