Convicted Sex Offender Charged With Killing 8-Year-Old Boy Decades After Child Was Found Dead

A 56-year-old convicted sex offender has been arrested in the murder of an 8-year-old boy more than 30 years after the child was found dead in Georgia.

James Michael Coates was taken into custody without incident Wednesday after a traffic stop as he rode in an Uber, Roswell police announced Friday.

The Woodstock, Georgia resident was booked on multiple charges, including murder and aggravated child molestation, after DNA evidence allegedly linked him to the 1988 killing of Joshua Harmon, the Associated Press reported.

The arrest came five months after the boy's family gave permission for police to exhume his body in hopes of finding more evidence. Additional testing at the crime scene was done this year, and police said the result allegedly linked Coates to the killing.

"This was a tragedy that no family should endure," Roswell Police Chief James Conroy said at a news conference. "The death of Joshua and the fact that his killer remained free for such a long time is unimaginable."

"When you have something as tragic as the kidnapping and murder of an 8-year-old, that locks into your heart and that’s something you don’t want to give up," Conroy added.

Harmon was reported missing by his parents on May 15, 1988, after he did not return home for dinner. The boy was found dead two days later in a wooded area not far from the apartment complex in the Atlanta suburb of Roswell where he lived. At the time, Coates lived in the same apartment complex, investigators said.

The investigation found that the child was brutally assaulted and strangled, New York Daily News reported.

Roswell detectives and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation conducted extensive investigations, but the case went cold.

“Investigators regularly revisited the case over the intervening years in pursuit of justice for Joshua and his family, and evidence was consistently re-examined to keep pace with evolving leads and advancing technology,” police was quoted as saying by WSB-TV.

Coates has been charged with murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, aggravated sodomy, aggravated child molestation, enticing a child for indecent purposes, false imprisonment, cruelty to children, concealing the death of another and tampering with evidence, the outlet said. He remained jailed Friday.

Coates was previously convicted twice of child molestation for incidents that happened in 1990 and 1993, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. He spent two decades in prison and was released in 2013, according to Georgia Department of Corrections records.

After Coates' arrest, Harmon's family thanked investigators for their efforts.

"Josh was an amazing young boy who had an uncanny relationship with nature and with God, so I know where he is and I know he’s at peace," the boy’s aunt, Marlene Carlisle, said.

The investigation into the boy's death remains active, and authorities urged anyone with information about the case or the suspect to reach out to Roswell police or Crime Stoppers Atlanta.

Rydell Stipe was arrested on charges of first-degree rape and contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile. Photo: pixabay