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Tuesday, Jun. 23, 2009

Atlanta man charged with concealing death of Macon woman

A second man has been arrested in connection with the August 2008 death of a Macon waitress, according to the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office.

Deputy Sean Defoe said evidence suggests 26-year-old Tommy Lee Zellner helped 37-year-old Gregory Dewayne Miller move Melissa Peters Rushing’s body and conceal her death.

Zellner, of Fairburn, was arrested in the Atlanta area Monday and charged with concealing a death, he said.

A logging crew discovered Rushing’s badly burned body on the dirt portion of Bondsview Road about 6 a.m. Aug. 7, 2008. Authorities said she had been beaten to death and her body set on fire.

When Rushing’s body was discovered, her hands, feet and neck were bound with cord, and a plastic bag was over her head, according to Miller’s arrest warrant.

Autopsy results showed Rushing, 38, died of blunt force trauma, facial trauma and asphyxiation, according to the warrant.

Miller, of Merriwood Drive, was charged with murder June 4 and is being held at the Bibb County jail without bond, according to jail records.

Zellner also is being held without bond at the jail, according to jail records.

Miller is also a person of interest in a similar Clayton County death where 19-year-old Kennoa Janella Fitzpatrick of Macon was also beaten and burned on June 19, 2002, in College Park, authorities have said.

Before her death, Rushing had worked as a waitress at Steak N’ Shake restaurants near Macon Mall and on Tom Hill Sr. Boulevard. She also worked at Macon Diner.

Information from The Telegraph’s archives was included in this report.