‘It was hell.’ Dad of Macon minister slain in 2004 describes 17-year wait for arrest
For the slain minister’s father, the seemingly endless wait for answers about who may have killed his son lasted exactly 17 years.
It had been 6,205 days since the night the father went to a city morgue to identify his slain son’s body.
Last Monday, the anniversary of 36-year-old Michael Troy Glover’s 2004 death in a shooting at his Macon home, Glover’s dad, Willie C. Glover, learned there had been an arrest.
“I jumped for joy to find out they had a suspect in custody,” Willie Glover said. “I slept good that night.”
Speaking Thursday at a news conference at the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office’s investigative headquarters, Willie Glover stood beside his murdered son’s uncle as the two men shared recollections and spoke of their anguish during years of unknowns.
Coping, Willie Glover said, was “rough.”
Then he added, “It was hell.”
Willie Glover, 76, who has called Macon home for more than four decades, thanked the sheriff’s department for “making this day possible.”
Speaking of the mystery that surrounded his son’s death for so long, he said, “After a certain length of time, I began to have some doubt” that anyone would ever be charged.
Until early March, a suspect had eluded the police since the night Michael Glover was shot to death in his carport at 1411 Anthony Road on the southern edge of Unionville.
In recent months, investigators sent DNA evidence believed to be linked to the crime scene to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which is said to have matched it to that of a Macon man whose DNA was in a national database of convicted criminals.
The man arrested, Terrance Bryant Dean, 39, had been released from a Georgia prison last September after serving about 16 years for a pair of Macon armed robberies. One of those stickups happened six months after Michael Glover was killed. Dean now faces murder and rape charges. Investigators have declined to say what DNA evidence led them to Dean.
On Thursday, Willie Glover said his family had never heard of Dean until the other day.
Upon seeing the suspect’s picture in the news and comforted somewhat that justice may now prevail, Willie Glover said, “I’m from the old school. I believe in the system, that you’re innocent until proven guilty. I’m not holding nothing against (Dean) until we get all the evidence. ... And then my mind might change.”
Michael Glover’s uncle, Ricardo Glover, said news of an arrest “was like a burden being lifted. ... (We) don’t have to wonder anymore.”
The slain minister had been a pastor at a Baptist church before he founded a community outreach effort he named P.U.S.H. — Pray Until Something Happens — a few years before he was killed.
“He was loved very much. I just couldn’t understand why (the shooting) would happen. ... He was the type that tried to help people, young and old,” Willie Glover said.
He said his son was known for doing all he could to help others.
Now a possible answer to who might have taken Michael Glover’s life has, for now at least, afforded his father and his kin some semblance of closure.
“The family’s at peace,” Willie Glover said. “They got a suspect in jail for the murder and we can continue now to go forward with our life.”