A Georgia man is facing a murder rap nearly 13 years after the killing of his ex-girlfriend, who was found dead years after her disappearance and identified by her breast implants, authorities said.
Billy Joe Cook, 50, of Canton, was arrested Thursday in the death of Leslie Marva Adams, a 40-year-old mother of two who worked as a beautician in Lilburn, after a private investigator hired by the victim’s family after she disappeared began working with the Gwinnett County District Attorney’s Office, WSB-TV reports.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that he was involved,” private investigator TJ Ward told the station. “And I’m sure it’s brought closure for the family tonight because they’ve suspected Billy all along.”
Ward said Adams obtained a temporary protective order against Cook just days before her disappearance in October 2005 due to ongoing domestic issues.
“I think he was jealous of her because that’s what created the monster when she had gone out with some friends on the night that he showed up and a domestic situation started,” Ward said.
Investigators found bloodstains and a shell casing inside Adams’ apartment in October 2005, but Adams was nowhere to be found. Two years later, a couple discovered her remains in a swamp in Franklin County. A serial number from a breast implant was later used to identify the body, Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter told the station.
Ward said an investigator from the district attorney’s office contacted him two weeks ago to discuss the cold case. It’s unclear what evidence was used to arrest Cook on Thursday, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
Cook, at the time of Adams’ disappearance, admitted he argued with her, but denied choking, stalking and beating her throughout their 18-month relationship, as she alleged.
“I am afraid that if I do not let him in my life he will become violent and angry,” Adams wrote in the court document, the newspaper reported in 2005.
Cook, who operated a vending machine business, claimed the incident that led to the protective order was merely a misunderstanding.
“Some of her friends heard us fussing and called the police,” Cook told the newspaper. “But we were only fussing. Her friend never heard us fuss like that before.”
Ward, meanwhile, said he hopes Cook’s arrest finally gives Adams’ relatives some peace.
“Now there’s an arrest, but we hope there’s a conviction to close the final chapter,” Ward told WSB-TV.
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