Murders ‘mishandled’ by Warner Robins police, mom of one victim says

When Warner Robins officials held a press conference last week to seek info on the death of Parker Killian Moore, a homicide victim whose case has been unsolved for years, they were met by a guest who received little notice it was happening: Moore’s mother.

Leah Maas, the mother of the 23-year-old Kathleen man who was shot and killed while working a shift at the Tex-Mex restaurant Barberitos, confronted police leaders with an urn of her son’s ashes.

“This is my son,” Leah Maas said at the Warner Robins Police Department press conference Thursday, Nov. 13. “This is how I spend time with him.”

Maas believes investigators mishandled the still unsolved death of her son, she told journalists and officers at the police department.

Daniel Bruce Franz Jr., the initial suspect, was indicted and accused of killing Moore and two others in separate shootings that month, but Franz was found guilty in only one of the three homicides, and the two other cases were dismissed on Oct. 4, 2024, court records show.

“We were told a year ago that this was going to be solved, that when they dropped all the charges (with) this fresh set of eyes, this was gonna be solved,” Maas said. “And clearly, here we are, a year later.”

Now, the case has gone another direction: police are investigating a potentially different suspect in connection to Moore’s death, and the death of another man eight days prior, according to Lt. Justin Clark, the WRPD’s head of cold cases.

They’re being “completely re-investigated,” Clark told The Telegraph Tuesday.

3 fatal shootings, days apart

A string of violence in the area at that time has only partially been resolved in the courts. The first of three fatal shootings happened between two friends after a dispute over marijuana on Jan. 13, 2018, according to police and court records.

Franz was convicted in July 2019 of voluntary manslaughter and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon in the killing of his friend, 28-year-old Vincent Junior, court records show. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison and is still incarcerated, according to the Georgia Department of Correction’s log of detainees.

Franz, a 35-year-old Warner Robins man who was 27 years old at the time, fatally shot Junior in Tanglewood Apartments at 1005 Elberta Road, court records and police said.

Around three hours after that incident, a man shot and killed 25-year-old Warner Robins resident Janak “Jack” Patel, a store clerk at a Chevron gas station at 806 Elberta Road, police said. Officers described the suspect as a slim man in a dark hooded shirt and blue jeans.

Eight days later, on Jan. 21, 2018, Moore was killed at Barberitos at 3123 Watson Boulevard. A masked man entered through a back door, demanded money and fired shots, which killed Moore and injured another employee, police said.

The WRPD had named Franz as a suspect in the armed robbery, and people at the scene told officers he was “6 foot tall, wearing dark clothing and a face covering,” police said in a news release on Nov. 5.

‘Vile’ act, but issues with evidence

Franz was arrested on Jan. 24, 2018, but initially only faced charges connected to Junior’s death over marijuana, former WRPD Chief Brett Evans said at the time. There was not enough evidence to seek warrants to charge Franz in the Chevron and Barberitos shootings.

A Houston County grand jury eventually indicted Franz over those two deaths on Oct. 8, 2019, which means the jury found enough evidence to formally charge him of murdering Moore at the restaurant and Patel at the gas station, according to court records.

Almost five years to the date of his indictments, on Oct. 4, 2024, the charges were dropped “based on the need for further investigation,” even after the grand jury found reasonable cause to charge and accuse Franz of two counts of malice murder, four counts of felony murder, two counts of armed robbery, a count of aggravated assault and a count of criminal attempt to commit malice murder, court records show.

Before the cases were dismissed, former Houston Judicial Circuit District Attorney George H. Hartwig III signed a notice of intention to seek the death penalty against Franz on Dec. 11, 2019, court records said. This document meant that Franz could’ve faced the death penalty if convicted of those offenses.

“The murder of Janak Patel (and Parker Moore), committed by Daniel Bruce Franz, II was outrageously or wantonly vile, horrible, or inhuman in that it involved depravity of mind,” the court file, signed by Hartwig, said.

Cliff Woody, former senior assistant district attorney who worked alongside Hartwig, recalled how the case oddly played out.

“That was a weird time ...,” Woody told The Telegraph in a phone call Tuesday. “It was one of those where George Hartwig and I went kind of back and forth as to what to do with it.”

But in late 2024, WRPD found evidence that showed Franz might not be the suspect after all, which is why the cases involving Moore and Patel’s deaths were dismissed, according to Clark.

“It is believed that a second person committed both of those crimes,” Clark told The Telegraph. “Just through evidence and different things like that, those two cases have been connected.”

“Exculpatory evidence came out (and) it was located in someone else’s possession,” he said of evidence that indicated Franz might not be guilty.

Clark declined to comment on whether Franz was still a person of interest.

The FBI and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation are investigating forensic evidence connected to Moore and Patel’s deaths, Clark said.

The WRPD has about a dozen cold cases, and Clark did not consider Moore and Patel’s deaths as cold cases because “they’re actively being investigated,” despite being almost eight years old, he said.

Clark reviews the cold cases quarterly, and provides updates to Moore’s family monthly, he and Maas said.

‘It’s been mishandled’

Maas said she’s had to initiate much of the communication between her and police. She also said officers didn’t inform her about a WRPD press conference in which Clark and Chief Wayne Fisher would ask the public for tips regarding her son’s death.

“The only reason I am here is because a reporter messaged me on Facebook last night,” she said at the meeting, with frames of Moore and an urn of his ashes.

Sitting among a room of reporters, Maas stood up as Clark and Fisher walked away from the podium to exit the room. She asked them for a timeline on the case, as well as whether they contacted people on Facebook who said they knew what happened, and to others who said they would fund prize money for tips.

Clark told The Telegraph he wasn’t able to verify the validity of those comments by Tuesday. Macon Regional Crimestoppers is offering an $8,000 reward for people whose tips lead directly to an arrest, Clark said.

“In my opinion, it’s been mishandled. That’s why its in the state that it is,” Maas said.

Mom remembers Parker Moore

Maas hopes her son will be remembered as a loved and selfless young man.

She recalled a daily good deed Moore would do when he worked at Barberitos in Atlanta.

“Every shift, employees got a free meal,” she said. “There was a homeless guy that would hang out outside their restaurant and every time Parker worked, he would give him his free meal.”

Maas runs Parker Killian ‘GIVES’ Moore, which is a nonprofit that offers scholarships to underprivileged youth motivated by Moore’s memory.

Parker Trail is an area of a Warner Robins nature park, The Walk at Sandy Run at 1119 South Houston Lake Road, named in his honor.

“Never in my life would I have expected my son’s face and picture to be associated with a murder, let alone a cold case,” Maas said.