What started out as just a little Friday night football, quickly ended like a scene out of a Friday night fiction film.
Joan Green, Jody's Mother, adds, "She told me that Jody was dead.
They are words that Green can barely whisper, even after 30 years.
Police Chief David Eubanks, with Fort Oglethorpe, says, "Jody was leaned up against the fence with a rope around his neck, and the rope over the top of the fence in what appeared to be a suicide at first glance. However, we no longer believe that's the case."
Jody Anderson, 15, was the youngest of three, and by all accounts a normal Rossville teenager.
Green adds, "He was intelligent, he loved playing ball, he loved people."
But in September of 1979, that seemingly simple, carefree life came to an end after a Friday night football game.
He was found dead just feet away from his girlfriends house, with this rope wrapped around his neck.
Green says, "They tried to say it was suicide, but we knew better, we knew."
Besides a mothers intuition, Green says when she saw her son at the funeral home, he had cigarette burns on his arms, and that is not all.
Green adds, "For some reason I moved his hand, and it was just all messed up, like somebody stomped on it."
All red flags, family members say.
However, their concerns fell on deaf ears, as suicide was ultimately listed on the initial report.
Chief Eubanks says, "In the very beginning, this case was assigned to a very inexperienced officer. Our department had no detectives at the time. For some reason there was no autopsy performed."
So, case closed, right?
Well, it was for several years, until the mid-80's when a new investigator dove a little deeper into the case and found a suspect that had one jaw-dropping story to tell.
A story that involved several teenagers.
Chief Eubanks says, "They befriended Mr. Anderson, talked him into getting into their van to I believe go to a party, and I believe they left that party to go ride around."
That ride, police now say, ended at a nearby national park, where the suspect describes in detail how Anderson was stoned, hung, and then propped up next to his girlfriend's house.
Green adds, "What would you think if someone confessed, would you not think it's good enough?"
Well, police say that confession was not good enough because the suspect was deemed mentally incompetent.
He is now refusing to talk.
And evidence to back his claim was, and still is, a big problem.
Chief Eubanks says, "We have absolutely no physical evidence."
And that is in part because the rope that was found on Jody was actually tampered witha, and taken home by one of the officers at the time.
Chief Eubanks adds, "He used it on camping trips. Hurts me to say that."
A botched police case, and back to square one.
Now, this new police force is now left picking up the pieces.
According to Chief Eubanks, "In order to put the people in prison that deserve to be there, one of them is going to have to come forward."
In the meantime, Green drives with this message on her car, Justice For Jody, and like clockwork, she runs a notice in the paper every September, hoping someone will have a conscious.
Green adds, "I beg of you, if you know anything at all, to contact the police department."
And Green says those pleas will continue, some even in the form of letters, one reads, "Come to me one day soon, and say, it's over."
Now, a motive for this case is still under investigation.
However, police say one of the suspects may have been infatuated with Anderson's girlfriend.
If you have any information on the case, call Fort Oglethorpe Police.
