Authorities have identified the culprit behind a series of “racially charged” notes that plagued a Georgia community.
On Wednesday, the Douglasville Police Department announced they had filed criminal charges against Terresha Lucas, a 30-year-old Black woman who allegedly threatened her neighbors while pretending to be a Ku Klux Klan member. Police say residents of the Brookmont subdivision began receiving the letters in their mailboxes in December 2020.
The person who wrote the notes, which threatened to burn down homes and kill their occupants, described themselves as “a six-feet-tall white male with a long, red beard who did not live in the neighborhood.”
Detectives Nathan Shumaker and Andre Futch spent months looking into the case, going door-to-door speaking with residents and also reviewing video captured by doorbell cams.
“By mid-March, we really didn’t have anything to go on,” Shumaker said. But that all changed on Labor Day, when they discovered evidence that linked the disturbing letters to Lucas. The evidence was apparently so strong they managed to obtain a search warrant shortly after. While searching Lucas’ home, detectives reportedly found additional evidence that connected the woman to the incidents.
“Our investigators had the drive to stick with this case and see it all to the end,” Police Chief Dr. Gary Sparks said in a statement posted on Facebook. “That’s what we’re all about and this reflects the professionalism and integrity of the department. They stayed with it and put in a lot of hours. Even when some people went to the media, which could have hampered our investigation, we still stuck with it to the end.”
Lucas has been charged with eight counts of making terroristic threats. She is expected to turn herself into police before the end of the week.
