Mystery roses still appear on woman's grave 5 years after death

The Associated Press - TIFTON, Ga. - Nov 24 2006

It was about a month after Frances Lunsford was murdered that the first red, long-stem, artificial rose appeared on her grave.

Five years later, she still is getting roses. There are now 175 of them.

For years, family members have wondered who is bringing the mystery roses to Lunsford's grave.

"When I first found them, I started to throw them away," said Lunsford's siter, Rhonda Shaw, who first found the roses at the Ty Ty Baptist Church cemetery. "But then I thought, 'No, these must be from someone who truly cared about Frances.'"

Lunsford's murder remains unsolved and no arrests have ever been made in the case. Her badly decomposed body was found by three juveniles in July 2001 in east Tifton. The exact date and time of her death is not known.

"The grave site is not in a busy area. It's kind of secluded there," Shaw said.

Family members asked relatives and just about anyone who they could think of who might be visiting the grave. No one knew anything.

"Some of the old ones had started to fade, so I could tell which ones were the new ones just brought out," Shaw said. "They were always long-stem but they would be different colors. Some were pink, some yellow. They were in the clear cellophane and had a white teddy bear with them."

Shaw decided the roses were from someone devoted to her sister. But the problem was that her family didn't know anyone in Lunsford's life who was devoted to her _ she had gotten involved in drugs before her death and her family didn't know her "street friends," Shaw said.

Lunsford's sister decided that maybe the roses didn't come from someone who loved her sister, maybe they came from someone who had a guilty conscience. Maybe they came from the person who had killed her sister.

Capt. Mike Walker, head of the Tift County Sheriff's Office Criminal Investigation Division said the murder investigation is still active.

He said it "will never be closed until we bring the person or persons responsible for her death to justice. We will continue to pursue each new development until that day comes and we reach a final resolution to this case."

Even after Shaw called the sheriff's office and asked that the gravesite be staked out, the roses kept coming.

"It was a mystery," she said. "I don't know if the sheriff's office ever followed up with what I told them. Every time we try and call and talk to them, they never return our calls. You can't get someone to take the call. You have to leave a message. It frustrates me."