On the morning of July 7th, 2003, the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office received a call from an employee of the Community First Bank located at the intersection of Sheep Farm Road and Highway 123 near Seneca. The caller told the Sheriff’s Office that a vehicle had been sitting in the back parking lot of the bank for the past couple of days.
The vehicle was secured and investigators arrived. Due to a foul smell coming from the trunk, a search warrant was obtained, the trunk of the vehicle was opened and a decomposing body was found inside a sleeping bag. The individual that was found that day by investigators was Adan Delgado Villa. The case to this date remains unsolved and is open. The Oconee County Sheriff’s Office is seeking the public’s help.
The autopsy of Mr. Villa revealed that he was a Hispanic male who was reportedly killed by multiple gunshot wounds to the upper body. Just a few days later, family members of Mr. Villa came to the Sheriff’s Office at the request of investigators from the Atlanta Metro area after reporting that their cousin was missing. Due to several clues found on the body, investigators were able to make the determination that the body found at the bank was more than likely Mr. Villa. Later on, Oconee County Coroner Karl Addis was able to make a positive identification through x-rays and records from a hospital in Georgia. It was also determined at that time that Mr. Villa lived out of the county in Woodstock, Georgia and investigators went there to continue their investigation.
Investigators spent the next several weeks working with law enforcement from Georgia interviewing friends, family, and acquaintances of the victim. There was not much information gained. Oconee investigators do not believe the victim was killed in the bank parking lot but until a determination is made as to the actual location of the crime scene, the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office is considered the lead agency in the case.
“If this case is ever going to be solved, it will require the public’s help,” according to Oconee County Sheriff Mike Crenshaw. “The most likely scenario is that this victim was murdered somewhere else and those involved in the case decided to bring the body to a bank parking lot in Oconee County.”
“We believe the bank location was chosen to delay finding the body,” continues Sheriff Crenshaw. “This story needs to be told not only in our jurisdiction but all over the state of Georgia and beyond. Some individual(s) somewhere outside our county knows about this case. We will continue to search to find them. Hopefully, they will reach a point that they want to get this off of their conscience and contact law enforcement.”
If you have any information on the unsolved homicide of Adan Delgado Villa, please call Crime Stoppers at 638-STOP, 1-888-CRIME-SC, or text in your tip to 274637. You don’t have to give your name and if your tip leads to an arrest, you could eligible for a cash reward of up to $2,000.