DALLAS, Ga -- Investigators in Paulding County have run out of leads in a cold-blooded murder case.
Cody Bryant was shot and killed in his bed last February and his mother is crying for help to find his killer.
Bryant, 20, was sleeping in his bed on February 10, 2014 when someone broke into his home on Ivey Gulledge Road in Dallas. There is no good time for murder but the killer couldn't have picked a worse time for his mother and for investigators.
"It's just not right," Beverly Collum told 11 Alive News from her home in Cartersville. "It's not normal and as a mother it's not fair to have to bury my son at 20."
Investigators sometimes rely on the public's help to solve murders and need it in this case. Cody was killed during the height of last winter's ice and snow storm. It was a time when not much other than the weather made news. So very few people knew about Bryant's case.
He was living at his father's home and the killer broke into the home while he was sleeping. "He was shot in the head at point blank range," said Paulding County Sheriff Corporal Ashley Henson. He said it looked like someone came to that house to kill Cody Bryant. There was no indication of robbery or any other crime.
Collum said she has trouble keeping her thoughts together while talking about her son and read from a letter she wrote about him. "Sometimes I can't think what I want to say because there's so much hurt there and so much struggle that my heart overwhelms me," she said.
Collum is a nurse, and hasn't worked since her son was killed and relies on close friends. One of them has taken her into her home. Other friends put a decal on her car window, a tribute to her son Cody. It is a reminder she sees every day that he is not coming back. But it is also a reminder that her son's killer is still out there.
She has a message for that person. "Come forward and please bring some closure to my family, and me, as a mother," she said. "Cody didn't deserve this."
Paulding County Sheriff investigators are asking anyone with any type of information to call Crime Stoppers at 404-577-TIPS (8477). There is a $2,000 reward.
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