The Georgia Supreme Court discounted the purse recovery evidence because the backyards and the woods behind the trailer of the victim had been thoroughly searched by police on April 1, 1994, almost two years before the purse’s discovery. Papers belonging to the victim had been found by a child playing in the woods, and the child’s mother reported this to a newspaper reporter. The reporter called GCPD Sergeant (now Major) Steve Cline, one of the investigators in the Chapel case, and notified him.

The testimony regarding this area search came from Lieutenant, then Captain, now Colonel, John Latty, the same officer that had headed up the murder investigation Michael Chapel for the Murder of Emogene Thompson.

The problem with this supposed thorough search is that the search team included only himself, Sgt. Steve Cline and Sugar Hill Marshall Chris Robertson, and, according to the timeline in the memo that Latty wrote describing the incident, it had to have been conducted in the dark.

At 6:10 PM, Latty met with Cline and the reporter at the Northside precinct. After their conference, Latty and Cline then took time to locate and contact Sugar Hill Marshall Robertson. They arranged a meeting with Robertson at an intersection near the victim’s trailer residence where they conferred. The trio decided first to try to locate the caller by canvassing the neighborhood. The caller, who had said that she was very afraid because of the murder, could not be located. Such a worst-case search would mean that every house on Craig Drive had to be canvassed. That had to take some time. According to Latty’s memo they “checked numerous residences on both sides of the street up and down Craig Drive. Also a thorough search of the area behind the former Thompson residence and up and down the woods behind those trailers yielded no relevant property.” Then Latty added in bold letters:

“Case Closed!”

April 1^st, 1993 was a Friday, and daylight savings time did not begin until the following Sunday. The end of civil twilight time began 30 minutes after sunset at 6:57 PM. Even at twilight, it is very dark in a wooded area. This photograph is an aerial picture of the Craig Drive Neighborhood showing the extensive wooded area behind the victim’s trailer home. With only two searchers and a reporter looking on and in the dark, any search in the area could not be described as thorough.