Clayton News Daily

By Daniel Silliman

dsilliman@news-daily.com

A 50-year-old man has been indicted on charges he murdered a Forest Park man in 1986.

Manford Bruenn was charged on Thursday with kidnapping and murdering Donald Wade Smith in March 1986.

Smith was kidnapped out of Cobb County, taken to Dawson County and killed, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

Three people have already been convicted of the drug-related killing, but a fresh look at the facts of the case caused a Dawson County grand jury to pass down another indictment, after 22 years.

The GBI agents at the Cleveland, Ga., office were working with Dawson County Sheriff's Office and the Cobb County Police Department in an ongoing effort to completely close the case.

"The GBI never closes homicide investigations," said John Bankhead, GBI spokesman.

Bruenn was initially suspected, but he disappeared. Investigators still don't know where he is, and are hoping the publicity surrounding the indictment will bring in a few tips and give them some new leads for locating the man.

The man reportedly has family in Milwaukee, Wisc., and may have spent some time in Washington, D.C. and New York City, over the past 20 years.

A GBI sketch, by forensic artist Marla Lawson, purportedly shows what Bruenn might look like now.

Anyone with information about Bruenn is asked to call the GBI tip line at 1-800-597-8477.