For 25 years, Tracyraquel Golder believed she had killed her own baby brother. She was two years old on December 27, 1971, when four-month-old Matthew Golder suffered fatal head injuries inside the family home in suburban Decatur, Georgia, and the adults in the house told investigators that she had thrown him from his crib. It would take her decades, an army enlistment, a stack of exhumed medical records, and a race against a parole hearing to learn that the real killer had never been charged at all.
According to Mamamia, Tracyraquel’s mother, Kathie Almon, left the family home with two-year-old Tracyraquel on December 27, 1971, while four-month-old Matthew remained at home with Almon’s then-partner, Jan Barry Sandlin. Tracyraquel later returned to the apartment and was found standing in Matthew’s crib, and both Almon and Sandlin told investigators that Tracyraquel had thrown the infant from it, causing fatal injuries. Matthew was found fatally injured on the floor of the home, and the account offered by the two adults meant that a two-year-old, the only surviving witness, was left to carry the blame while neither adult was ever charged, per the same outlet’s reporting.
The original 1971 death was classified as an accidental tragedy, a determination that stood for nearly a quarter century. Part of why it stood so long traces back to a basic records failure: when DeKalb County authorities reopened the case in 1995, they discovered that no official 1971 autopsy record existed in county archives, according to a Burden of Guilt podcast episode from iHeart. That gap left the file thin for decades, even as the child blamed for the death grew up carrying the label.
A Childhood Shaped by Trauma and Blame
Per Mamamia’s reporting, Tracyraquel later learned from police reports that she had been formally blamed for Matthew’s death, and she experienced physical abuse, neglect and psychological trauma in the years that followed. Kathie Almon, who had been married to Ted Golder, at one point jumped from a second-story balcony and broke both legs and both arms, the outlet reports. Tracyraquel attempted suicide at age 14, after which Almon had her committed to a mental institution, according to the same account. A woman identified only as June supported Tracyraquel through her youth, Mamamia notes, and Almon now lives estranged from her daughter…