On February 17, 1981, three members of a Leesburg, Georgia family were shot to death: three-year-old Amber Marie Barnes, thirty-four-year-old Ivy Joyce Powell Barnes (reported as Ivy ‘Joyce’ Powell Barnes), and ten-month-old Stephanie Renee Barnes. The killings prompted a homicide investigation that led to a youth being taken into custody and charged in connection with the three deaths. At trial the young defendant entered a plea of insanity, and the jury accepted that plea, resolving the legal case.

The violence destroyed a small family and left questions about what happened that day and how a youthful defendant came to be involved. If anyone knew the Barnes family, was in Leesburg in February 1981, or has information about the incident, please share what is known.