American man of Georgia arrested for 2008 cold case murder

Shannon Tapley, 43, was booked into the Bartow County Jail after 15 years charged with murder for the death of 20-year-old Lance Jay Banister

By Edward Era Barbacena

Authorities have arrested a white Cartersville man for the 2008 murder of an Acworth man whose body was found at Talking Rock Creek.

Shannon Tapley, 43, was booked into the Bartow County Jail after 15 years charged with murder for the death of 20-year-old Lance Jay Banister, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation says.

The GBI was asked by the Murray County Sheriff’s Office to help in the death investigation after a body was found near Carters Lake in Chatsworth on March 28, 2008. Investigators later identified the body as Banister.

Investigators say he had been missing for three weeks before his body was found.

The GBI Medical Examiner’s Office ruled Banister’s death a homicide.

Investigators say Banister and Tapley were friends and were together the day he disappeared.

Murray County Sheriff’s Office detectives, FBI special agents from the Dalton Safe Streets Task Force, Bartow County Sheriff’s Office detectives, and GBI agents all assisted in the investigation.

The Bartow County District Attorney’s Office will be prosecuting the case.

It was not immediately known when Tapley’s next court appearance was scheduled.