District Attorney Paul Howard Announces Break in 1994 Murder

Second Cold-Case Squad DNA Hit Nabs Sherman Ridley

Atlanta-Fulton County District Attorney Paul L. Howard, Jr. (Atlanta Judicial Circuit) announces that Sherman Ridley (39) has been arrested for the 4 October 1994 murder of Lorraine Lansford (28). Ridley has been charged with murder and aggravated sodomy.
Ms. Lansford, who was likely a prostitute at the time of her death, was found severely beaten, strangled, and sodomized under an abandoned house at 335 McAfee Street in northwest Atlanta. At the autopsy, swabs were taken from her body, and, just as in the Clydine Dallas case, these swabs were retrieved by the Cold Case Squad and tested. These tests led to the development of a profile of an unknown male’s DNA which subsequently was uplifted into C.O.D.I.S. and identified Ridley. On 16 December, the Squad arrested the defendant for the murder of Ms. Lansford.

Ridley was at one time a suspect in a series of rapes and murders of prostitutes in and around the area where Ms. Lansford’s body was found. Many of those other cases remain unsolved at this time.

“We currently have evidence in over 100 unsolved murders—evidence that is ready and waiting to be tested,” says Mr. Howard. “And it is our intention in the coming year to continue this work and to identify these killers, prosecute, and convict them…As we have seen twice already this month, there is no such thing as the perfect crime.”

CONTACT: Erik Friedly, 404-224-0560 (office); 770.583.6069 (pager); erik.friedly@co.fulton.ga.us