WSB's Veronica Waters reports 22-year-old Sparkle Reid Rai was fatally stabbed and strangled in her Union City apartment in April, 2000. Her seven-month-old daughter was nearby. Reid Rai's mother is Channel 11 reporter, Donna Lowry Reid.

Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard says the alleged motive was a contract killing for "cultural reasons:" the young woman's Indian father-in-law didn't want his son married to a non-Indian woman.

"A decision was made that Ms. Rai should not be a member of that family," Howard says. "Efforts were made to dissuade her from continuing the relationship; efforts were made to get her to withdraw from the marriage. And when that did not work out, the decision was made to pay to have her killed."

Howard says a tip in 2004 from two women who know the alleged killers helped them break the case, but he did not reveal specifics about how the case investigation unfolded.

Now under indictment are the 67-year-old father-in-law, Chiman Rai, who now lives in Kentucky, and four other men in Mississippi—including the two alleged killers, brothers Cleveland and Carl Clark, who are serving time in two Mississippi prisons for different armed robberies.

Donna Lowry Reid says the whole case is a shock.

"I never think that there are people in the world who would actually pay somebody to kill a 22-year-old mother with her child in the room with her—to do what they did to her," says Lowry Reid.

Prosecutors hope to get the five suspects to Georgia within weeks.

Chiman Rai, 74-year old Willie Fred Evans, 60-year-old Herbert Green, 49-year-old Cleveland Clark and 43-year-old Carl Clark are indicted on seven counts including murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, burglary, possession of a firearm and knife during the commission of a felony, and conspiracy to commit crime. Cleveland Clark is the only defendant charged with an 8th count: cruelty to children in the first degree. Rai, a former Jackson, Mississippi resident and the father-in-law of the victim, now lives in Louisville. The other men are Mississippians.

Sparkle Michelle Rai was found by her husband, Ricky. Their 7-month-old baby was left unharmed. Since there was no forced entry, nothing of value was taken and Mrs. Rai was not sexually assaulted, the case went cold. Lowry Reid and her husband have adopted their granddaughter.

Howard says investigators interviewed Ricky Rai Thursday evening.

"He is in Chicago," Howard says. "He is remarried and one of the interesting things that we found is that his new familly knew nothing about his former family and the fact that he has a daughter."

The Fulton County Multi-Agency Cold Case Squad re-opened the investigation into Sparkle Rai's murder after individuals came forward with information that identified Cleveland Clark as the person who committed the murder. His younger brother Carl drove the two to Georgia from Mississippi. Evans was identified as the person who hired the Clark brothers to commit the murder. Green contacted Evans about finding someone to kill Sparkle Rai. Chiman Rai, a native of India, allegedly paid to have his daughter-in-law killed because she was not Indian.

Friday, 22 September 2006