November 28, 2008

BURKE COUNTY, Ga. --- The Burke County Sheriff's Office along with the GBI are investigating the murder of a 16-year-old Burke County High School student found shot to death near Sardis.

As family members gather around to comfort each other, they all take the time to remember a cousin, a brother and a son. They say Tyrone Cates was last seen at home alive Friday night.

"The last time I saw him, it was about 11 or 12 when he came home and that was the last time I saw him," said Sarah Walker.

She needed her 16 year old son Tyrone to run an errand before he went to work this morning; but when she called she never got an answer.

"He never answered his phone all day long. I called him, texted him. We never got an answer back," said Walker.

Deputies say they found the Burke County High School students' car on Ben Bargeron road near Sardis around 10 o'clock Saturday morning. They say people passing by noticed the car's lights were on and it was running. They stopped to help and found Cates slumped over behind the wheel. Investigators say he was shot once in the head.

"Why did you do that? Why did you take my son's life?" asked Walker.

And his murder leaves his family with a lot of unanswered questions.

"I was thinking why? Why this happened to us? Why he had to take our brother, my brother? Why he had to take him? Why he couldn't just left him alone and just told him what he wanted and left my brother alone," said Cates' sister Safenia Cates.

Questions Burke County hope to soon find the answers to.

"The fact that it's a juvenile is tragic in itself. The fact that it's a murder is bad enough. We definitely want to find who did this so we can get them off the street," said Sgt. Matt Raulerson.

When they do find his killer, this mother hopes it will bring some closure to her pain. As she now will never have the chance to see her only son grow into a man.

Investigators have spent the entire afternoon interviewing people who could have been with Tyrone before he was murdered. At the time they do not have a suspect or a motive. They hope the interviews will give them some leads to track this killer.

If you have any information on the murder of Tyrone Cates -- you're asked to call the Burke county sheriff's office at 706-554-2133. You can remain anonymous.