GA - Athens, wife finds husband's body in basement after he was missing for a month, 44yo Frank Perry Williams, 09 APR 2025

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sunspun said:
That part didn't sound suspicious to me, because I think it was her reply to a question the cops asked her.

But a lot of other things about this DO sound suspicious to me!

Like she just assumed he walked out on her... Literally walked out? On foot??

Assuming he had a vehicle... did she not think it was odd that he left it behind? And if he didn't (unusual, but not unheard of), so she thought he just walked off into the night on foot. Taking none of his belongings.

What about his phone? Didn't he have a phone? Had she been trying to call it?

Is he estranged from his own family? How old is this couple anyway?

But also just to note... I go for a month without doing any laundry all the time. And who thinks 30+ pairs of underwear is a lot??? Hmph!
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D bm
 
This is just such a strange case and the wife is proving to be mighty strange too… never did laundry?? Instantly thought he’d left and that was that?? Never smelt anything suspicious?? Okkkkkkkk, if you say so!
 
Oooh this is an odd one isn't it?!

Whilst I can see it as a tragic accident, it could as easily not be. Guess the PM will tell.

Maybe once 'her husband left' she took her clothes to the dry cleaners/laundry. Or hand washed to avoid using the machine for small loads. There are explanations for not using the laundry room.

The 'decent' conversations around cheating however! No one in the memory of man has a 'decent' conversation around cheating imo. If it's an issue for discussion then it must be emotive surely?
 
sunspun said:
I thought if the house was in the mother's name, that when she died, the house would end up in probate court, since daughter's name wasn't on the deed. But I'm in the process just now of having to learn about this topic, so maybe I've mis understood that. In fact, I thought that the current occupants at the time of the homeowner's death wouldn't even be allowed to continue living in the house until it went through the court system. Maybe it matters if the occupants are family or not...
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Perhaps the law varies by state. Where I live, my parents' property, owned for decades, was simply available for a couple of years after my mother's death. None of us lived there, but there was never any kind of inquiry from any level of government. And likely never would have been until WE presented an inquiry to an attorney's office. Frankly, we kept waiting for something to happen. It never did. We did keep the taxes paid and the lawn mowed. I suspect only the neighbors were aware of the owners' passing and the house not being lived in.
 
sunspun said:
I thought if the house was in the mother's name, that when she died, the house would end up in probate court, since daughter's name wasn't on the deed. But I'm in the process just now of having to learn about this topic, so maybe I've mis understood that. In fact, I thought that the current occupants at the time of the homeowner's death wouldn't even be allowed to continue living in the house until it went through the court system. Maybe it matters if the occupants are family or not...
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AFAIK, daughter or other heir would have to go to court to probate the estate, if there was one. Sounds like daughter didn't do that and just kept on living there.
 
Gemmie said:
Quoting myself as I omitted a thought I had about her struggling with the bike to put it in the basement.

Did she come up with a story because she couldn't stand the smell anymore? Did she ignore what happened to him for a month, but couldn't take it anymore and something had to be done so she called 911 saying she "discovered" a dead body in the basement?
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Interesting thought also being expressed in comments. Could make sense!

We should hear more today on COD, based on preliminary autopsy findings?
 
If she thought he was cheating and the had a "discussion", maybe she assumed he stormed off to his g/f's place and figured he had clothes, etc, there?

But why wouldn't his work try to contact her, or him? Surely if WM thought he had abandoned his job, they legally have to provide notice they are terminating his employment, likely by registered mail? (I used to do HR years ago, that was the legal requirement in that state.)

Just because it was called a laundry room doesn't mean the washer is there. If the basement wasn't finished, maybe the washer was upstairs somewhere?
 
While this story is awfully strange, the idea that anyone could master mind and stage an electrocution of this kind is purely cinematic or otherwise impossible in this circumstance. Let's say she is behind it, how would she convince him to use a saw to cut into electrical lines in a house in the perfect place so he could electrocute himself? I just don't see that happening. With only the info reported at this point it sounds like a freak accident.
 
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fsngruv said:
While this story is awfully strange, the idea that anyone could master mind and stage and electrocution of this kind is purely cinematic or otherwise impossible in this circumstance. Let's say she is behind it, how would she convince him to use a saw to cut into electrical lines in a house in the perfect place so he could electrocute himself? I just don't see that happening. With only the info reported at this point it sounds like a freak accident.
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Do you have a source for him cutting into electrical lines? I haven't seen that reported, just that the saw has burn marks on it.
 
Bounceycat said:
Do you have a source for him cutting into electrical lines? I haven't seen that reported, just that the saw has burn marks on it.
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I apologize, I that is just my inference from the information provided in the article... "A police report described the scene:

Next to his feet was broken, mildewed dry wall and a weed whacker. Next to his left thigh was a box of trash and next to his head was a buzz saw.

“During my investigation of the body I noticed that Frank’s skin looked burnt around his neck and upper back,” Officer First Class John Sullivan wrote in a

report. “Also, the buzz saw next to him was blackened by what looked to be a fire.”


From what I know about electrocution, burning occurs where the volts entered or exit, explaining the burns on his body. I know circular saws, even hand held reciprocating saws hold a lot of watts, and I've seen power tools burn or short as well as heard about the effects of electrocution and power tools for computer based learning for work. Lol. So, I am no expert by any means, just throwing a theory out there like everyone else.
To me, it sounds like he was cutting into a wall or dry wall and ended up electrocuting himself, more than it sounds like she murdered him, but anything is possible, she would be a criminal master mind if she did so and it would be a better plot for a Tarantino film. Jmo.
 
Knox said:
Reading the story on how she discovered his body - she was trying to put a bicycle in the basement/laundry room. I would guess she doesn't do laundry down there. Specifically because she said the stairs were broken and usafe. I can see how this might be a true story. Maybe he did electrocute himself, as another poster suggested?

“A week ago, Joylynn told me, she began noticing a bad smell coming out the house so she decided to start deep cleaning the home,” the report continued.

As the smell persisted, the woman assumed that it was caused by mold growth but she avoided investigating because she said the staircase was broken and unsafe.

Then on the day she called police, Arnold brought in a bicycle from the yard and while struggling with it on the staircase when the bike fell to the bottom. Going down after it, Arnold said, she turned and saw her husband’s body, then immediately called 911.
www.classiccitynews.com

Athens man lay dead in basement for month while wife went about her business upstairs

NOTE: The family members of Frank Williams said the woman he lived with was his girlfriend, not his wife as she identified herself to the police.By Joe Johnson Authorities are looking into how a man could lay dead in the basement of his home without the knowledge of his wife who was living...
www.classiccitynews.com www.classiccitynews.com
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I wonder if it was his* bike that she was putting away, like he wouldn't be needing it anymore. In these parts, folks are bringing their bikes up out of the basement from winter storage, not putting them away.
 
Mandala said:
Hmmm, husband goes missing but she didn’t look around the house, including the basement early on? Just thought he’d left but without checking if he’s still in the house? Totally suspicious.
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Maybe they fought in the past and his MO was to leave for hours or days.

Maybe she told him to go away and thought he did.

If she thought he had left, why would she go search the basement for him? It's not like when a child is missing and there is a need to search everywhere in case the child is hiding and/or got stuck. If she thought he left of his own free will, why would she search the house?

It’s such an odd scenario.

Separately, if there was an electrical short or fire, did that not cause a power outage for at least part of the house? Did she need to flip the breaker? Where is the breaker box?

Imo.
 
Bekind89 said:
Um, no, just no. The smell of even a small animal is enough to drive one from their home, much less a body.
Her story is simply unbelievable, to put it mildly.
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Your post made me think of something. For one, I think that sometimes there is no smell depending on where in the house it was. Well, there IS a smell, but it doesn't always reach the main house like a ton of bricks. I'll get to that in a minute. As far as this house, going by the pic of the pretty much identical house directly across the street that I posted a pic of what their basement stairs looks like upthread... (a regular door separates it from the main living space)... I can NOT imagine that a lot of stench didn't come through since most interior doors aren't airtight. There are gaps. Usually a fairly good-sized one at the bottom.

Which brings me to two experiences...

Apparently I had a rat or a mouse die in my crawlspace of my last house. The floors were solid oak, so not a lot of air from the crawl could make it into the house (sealed off well). I didn't smell a thing, UNTIL I turned on the AC and oh lord. The bad part was... it was summer and the house wasn't well insulated, so I wanted it on a fair amount. Phooey.
1744664635267.webp


SOURCE

2nd experience... I am pretty sure something died in the attic, and likely a squirrel, so not real small. I smelled NOTHING. However, I had a fly invasion that I had to check on every few minutes for any new emergences from the attic so I could get to them before they were able to fly well once I found where they were coming from. Where there's a will there's a way when it comes to flies (or any living creature) to escape, move on, live and reproduce.

I have sun tunnels in the ceiling. They look like this:

1744665090326.webp
SOURCE

So the sun hits the thing on the roof, it down down through a tunnel to the glass plate on the ceiling. Apparently there's a gap where it meets the ceiling as flies were coming out of it. This is how I came up with this conclusion... They were VERY slow when the first appeared (walked out of the gap) and basically just stood there waiting to be catched. After time went by they started coming out and weren't sluggish like they were newborn (like the slow ones where). I explained all that so you'd understand why it's my belief there was something that had died up there, yet no smell at all. Thank goodness! They flies were enough to deal with over the span of a few days. Icky.

So bring those 2 experiences back to this situation... first off... she smelled something but thought it was mold. Dead bodies do NOT smell like mold. Not even close. Also, a small gap is all a fly needs, and my ceiling gap is so narrow that I can't actually see it, yet I'd watch as they slipped out into the room through it. And I'll bet his were doing like the ones in my attic, and getting the heck out of dodge to find new sources of food, etc.

Lastly, a dead man is a whole lot larger than a mouse, rat, or a squirrel. Even if he was rail thin, which just a guess that he wasn't. More mass, more stench IMO, and perhaps more maggots/flies. So, not only was there likely a stench, IMO, but she likely had hundreds of flies in the house.

All JMO!
 
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Gemmie said:
Your post made me think of something. For one, I think that sometimes there is no smell depending on where in the house it was. Well, there IS a smell, but it doesn't always reach the main house like a ton of bricks. I'll get to that in a minute. As far as this house, going by the pic of the pretty much identical house directly across the street that I posted a pic of what their basement stairs looks like upthread... (a regular door separates it from the main living space)... I can NOT imagine that a lot of stench didn't come through since most interior doors aren't airtight. There are gaps. Usually a fairly good-sized one at the bottom.

Which brings me to two experiences...

Apparently I had a rat or a mouse die in my crawlspace of my last house. The floors were solid oak, so not a lot of air from the crawl could make it into the house (sealed off well). I didn't smell a thing, UNTIL I turned on the AC and oh lord. The bad part was... it was summer and the house wasn't well insulated, so I wanted it on a fair amount. Phooey.
View attachment 579050

SOURCE

2nd experience... I am pretty sure something died in the attic, and likely a squirrel, so not real small. I smelled NOTHING. However, I had a fly invasion that I had to check on every few minutes for any new emergences from the attic so I could get to them before they were able to fly well once I found where they were coming from. Where there's a will there's a way when it comes to flies (or any living creature) to escape, move on, live and reproduce.

I have sun tunnels in the ceiling. They look like this:

View attachment 579052 SOURCE

So the sun hits the thing on the roof, it down down through a tunnel to the glass plate on the ceiling. Apparently there's a gap where it meets the ceiling as flies were coming out of it. This is how I came up with this conclusion... They were VERY slow when the first appeared (walked out of the gap) and basically just stood there waiting to be catched. After time went by they started coming out and weren't sluggish like they were newborn (like the slow ones where). I explained all that so you'd understand why it's my belief there was something that had died up there, yet no smell at all. Thank goodness! They flies were enough to deal with over the span of a few days. Icky.

So bring those 2 experiences back to this situation... first off... she smelled something but thought it was mold. Dead bodies do NOT smell like mold. Not even close. Also, gaps are all a fly needs, and my ceiling gap is so narrow that I can't actually see it, yet I'd watch as they slipped out into the room through it. And I'll bet his were doing like the ones in my attic, and getting the heck out of dodge to find new sources of food, etc.

Lastly, a dead man is a whole lot larger than a mouse, rat, or a squirrel. Even if he was rail thin, which just a guess that he wasn't. More mass, more stench IMO, and perhaps more maggots/flies. So, not only was there likely a stench, IMO, but she likely had hundreds of flies in the house.

All JMO!
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Well, that just grossed me right out!

I'm really trying to give her the benefit of the doubt, but struggling.
 
MrsWatson said:
Well, that just grossed me right out!

I'm really trying to give her the benefit of the doubt, but struggling.
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It def does appear as he was electrocuted while plugging in or using that circular saw, frayed cord or the like. BUT, the autopsy and investigation will be interesting. Who knows how they lived there together. I 'm not even sure they WERE married. Feel very badly for him and his family otherwise though. I do think, she would of heard, maybe if on, his phone going off, but again, do not know wht the personal behaviors of each were, or the hearing of anything in the basement. If she thought he took off why would he be in the basement planning to saw something unless cooling off, fixing or making something. People looking for him she would just tell them, no idea, he took off. No idea if he had a vehicle there of his own. ODDDDDDDDDDDD.
 
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