Dahlonega, GA – After more than two decades, the Lumpkin County Sheriff’s Office has announced that the 2001 homicide of Herman Wilder has been officially solved through DNA evidence. Investigators determined that Carroll Dean Burrell of Rabun County, who is now deceased, was responsible for Wilder’s death on May 25, 2001, at the Golden Hills Apartments in Dahlonega.
On the night of the killing, deputies were called to the apartment complex for a report of a violent assault. When they arrived, they found Wilder outside his apartment suffering from severe injuries. He later died from those injuries. Evidence recovered at the scene included a wooden stake believed to have been used as the murder weapon and a blue baseball cap.
At the time, investigators worked several promising leads and identified a potential suspect. However, that individual was later ruled out, and DNA collected from the scene did not match anyone in the national database, CODIS. For years, the case remained unsolved despite multiple reviews and advances in forensic methods…