Behind the Investigation with Atlanta News First

Paul Lowe was 93, but the husband and grandfather was still living independently and making plans for the future. He often left notes for his wife to read around the house.

“One of the last notes I have [from him] is, ‘Putting this in writing, ‘Do not buy more ice cream,’ said Betty Lowe. “Because he knew, if I brought it home, he would eat it.”

Paul Lowe died in May at Piedmont Eastside Medical Center in Snellville, Georgia, while b...

 AT&T’s recent disclosure about a security breach compromised more than 70 million current and former customers. That means online criminals may have access to your personal information on the dark web, which could give them access to your credit.

What does that mean? It means there’s enough information available on the dark web for someone to open a credit card or take out a loan in your name. They run up the charges; your cred...

A Georgia man detained more than a decade behind bars and never convicted of a crime is now home with his family.

Maurice Jimmerson’s pretrial detention is believed to be one of the longest such detentions in American history. His release comes nearly a year after an award-winning Atlanta News First investigation, The Sixth, uncovered him languishing in the Dougherty County, Georgia, jail without a court-appointed attorney or a sche...

Elfreda Parks said she’s lost sleep over a mountain of private parking violations on her kitchen table. Each violation is $87, and she worries she’ll get more every time she goes to her mailbox.

The violations began arriving in September 2023. Parks said she first received a few violations, but it got much worse over the following months. She began receiving large envelopes filled with dozens of citations at a time.

“I don’t need thi...

Roseanne and Richard King knew they were in a bad situation when a hospital doctor in Puerta Plata, Dominican Republic, told them they’d be there for a very long time.

The two left their cruise ship on Thanksgiving Day after a ship’s doctor diagnosed Roseanne King with double pneumonia.

The hospital in which Roseanne King was admitted charged the couple $5,100 before she even stayed one night.

“And if I didn’t give my card, we don’t k...

Alexis Jones’ water bill is astronomical, and she can’t afford to pay it. 

She rents the house she lives in with her sister and two kids, and they’ve been without water since DeKalb County shut it off in November for nonpayment.

Jones and her family didn’t use the water; rather, it was a ghost leak in the front yard that wouldn’t be fixed for nearly two and a half years.

DeKalb County records show water usage at 896,000 gallons over a...

 A metro Atlanta mother who was seemingly targeted in a drug case as part of an effort to be denied custody of her daughter has now been granted full temporary custody.

On Friday, a Spalding County Superior Court granted an emergency motion for full custody filed by Macy Jones, who was the target of an anonymous tip that led to the investigation. Judge Ben Coker granted Jones “sole custody on a temporary basis” of Jones’ and Tyler A...

A joint investigation by Atlanta News First and Grist uncovered dozens of people who worked at a metro Atlanta warehouse who claimed in a lawsuit their former employer exposed them to a cancer-causing toxin for years.

Many of the former workers now suffer from severe illness. At least four have died. The warehouse is located in Lithia Springs, Georgia. It’s owned by the ConMed Corporation, which stores medical devices ste...

Although he’s retired, Robert Elder feels like he’s taken on a new job: fighting for his home in which he’s invested more than 50 years of equity.

In a lawsuit, Elder, 85, claims his southwest Atlanta home has been stolen from him by a stepson from his first marriage, Torrey Elder.

Last year a new deed was filed on Robert Elder’s house; not once but, according to records, three times. The first was filed in July; the second, in Augus...

How could a safety requirement end up killing more children than it would save?

The answer to that question has allowed parents to carry babies and toddlers on their laps at 35,000 feet and more than 500 miles per hour for decades. There is also no airfare cost for a lap baby.

Since 1995, the Federal Aviation Administration has relied on multiple studies showing a safety-restraint requirement for children under two on commercial airc...

 Brenda Booth was still mourning the loss of her beloved sister, Claudia Marie, when she found out her sister had transferred her home’s deed to a private company on April 26, 2022.

“Uh, she can’t sign a deed three months after she died,” Booth recalled.

Families such as Booth’s say metro Atlanta law police are not criminally pursuing cases of stolen homes, which is all part of a troubling trend of deed theft in Georgia.

Claudia Marie...