Georgia official: Man confesses in S.C. teen's death
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Posted 7:45AM on Thursday, September 5, 2002
AIKEN, S.C. - A man suspected of raping and killing a South Carolina girl has made a confession in the 17-year-old's death, a Georgia prison official says. <br>
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Robert Franklin Atkins, 31, was linked to Jessica Carpenter's 2000 death through a national DNA database after he was required by Georgia law to submit a sample when he was taken into custody for a parole violation. <br>
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Peggy Chapman, the spokeswoman for the Georgia Department of Corrections, said Wednesday Atkins confessed after talking with Aiken investigators last week at the Ware State Prison in Waycross, Ga. <br>
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But Aiken police Capt. Wendell Hall said that his agency would not release any information about a possible confession. <br>
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Atkins was charged with murder and first-degree criminal sexual conduct after investigators said DNA left at the Carpenter home, where Jessica was killed, matched Atkins. <br>
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Aiken investigators have said Atkins met the girl while he worked as a driver for the now-defunct delivery service Moore Express in Augusta, Ga.