It was raining the afternoon that Jessica Richardson found her mother, Cheryl Williams Frady, dead in the basement of her Georgia home in 2008 – a single gunshot wound to the head ending a life just hours away from a highly anticipated escape.
The mother and daughter had planned to spend the day shopping, gathering last-minute essentials for a cruise to the Bahamas they were set to embark on the following morning.
But neither would ever make it to the ship. And for the last 17 years, Williams Frady’s sudden and shocking death has left her family adrift, stranded in a swell of suspicion and grief as the question of who killed their mom and why remains unanswered.
Jessica told the Daily Mail she constantly grapples with the fear that whoever pulled the trigger may still be lurking in the not-too-distant shadows.
‘It’s scary to me, as her daughter, because I believe it was someone close to her, and maybe this is just an irrational fear, but are they going to come after us?’ said Jessica.
‘This person is still out there somewhere; they may be walking around my neighborhood, and we know what they’re capable of.’
For the first time since discovering her mother’s body, however, she believes the truth of what happened may finally be about to surface, with a suspect now firmly in investigators’ sights.
‘For so long I told myself we would never get closure… but in the last year we’ve had some really positive interactions with police, and finally I feel like it’s possible to solve this case – that we have a glimmer of hope.’
Cheryl Williams Frady was 44 when she was shot dead at home in Dawsonville, Georgia, on April 5, 2008
Williams Frady, seen with her daughter Jessica in 2008, died from a gunshot wound to the head
Williams Frady was 44 when she was found shot dead in the basement of the home she shared with her mother and stepfather in Dawson County, Georgia, on April 5, 2008.
The former Budweiser bottle girl had recently separated from her second husband on amicable terms, had welcomed her first grandchild into the world, and appeared to be relishing a new lease of life, her other daughter, Emily Wright, said.
Neither Jessica nor Emily, both then 23 and 21, was aware of any conflicts ongoing in their mother’s life that were troubling her or giving her any cause to be fearful.
Williams Frady worked at the local Michaels arts and crafts store and loved her job.
She had recently started online dating, but didn’t have a serious boyfriend.
Very little about the investigation into Williams Frady’s death is known by her daughters.
For years, Jessica and Emily said they were left in the dark about their mom’s case.
Questions they had would routinely go unanswered by the Dawson County Sheriff’s Office and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI), and sometimes their calls were outright ignored.
Much of what they knew of their mom’s horrifying fate came from Jessica’s own observations and memories from when she discovered Williams Frady dead.
How she spent her final hours of life, and when she took her final breaths, is still largely unknown.
Williams Frady once worked as a Budweiser bottle girl. At the time of her death, she was working in a local Michaels arts and crafts store
Her daughters Jessica Richardson (left) and Emily Wright (right) say they’re more hopeful than ever that their mom’s killer will be brought to justice – but still there’s a long way to go
Jessica last spoke to her mom the evening before she found her lifeless body.
That night, Williams Frady had been out for dinner with her ex-husband and their 11-year-old son to hand over custody of the boy ahead of her vacation.
According to police, her last known contact came at 1.30am in the form of a phone call.
The identity of the caller and the nature of that call has never been disclosed to her family, Jessica and Emily said.
The following afternoon, at around 4pm, Jessica drove over to her grandmother’s home, where Williams Frady was living in an apartment in the basement, to pick her up and go shopping.
As she arrived at the home, her grandmother, having just gotten off work, pulled into the driveway and followed her inside.
Jessica called out to her mom, but there was no response.
She and her grandmother walked down the stairs to her mom’s floor, knocked on the door, and entered after their calls were once again met with silence.
The moment she stepped inside, she crossed a threshold from which she could never return.
From that moment onwards, her life would forever be divided into two parts: before she opened the door and after.
‘I saw my mom lying there still,’ recounted Jessica. ‘I didn’t know that she’d been shot.
‘I saw blood, but your brain doesn’t go there. The next thing I remember doing is calling 911 and running to my neighbor’s house, because they were a nurse and I thought they’d be able to help.’
Jessica and Emily remember their mother has a bright, bubbly presence who was kind and nurturing. They were just 23 and 21, respectively, when she was killed
The fatal shooting happened in the baseman of Williams Frady’s mother’s home where she’d been staying after a recent divorce
What happened next exists in Jessica’s mind only as fragments – brief, seemingly disconnected snapshots.
She remembers noticing yellow police tape being hung outside of her grandmother’s home. She recounts being told by a faceless, distant voice that her mom had been shot, and the flashing sirens of an arriving ambulance.
While the frenzy erupted, Jessica sat motionless, hugging her knees in the rain, trying to make sense of what was happening and what she’d just seen.
It was then that Emily arrived, and a disassociated Jessica was left to deliver the devastating news.
‘I remember her walking up the driveway and being like, “what’s going on?”’ Jessica recalled. ‘And I told her, “Mom is dead. Someone killed her.”’
The world went black for Emily when she heard her older sister mutter those fateful words.
‘I remember feeling like I was floating around,’ said Emily.
‘I was going around asking everyone if they were okay, and people were looking back at me strangely, asking if I was okay.’
The months that followed yielded little in the way of answers for Williams Frady’s family and they claim police did little to question those closest to their mom.
Williams Frady’s daughters have no idea why someone would wish to harm their mom – but they have a good idea of who they think is responsible
Sixteen years passed without any word in the case, but dialogue was finally opened between investigators and the family last year
Jessica said she was only spoken to for 30 minutes in the immediate aftermath of finding her mom’s body and was never contacted again.
Emily, meanwhile, was never interviewed by police.
Their father, and Williams Frady’s first husband, was only interviewed for 10 minutes after he contacted Dawson County cops off his own back to offer what he knew about his ex-partner more than a month later, the sisters claim.
‘We know our father wasn’t involved, but in any normal investigation, the ex-husband would be one of the first people police reach out to,’ said Emily.
‘That made us suspicious that the case was either not being handled properly or wasn’t being investigated at all.’
The only information shared with the family by the Dawson County was that they didn’t believe there was a wider threat to the local community.
An agonizing 16 years would pass without any breaks.
In place of answers, Jessica and Emily were left with only an abundance of theories to attempt to explain what happened to their mom.
Both of the siblings are aligned in their belief their mom’s killer was someone close to her.
Jessica said she spotted no signs of forced entry at her grandmother’s home, and none of the furniture or her belongings appeared out of place.
‘I don’t think it’s feasible someone broke into our mom’s home and murdered her, because it’s so rare for random violence like that to happen, particularly in such a small town,’ said Emily.
‘I agree,’ concurred Jessica. ‘It had to be someone who was familiar with where she was, where she was in the house, and where she was going to be at the time she was killed.’
Williams Frady’s children are aligned in their belief their mom’s killer was someone close to her
The case was reignited with a welcome shock in 2024, when, on the 16th anniversary of her death, the GBI posted a call-to-action on Facebook, asking for the public to submit any tips they may have in the Williams Frady murder.
The post came as a surprise to Jessica and Emily, who immediately reached out to GBI.
They said many in the local community had been completely unaware of their mom’s murder until the GBI’s post.
While they welcomed the renewed attention, the sisters couldn’t help but lament that it had come too little, too late, wondering how many vital tips or key witnesses may have been lost to time.
Still, the GBI’s post helped open a channel of communication between investigators and the sisters for the very first time.
They offered investigators a list of people to speak with and an abundance of rumors and tips they’d heard over the years.
Those individuals have since spoken to the police, and Jessica and Emily have been interviewed in depth, giving them hope that the case is finally moving in a positive direction.
Perhaps the most promising indication of all came when the GBI confirmed to the siblings that they have a suspect in their sights, they claim.
The GBI declined to comment on whether they have a suspect in the case but said the case remains active and ongoing
Her lifeless body was found by her eldest daughter, hours after Williams Frady’s last known sign of life
Declining to divulge too much information, Emily told the Daily Mail that the suspect in question, true to her and Jessica’s hunch, was very close to their mother and is still alive.
‘There’s a suspect and we weren’t aware this person was being considered until last year,’ said Emily.
‘We were told this person has been on the police’s radar since the very beginning, so why hasn’t an arrest been made? That’s what I want to know.
‘A lot of mistakes have been made in this investigation, but we are hoping that now they’re finally going to get it right.’
The GBI declined to confirm they’ve identified a suspect in the Williams Frady murder when approached by the Daily Mail with an extensive list of questions.
However, GBI confirmed the case has never been closed and is still being ‘actively’ investigated.
‘Agents have conducted interviews as we pursue leads in the case. As with all cases in which the GBI is requested to assist, we remain dedicated to solving the case and bringing closure to the family and community,’ a spokesperson said.
‘We urge anyone with information related to this case to come forward.’
As their wait for answers continues, the sisters say they occassionally find themselves fantasizing about the moment an arrest is made.
‘Someone out there thinks they got away with something, but I want them to know their day is coming,’ said Emily.
‘We don’t have any intentions of stopping until they’re caught.’
Anyone with information on the death of Williams Frady should contact the GBI’s tip line at 1 (800) 597-8577. For the family’s Facebook page, click here.
