"Wood was 66 years old when he was shot to death near Hahira in 1973. The case was never solved; the Georgia Bureau of Investigation is trying to generate new leads with the help of the media, said Capt. William Exum of the Cook County Sheriff's Office...
Claude Wood, a farmer, also ran a grocery store at the intersection of Val-Del Road and Fellowship Road on the Lowndes County-Cook County line. On Sept. 28, 1973, someone entered the store, shot Wood, dragged his body behind the deli counter and left him to die, his grandson said. A local sharecropper found his body and alerted Claude Wood's brother, who called the law, according to the grandson.
"It was a senseless murder," Michael Wood said. "There wasn't that much money in the cash register."
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation was called to the scene to help, but they found that someone had "polluted" the crime scene by moving things, Michael Wood said. "They (the GBI) were real upset." Many people were interviewed but no one was arrested, he said.
Then-Gov. Jimmy Carter offered a $1,000 state reward for information leading to the capture of Claude Wood's killer, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, but there were still no leads, his grandson said."
Info sought in decades-old Hahira-area murder
Claude Wood, a farmer, also ran a grocery store at the intersection of Val-Del Road and Fellowship Road on the Lowndes County-Cook County line. On Sept. 28, 1973, someone entered the store, shot Wood, dragged his body behind the deli counter and left him to die, his grandson said. A local sharecropper found his body and alerted Claude Wood's brother, who called the law, according to the grandson.
"It was a senseless murder," Michael Wood said. "There wasn't that much money in the cash register."
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation was called to the scene to help, but they found that someone had "polluted" the crime scene by moving things, Michael Wood said. "They (the GBI) were real upset." Many people were interviewed but no one was arrested, he said.
Then-Gov. Jimmy Carter offered a $1,000 state reward for information leading to the capture of Claude Wood's killer, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, but there were still no leads, his grandson said."
Info sought in decades-old Hahira-area murder
