Athens man lay dead in basement for month while wife went about her business upstairs

By Joe Johnson

Authorities are looking into how a man could lay dead in the basement of his home without the knowledge of his wife who was living upstairs.

An investigation began on the afternoon of April 9, after Joylynn Arnold reported to police that she discovered her husband deceased and decomposing in the basement of their home on Lavender Road.

Responding officers found 44-year-old Frank Perry Williams facedown in the laundry room, his body in an advanced state of decomposition.

A police report described the scene:

Next to his feet was broken, mildewed dry wall and a weed whacker. Next to his left thigh was a box of trash and next to his head was a buzz saw.

“During my investigation of the body I noticed that Frank’s skin looked burnt around his neck and upper back,” Officer First Class John Sullivan wrote in a

report. “Also, the buzz saw next to him was blackened by what looked to be a fire.”

Arnold told police that the last time she saw her husband was about a month earlier when she accused him of cheating on her in what she described as “a decent conversation,” after which she went to bed.

The woman said when she woke up the next day she noticed Williams wasn’t home, and that it wasn’t unusual for him to leave in the middle of the night and stay gone for several days.

“As the days went on, Joylynn assumed Frank had left her for good and proceeded with her days,” Sullivan reported.

“A week ago, Joylynn told me, she began noticing a bad smell coming out the house so she decided to start deep cleaning the home,” the report continued.

As the smell persisted, the woman assumed that it was caused by mold growth but she avoided investigating because she said the staircase was broken and unsafe.

Then on the day she called police, Arnold brought in a bicycle from the yard and while struggling with it on the staircase when the bike fell to the bottom. Going down after it, Arnold said, she turned and saw her husband’s body, then immediately called 911.

During her conversation with Officer Sullivan, the 56-year-old woman admitted that she and Williams occasionally had domestic incidents, and once she kicked in a door when he looked her out.

“She claims that they have been living (at the Lavender Road) address for five years and never once did she have thoughts of harming him,” the officer reported.

The scene was turned over to detectives and forensics investigators. Williams’ body was transported to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s crime lab for an autopsy.