Seventeen-year-old Julianna Denise Thompson, known as JuJu, and her 41-year-old mother, Jessica Lynn Hatcher Thompson, were found dead inside their Wells Street apartment in Smithville, Georgia, after family members checked on them on March 7, 2024. Julianna had recently earned her GED and planned to study phlebotomy at Albany Tech with the goal of becoming a school social worker; her family described her as beautiful, silly, and loving. Jessica was a disabled mother devoted to her three children.

The Smithville Police Department responded and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation took the lead, treating the scene as a double homicide. Authorities arrested 28-year-old Marcus Dontavious Butts on unrelated charges on March 9; GBI agents later obtained warrants and charged him on April 9, 2024, alleging malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, and home invasion. A Lee County grand jury returned an 18-count indictment in June 2024 including two counts of malice murder and multiple related charges. Butts remained in Lee County Jail after a probation revocation in a separate matter and was awaiting trial as of May 2025.