An arrest was made Friday in a 14-year-old murder case which many believed had little hope of being solved. But for friends and neighbors of the victim, there remain more questions than answers.
Edwina Williams remembers George Wilbanks well. When she was a teenager, she and her mother worked at Egger’s Department Store with him, and he and her mother were friends.
When he was found murdered in his Second Avenue North home Nov. 2, 1997, she couldn’t believe that the gracious interior designer — always smiling, always eager to meet a new friend — could have an enemy at all.
Retired Columbus Police Chief Pete Bowen, who was reinstated as an investigator with the police department in November, said though authorities know the motive for the murder, they would rather not discuss the details. They will say this much: Money appears to have been involved, but drugs do not.
Earnest Terell Talley, 44, of 805 Remunda Drive in Columbus, was charged with Wilbanks’ murder Friday morning. His bond is set at $2 million; his preliminary hearing will be May 17.
Talley was already in the Lowndes County Adult Detention Center after being arrested by the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office on Jan. 14 for being part of a group that burglarized a home on Land Road twice, taking tools, a flat-screen TV and a generator.
Bowen said Talley appeared to know Wilbanks through mutual acquaintances, though it is unclear whether the two men had met previously. Talley was interviewed in 1997 after the murder, but Bowen said he was not considered a key suspect at that time.
Victim was “a fine fellow”
“People were just shocked,” Williams said of Wilbanks’ death. “He was a fine fellow. I would not have surmised that he even had an enemy.”
Wilbanks was a well-known interior designer in Columbus, working in the upstairs fabrics department at Egger’s, then later opening his own interior design business on the lower floor of his home. He stayed busy with a steady stream of clients, said Williams, who lived nearby at the time.
That comes as no surprise to Ralph Null, who serves as vice president of the Columbus Arts Council and also works as an event coordinator and floral designer.
He didn’t know Wilbanks well, but he knew his reputation for bringing classic elegance to many upscale homes in Columbus in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s.
“He was an extremely talented man, a very successful interior designer,” Null said Saturday afternoon. “He probably did most of the new homes — the fabrics, drapes and colors. … He wasn’t real flamboyant with colors and things. He was very much in touch with what most of his clients wanted.”
His violent death was the talk of the town and the subject of conversation at nearly every cocktail party, Null recalls. Everyone wondered why anyone would do such a thing. As time dragged on without an arrest, they began to wonder if the murderer would ever be found.
Null said most of Wilbanks’ friends have passed away now, and it’s not known whether he has any relatives remaining in the area.
“They died without ever knowing there was, or would be, a resolution,” Null said. “That was one of my first thoughts. Thank goodness someone has finally been accused of this, but all of (George’s) peer group have died and don’t know there finally has been some sort of resolution to all this.”
Possible future arrests
Bowen said there may be additional arrests in connection with Wilbanks’ murder, and there is a probability of more arrests being made as they continue to investigate the 1996 to 1998 murders of four other senior citizens.
As for Talley’s arrest, Bowen downplayed the role he and retired Cpl. Ed Williams played in the investigation.
“It was not anything magic we did,” Bowen said. “The information was already there, we just sort of put it together. … A lot of good work had already been done on this case.”
Columbus Police Chief Selvain McQueen gave additional accolades to the department’s Criminal Investigation Division, which he said put in many hours of work to bring the case together. According to Bowen, one key person in the investigation has passed away, but they’re working to circumvent that.
As Talley stood in shackles in front of Municipal Judge Marc Amos Friday morning, he stared at his shoes. When Amos asked how he was, he responded, “Not too good, sir.”
Talley will have a court-appointed attorney and has the option of applying for reduced bail at a later date. Amos said the bail was set so high due to the seriousness of the offense and his record as a habitual offender.
Williams said she’s simply glad an arrest has been made. She remembers growing up in the 1950s, when people didn’t worry about locking their doors during the daytime.
“It was just a carefree time,” she said Saturday. “Everybody was friendly. There was no reason to think there was any harm.”
Carmen K. Sisson is the former news editor at The Dispatch.
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