Suspect in 21-year-old Fulton County homicide case indicted on 6 charges

Murder suspect Jerry Lee (left) is accused of killing Lorrie Ann Smith in 1997.

Credit: Fulton County Sheriff's Office/ Family photo via WSB-TV

Credit: Fulton County Sheriff's Office/ Family photo via WSB-TV

Murder suspect Jerry Lee (left) is accused of killing Lorrie Ann Smith in 1997.

A man was indicted Friday in connection with a 21-year-old homicide case in Fulton County, authorities said.

Jerry Lee, 61, was indicted on six charges for allegedly shooting and killing 28-year-old Lorrie Ann Smith while robbing her home on Stonewall Tell Road on May 25, 1997, the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release.

Smith was shot several times in the back, and even though her attacker’s blood was found at the scene, it was unable to be identified with the DNA testing technology at the time, the release said.

However, with modern technology, investigators were able to determine the blood matches the DNA of Lee’s family, the release said. Investigators went to Lee’s Alabama home in September and obtained a DNA sample from him that allegedly matched the blood found at the crime scene.

Lee was arrested in late October at a hotel in Alabama, AJC.com previously reported.

RELATED: 21 years later, police make arrest in shooting death of Fulton County woman

Channel 2 Action News reported that Lee was an officer for the Atlanta Department of Corrections at the time of Smith’s homicide. Smith’s family and police both told the news station that Lee lived less than a mile from where the deadly shooting took place.

Jean Smith (Photo: Channel 2 Action News)

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Jean Smith, Lorrie Ann’s mother, spoke to Channel 2 after the arrest was announced and said, “It changed our lives, because it’s horrible to find that your child has been murdered and left as if she’s nothing.”

Investigators had offered a $30,000 reward.

Lorrie Ann Smith, a youth counselor at a local church, was remembered as a deeply religious woman who was an athlete and loved music and travel.

Lee was indicted on charges of murder, felony murder, armed robbery, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, burglary and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony.

He remains in the Fulton County Jail without bond, according to jail records.