Still No Suspects in Sun Glo Car Wash Killing

On a warm, sunny day in Cartersville, a young woman washes her car as other patrons prepare to soap and vacuum their vehicles at Sun Glo Car Wash, where months earlier 28-year-old local resident R.J. Statler was shot once and killed.

Despite to the arrest of the person responsible, police have no suspects in the on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. Statler was found after 11 p.m., lying in a car wash stall next to his pickup truck. He had been "mudding" with family earlier in the day.

"The investigators are continuing to follow any leads and tips they receive," Cartersville Police Department spokesman Capt. Mark Camp said, declining to indicate if Statler's case had gone cold. "Interviews have been conducted for various reasons but there is no suspect at this time."

That and all of the unanswered questions has Statler's mother heartbroken.

"," his mom, Dorothy Croft, an Ontario, Canada, resident, wrote in a Cartersville Patch post.

"Right now I have so much hate and I was not brought up that way," she added.

Croft said the killer not only took a son, brother and friend, but also negated any chance the Statler name would be carried on through R.J., who'll never be able have children of his own, give his parents grandchildren and his sister a niece or nephew.

"...Always be looking around because you will be caught either [by] a friend, family or the police, and when they do find you, I hope you rot in he--," Croft wrote to the killer. "You are a coward...."

Described as sweet, kind, loving and hard working, Statler grew up in nearby Canton and in 2002 graduated from Cherokee High School, near the park at which many of Statler's friends would hold a candlelight vigil in his honor.

"R.J. was a good guy. He did not deserve this. Whoever did it needs to come forward and let this grieving family find some sense of peace. His entire family was so close knit and is absolutely destroyed," commented Patch user Amber Grunke. "It has been over two months and the police department [is] no closer to finding this cold-blooded killer than they were on day one.... Do not let this murder become a cold case file. Someone needs to pay for this!"

Others tried to comfort the grieving family.

"My great-niece was murdered 6 years ago, Feb. 20. She was drugged, beaten, gang-raped and thrown out on the side of the road like a dead dog," said Patch user Margie Murdock. "Someone called 911 and told them where she was. She died on the way to the hospital. She would have been 20 years old in April; too old for child abuse to get involved. To this day nothing has ever been done to avenge her murder, so we know exactly how you feel."

"But as it was said, 'God hasn't had His payday yet,'" Murdock added.

While it's unclear where Murdock's great-niece was killed, Cartersville has several cold cases in its history. Back in 2009 and 2010, The Daily Tribune News profiled local homicides that had gone cold, which included those of:

• Oscar Pena, 28, a Mexican native, was shot and killed in the early morning hours of July 5, 2007, on the front porch of his North Erwin Street home. Another man was wounded. Police believe the shooting was gang-related and resulted from an argument between the injured man and another man.

• Louise E. Martinez, 41, was found shot in the head during the early morning hours of Jan. 18, 1993, at a Cassville Road convenience store. He was working as a clerk and police believe he may have been involved in an armed robbery.

• Khanbubhai Magamial Patel, 64, was found morning of Aug. 21, 1992, bludgeon to death behind the North Tennessee Street laundry mat he owned. Authorities believe Patel, who was known to carry large amounts of cash, was assaulted in an apparent robbery as walked from a nearby store he also owned.

• Patricia Ann Hanlon, 53, was found strangled in her North Erwin Street apartment the morning of July 27, 2000, after what the Georgia Bureau of Investigation called a "brutal murder." Investigators believe Hanlon knew her killer, robbery was the possible motive and someone has information that could help bring closure for Hanlon's daughter.

If you have any information that could help resolve the Statler or any case, call police headquarters at 770-382-2526 or use , by dialing 770-606-5337.

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