Shocking testimony Friday in DeKalb cold case murder of child
DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. - Teresa Black is charged with murdering her son, 6-year-old William Hamilton, and concealing his death for more than two decades.
Hamilton's paternal aunt told the court she tried to see her nephew several times over the years, unaware the boy was deceased. She befriended Teresa Black on Facebook before the defendant cut off all contact.
"He was awesome. He was a joy. He would light up the room," Hamilton told jurors. "He had a beautiful smile."
Jurors also heard from the child's biological father. He testified that Black repeatedly told him the boy was staying with family in Atlanta, then years later went after him for child support, when she knew their son was dead.
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I got papers in the mail for child support payments, William was already gone," his father William Hamilton testified. "I didn't know that I'm getting child support payments like he is still alive."
Witnesses told jurors that the defendant lied repeatedly when they asked her about little William's whereabouts.
His body was discovered in a wooded area near a small cemetery on Clifton Springs Road in DeKalb County in February 1999.
His identity remained a mystery for more than two decades. Then, in 2019, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children released an image of a facial reconstruction of the victim.
A tipster in North Carolina came forward saying she recognized the child as her former neighbor, and recalled Black returning to North Carolina without her son.
On Friday, the defendant's ex-husband testified that he had a phone conversation with someone claiming to be Teresa Black's son in 2005, about 6 years after his death.
"I asked my wife to call my stepson. I wanted to speak to hm.
She made a phone call. I spoke to some gentleman on the phone who was supposed to be him," Loquise Black explained.
Loquise Black said Teresa initiated the call because he wanted to talk to William about moving to Alaska, where the couple lived at that time.
"At the time, we had just gotten married. I'm trying to catch up with him, see how he is doing," Loquise Black explained. "If he would allow me to be in his life. We had supposedly talked, and the talk was a good conversation, but it doesn't mean nothing to me now because it wasn't him."
The defense will present its case when the trial resumes on Monday. Teresa Black maintains her innocence.