DOUGLASVILLE, Ga. — It’s now been 14 years since Maryanne Humphrey was shot and killed at the convenience store where she worked, and the person responsible still has not been caught.
Police say that in September 2009, a masked man walked into the Circle K on Stewart Mill Road in Douglasville and tried robbing the store at gunpoint.
The 63-year-old mother and grandmother was not going to let it be that easy.
Law enforcement officers said Humphrey fought back, even unmasking the armed robber.
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During the struggle, she was shot and killed.
More than a decade later, Humphrey’s killer still hasn’t been identified.
Through all that time, Humphrey’s family has not given up on solving her murder.
Now, they’re hopeful The Coleman-Baker Act, which passed in July, could help solve the case.
Speaking with Channel 2′s Veronica Griffin, Humphrey’s granddaughter Kailyn Kaiser said the law could allow the case to be considered for a new investigation. She was only 16 when her grandmother died in 2009, the two were extremely close.
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The Coleman-Baker Act, named for murder victims Tara Baker and Rhonda Coleman, created a cold case unit in the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and created a request form for families or other loved ones to submit a case for reconsideration or investigation.
While there are no major leads in the Humphrey case right now, the family is still holding out hope and fighting the fight.
“It’s hard. Having to go through Christmas, Thanksgivings without her. It’s hard…” Kaiser told Channel 2 Action News.
The closeness between Kaiser and Humphrey is what fuels her efforts to keep getting the word out until justice is served.
Posting to Facebook on the anniversary of her grandmother’s murder is one way Kaiser keeps the crime in the public eye. In 2022, one of her posts caught the eye of the sheriff’s department, which then recirculated the photo.
“Every year it’s a reminder that we don’t have answers,” Kaiser continued.
Kaiser told Griffin that with the Coleman-Baker Act now law, she’s working to meet with the lead detective on the case in the coming days. If the case qualifies for new investigation from the law’s provisions, she said it could bring her family a little closer to some level of closure.
“Now me and the captain are in talks about what we can do to have it reinvestigate again, with all new fresh set of eyes,” Kaiser said.
If the case qualifies, it would be sent over to the GBI’s new cold case unit.
The detectives on the case told Griffin the investigation is still active.
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