It was Sunday, November 29, 1992, the end of Thanksgiving weekend, when a homeowner in Atlanta heard a knock on the door.

He opened up to find two terrified young boys standing on his doorstep.

Six-year-old Rick Tokars was holding the hand of his younger brother, four-year-old Mike Toeotrars.

Both boys were spattered with blood, and something else.

Something that the homeowner would later tell police was a white substance, possibly brain matter.

When the homeowner asked what happened, Rick blurted out, a bad man shot my mom, a bad black man with a pirate gun.

The boys pointed across the field. The homeowner could see a white van. So the homeowner and a

friend ran over there. As soon as they opened the door to that van, they knew that the woman in

the driver's seat was dead. There was blood everywhere, and her head

looked like it had exploded. They called 911. Police rushed to the scene and interviewed the two

boys. The boys told them that the dead woman was their mother, 39-year-old Sarah Toakars.

The boys and Sarah had just been on a nine-hour road trip to visit Sarah's

relatives in Bradenton, Florida. They had just gotten back home to King's Cove, an affluent

neighborhood in East Marietta. These little boys still covered in their mother's blood

explained that there was a stranger at their house when

they got home. A black male, dressed in black, wearing a dark green ski cap. The man had

been holding a sawed-off shotgun, which explained the pirate gun comment because that's what it

looked like to a little boy. Sarah had gotten out of the car with Rick. Mike was sleeping in the back.

Rick told police that the bad man kicked Jake,

the family's King Charles Cavalier Spaniel,

and forced him and his mom to get back in the car.

Rick said the stranger told them that he wanted money

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