Crime & Safety
Ball Ground Woman Indicted in Murder of Father
Andrea Leigh Blanton has been charged with allegedly murdering her father in 2013.
A woman arrested last year for allegedly killing her father has been indicted in the offense.
A Cherokee County grand jury on March 11 indicted Andrea Leigh Blanton on one count each of malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, concealing death of another and two counts of possession of methamphetamine.
Blanton, 46, was arrested in May 2013 after deputies with the Cherokee Sheriff's Office were dispatched to 515 Northridge Road in unincorporated Ball Ground to perform a welfare check on her father, James Minor Reece, 77.
Authorities located Reece, who appeared to have been dead for several days, and learned Blanton lived at the home with her father and served as his primary caregiver.
Investigators discovered Blanton was staying in the home with her father's body, despite the advanced stages of decomposition, and was initially arrested for failing to report his death.
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However, an autopsy performed by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation's Crime Lab revealed Reece died of strangulation. Blanton was initially released on bond, but was taken back into custody, charged with murder and held without bond.
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