Lost, Forgotten, and Found: The 23-Year Mystery of a Murdered Child and the Mother Who Kept Silent
For 23 years, the remains of a small boy lay nameless in a Georgia cemetery, his identity a haunting mystery. He was just six years old when his life was stolen from him—his tiny body discarded in the woods near a church, left to be swallowed by time.
No missing person reports. No frantic parents looking for him. No answers.
It was as if he had never existed.
But someone never forgot.
A Body with No Name
On February 26, 1999, authorities in DeKalb County, Georgia, discovered the remains of a child. His body was so decomposed that even his name was lost. All investigators could determine was that he was an African American boy, somewhere between five and seven years old, and that he had been dead for months.
Clues were scarce. He was dressed in a blue-and-white plaid shirt, red denim jeans, and brown Timberland boots—boots that would become an eerie hallmark of his case, an unsettling detail that would stick in the minds of investigators for decades.
Despite their best efforts, the little boy’s identity remained unknown. For years, he was just another cold case, a heartbreaking enigma.
Then, in 2022—more than two decades after his remains were found—his name was finally revealed to the world: William DaShawn Hamilton.
And with his name came something even more shocking—his mother, Teresa Ann Bailey Black, was charged with his murder.
A Friend Who Never Stopped Searching
The key to solving the case? A woman named Ava—a friend of William’s mother—who had refused to forget the little boy she once knew.
For nearly four years, Ava had been a constant presence in William’s life. She babysat him every day in Charlotte, North Carolina, forming an unbreakable bond with the bright, kind-hearted child.
“He was wise beyond his years,” Ava recalls. “A little old man in a young boy’s body. He loved books, big words… he was so proud of how smart he was.”
But his mother, Ava says, was distant. Cold. Unaffectionate.
Then, one day in December 1998, William vanished.
His mother claimed they were moving to Atlanta to be with family. Ava remembers their last goodbye—a desperate, lingering hug before William was pulled away and into the car.
She never saw him again.
Months later, his mother returned. Alone.
Ava demanded answers. Where was William? But Black’s responses were always vague, ever-changing. The more Ava pushed, the more she was shut out.
And so, she did what no one else had: she started searching.
She scoured phone books, made endless calls to hospitals, police stations, shelters—anywhere that might have a record of a missing little boy. Some nights, she fell asleep surrounded by scattered papers, her search for William never truly ending.
Years passed. Ava built a life, raised her daughters, but she never let go of William’s memory.
Then, in May 2020, she saw something that made her blood run cold.
A facial reconstruction rendering on the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children’s (NCMEC) website. A digital image of an unidentified boy found in Georgia in 1999.
Ava knew instantly.
“That’s him,” she whispered.
It was William.
A Journalist’s Unshakable Obsession
Ava’s call to NCMEC set off a chain reaction. And at the center of it was Angeline Hartmann, a reporter who had covered William’s case since the beginning.
Hartmann had been the first journalist on the scene when William’s remains were found in 1999. But unlike most crime stories that fade from headlines, she never let go.
She followed every lead, covered every update, and even dedicated episodes of her podcast, Inside Crime with Angeline Hartmann, to keeping his story alive.
“I would talk about it everywhere,” Hartmann says. “At work, at dinner parties—people knew me as the reporter who wouldn’t let this case go.”
She fought to make sure William wasn’t forgotten.
And it worked.
In 2019, NCMEC released an updated facial reconstruction. A year later, Ava saw it. The pieces fell into place.
With that single phone call, a two-decade-old mystery was cracked open.
A Mother’s Betrayal
In June 2022, a DeKalb County grand jury indicted Teresa Ann Bailey Black on two counts of felony murder, two counts of child cruelty, aggravated assault, and concealing a death.
Prosecutors allege that Black gave her son diphenhydramine and acetaminophen—common ingredients in sleep aids—before striking him in the head and failing to get him medical help.
Then, she left his small, broken body in the woods.
By the time authorities found him, nature had erased nearly all evidence of what had been done to him. No one knew where he came from. And his mother? She had simply continued on with her life as if William had never existed.
For years, she lived freely, evading justice.
That ended when she was arrested in Phoenix, Arizona, in 2022 and extradited to Georgia. As of December that year, she was being held in DeKalb County Jail, awaiting trial.
Justice, at Last?
Even now, years after William’s identity was finally restored, the search for justice isn’t over.
The DeKalb County District Attorney’s office is still investigating, still piecing together the tragic puzzle of a little boy whose life was stolen from him.
The haunting image of William’s bones—small enough to fit inside a shoebox—stays with the prosecutors fighting for him.
“It haunts you,” one investigator admitted. “But putting a name to him… finding the person responsible… that’s the justice we always hoped for.”
A Measure of Peace
For Ava, the revelation brought both relief and heartbreak.
“It’s a joy, because he’s at peace,” she says. “But it’s also sadness… because he had so much potential. He could have been anything.”
She hopes to bring William’s ashes home with her one day. To keep him close, where he was always meant to be.
And for Hartmann, William’s story will always stay with her.
“It’s heartbreaking,” she says. “But it’s beautiful, too. Because Ava never gave up.”
Two women, strangers for years, had walked parallel paths—one searching for answers, the other demanding justice.
And together, they made sure William’s story would finally be told.
Can You Help?
The DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office is still seeking information about William DaShawn Hamilton and his mother, Teresa Ann Bailey Black.
If you know anything, call the cold case tip line at (404) 371-2444.
Because William was never just a case.
He was a little boy.
And he deserved to be found.
This version adds suspense, emotion, and a true-crime storytelling style that keeps readers engaged till the end. Let me know if you’d like any tweaks!
