LAGRANGE, Ga., April 16 (UPI) -- A prosecutor in LaGrange, Ga., must decide whether to charge a mentally-disabled 18-year-old with the murder two years ago of an 8-year-old girl.
Amy Yates was found strangled near a trailer park where she lived about 60 miles southwest of Atlanta, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Sunday.
At the time, a 12-year-old boy confessed to the murder but he was ordered released this month after 18-year-old Chris Gossett told police he killed Yates.
Coweta (Ga.) Judicial Circuit District Attorney Peter Skandalakis said there were numerous difficulties involved in trying to bring closure to an incredibly complicated murder case.
He listed the problems as "two confessions. Two recantations. The age of one. The mental disabilities of the other. No physical evidence. No DNA. No fingerprints."
Skandalakis said some experts doubt the new confession, saying the 18-year-old could not have kept that secret for two years. He said he plans to take a "fresh look" at both suspects and decide within 45 days whether to charge Gossett, reinstate the case against the younger suspect, or charge neither boy.
