Bartow County deputies booked 43-year-old Shannon Vashawn Tapley of Rome into the jail early Sunday morning on a warrant from March 15th, 2008, for murder.
A warrant from the Magistrate Court of Bartow County states that while he was 29 years old, Tapley knowingly and intentionally murdered 19-year-old Lance Jay Banister by strangling Banister with his arm until he was unconscious, stabbing him multiple times, and slicing his throat with a knife at Pine Log United Methodist Church on Pine Log Road near U.S. 411 in the Rydal area.
Bannister’s mother reported to the BCSO three days later that he had been missing from his residence on Dawns Way off Glade Road north of Acworth since he was waiting for a friend with a white pickup truck named Daniel to pick him up to go to Cartersville.
Fishermen found his body close to the Talking Rock Bridge near State Route 136 in Carters Lake in Murray County near the Gordon County line 13 days after his murder reportedly occurred.
Banister had attended Woodland High School and Faith Baptist Church in Acworth.
Tapley reportedly turned himself in as a suspect. He is currently in the Bartow County Jail with no bond.
His reported accomplice died of cancer.