When most people think back to being a child in the 80’s and early 90’s, they reminisce on the simplicity of the times. Children went outside to play from daylight to dark. Kids did not have cellphones for their parents to track them on. Parents just trusted that when their kids were outside playing, they were safe. This rings especially true for smaller cities. There was a sense of security living in small communities. Everyone knew their neighbors and their neighbors’ kids. Although there were murderers and other criminals in the world, this information was not always filtered into homes on blast. The lack of social media and limited number of news stations helped to create a type of safety bubble. This was true for the Harmon family of Roswell, Georgia.
Joshua Randall Harmon was born August 14,1979 in Roswell, Georgia to his mother and father: Cherie and Larry Harmon. Joshua’s family has described him as a child who loved God and nature. He attended Kimball Bridge Elementary School where he was a special education student. His stepdad: Douglas Laws, described Joshua as a very frightened child who was very dependent on his mother. The small family moved to Roundtree Apartments on Roundtree Way in Roswell, Georgia around mid-April 1988.
Joshua regularly played outside by himself and other kids during the day when school was out. He loved searching for turtles at the lake that was located at the apartment complex. He also played in a fort that was located behind the apartment building. It was not unusual for Joshua to play outside until called to come home for dinner.
May 15, 1988, began as any other day. Joshua was outside playing by himself. Around 7pm, Joshua went to a friend’s apartment and asked if he could come out and play. The friend’s mother told him no since it was dinner time. Joshua let the friend know that he would wait for him at the fort.
Cherie, Joshua’s mother, recalls seeing that it was almost 7pm and she could hear the ice cream truck coming through the apartment complex. She had laid a dollar out for Joshua to get ice cream, but he did not come to get it. She then sent her husband, Douglas, to call Joshua in for dinner. Douglas was unable to find Joshua. Cherie and Douglas went to the neighbor’s apartment and asked if they had seen Joshua, where they were told that he had stopped by but was sent away. At 7:30pm, Joshua’s parents called the police to report him missing.
The Roswell police department and fire department came to the scene to search for the missing 8-year-old. One theory was that Joshua may have runaway in order to return to their previous home, but Joshua's mother and stepdad did not believe that Joshua would do anything like that. The police and fire department searched 60 acres of woods surrounding the apartment building and the fire department searched the lake on the premises. Each minute a child is missing is crucial. The initial search did not yield anything. The crews searched for 48 hours, when a police lieutenant working on the search stumbled upon the body of Joshua Harmon in the woods behind the apartment. His small, 55-pound body was found under loose dirt and pine straw surrounded by logs that were placed as a failed attempt to hide the body. He had been struck over the head and strangled to death. The news was obviously devastating and Joshua’s mother, Cherie was hospitalized due to the stress of the situation.
The investigation into who would do such an awful thing to such a sweet loving boy quickly began. An escapee from the North Fulton County Jail who was a known child molester was first on the list. Next, there was a group of boys at the apartment complex who had bullied Joshua earlier that day and “roughed him up” after he threw a rock at the apartment of one of the boys. The suspect pool dwindled as suspects were ruled out. Sadly, this case sat for 33 years, cold. The police frequently tried to revisit and solve the case but to no avail. That is until 2021.
Evidence from the case was preserved with the hopes that one day the technology would be developed to identify the murderer. As we have seen with other recent cold cases, this has finally come true. In February 2021, police exhumed Joshua’s body after receiving permission from his family. In March 2021, police received funding from the Georgia Sexual Assault Kit Initiative to perform additional testing on evidence retrieved from the crime scene. The new testing provided the answer that Joshua’s family had been waiting so long for.
On July 21,2021, the Roswell police performed a traffic stop involving an Uber. The passenger in the car was 56-year-old, James Michael Coates. He was arrested and charged with numerous charges including felony murder, aggravated assault, aggravated child molestation, concealing the death of another and tampering with evidence among other charges. Coates was a neighbor living in the apartment complex with the family. In 1993, he was convicted of a separate child molestation charge and served time.
Finally, the family has the answer as to who took the precious life of their little boy. Unfortunately, Joshua’s mother passed in October 2020 and did not get to see a resolution to the case while she was alive. She is now at peace though and with her little boy. Although it would have been a better outcome for her to see the criminal punished for his crimes, at least there is finally a resolution and Joshua can finally rest in peace.
I am immensely proud of and impressed with the work the Roswell Police Department has put forth in this case. The perseverance they had in this case and the forethought to look to the future of technology is the only thing that has brought this case to a close. Although this is still an ongoing investigation officially, the DNA does not lie, and the murderer is behind bars. It is sad that he was allowed to remain unpunished for his crime for so long, but the wait is now over. It will be interesting to follow the trial and find out what he has to say for himself. I hope that justice will be fully served, and Joshua’s memory will be honored with appropriate punishment for this vile human being. A child’s life is so precious, and it is disgusting to know that animals like Coates exist in our world.
Comments