“Murder Kroger.”
It’s a nickname that this local grocery store just can’t shrug. Crudely dubbed after it’s long history of random killings, “Murder Kroger” is known around Atlanta for it’s scary past. But what exactly happened for an innocent looking supermarket to earn such an intense name?
Opening in 1986, “Murder Kroger’” was your typical grocery store, with it’s main highlight being it’s driver’s license renewal service. It operated normally for years, continuing along without a nickname until 1991, when a 25 year old woman was killed in the store’s parking lot. Damon Parker, Stephanie Buffington, and Cynthia Priolea, were heading into the store when approached by an unknown car. The three friends were walking down the road, with enough room for the car to go around them, but the driver didn’t think so, bumping the back of Priolea. In response, she sprayed the driver with mace, not noticing he was already holding a revolver. Not long after, the gunman shot three times, with bullets hitting Priolea in the leg, stomach, and mouth. “I remember looking at him as he drove off,” says Parker in an interview with Creative Loafing. “It was like he’d done it a thousand times. He didn’t screech his tires or anything. He drove off as cool as can be.” Priolea’s murder remains unsolved today.
The next major event occurred in 2002, when a woman followed a foul smell to an abandoned car, finding a dead body.
“I remember pulling into the back entrance of the store after work one night and being instantly overwhelmed by the stench of what I assumed had to have been a dumpster full of expired meat,” said journalist Elizabeth Williams in an interview with ThePlug.” You can imagine how horrified I was when I saw the headline Man Found Dead in Kroger Parking Lot move across the AP wire.”
The third murder technically occured in the Ford Factory Lofts, steps away from it’s shared parking lot with the Kroger. Lee Lowery, a Junior Georgia State student, was shot and killed during an armed robbery. Only shot one time, Lowery died the next day at Grady Hospital. “I get a lot of strength from Lee,” said his mother, Allison Webb, during an interview with Midtown High School’s newspaper.
“As I raised him, I learned a lot from Lee. I admired his strength, I admired him being so self-assured, his convictions in helping people.”
Lowery, pictured left, in his senior portrait.
Joshua R. Richey was the most recent victim of the Murder Kroger, dying on site in 2015. Trying to confront a man who was breaking into his car, the 38-year-old construction worker was shot and killed in the grocery store parking lot. “A good man was taken for no reason,” said Richey’s wife, Kathy, said in an interview with AL.com. “My daughter no longer has a father, and I no longer have a husband. It’s tearing our family apart.”
Four murders within thirty years, but somehow, the legacy of “Murder Kroger” has outgrown the innocent people who died on its premises. It has a Facebook page, a signature theme song and, most recently, a visit from talk show star Conan O’Brien. He detailed the trip with a post on blog Team Coco: “From the condom wrappers in the parking lot to the unrefrigerated crab legs in the back … Murder Kroger did not disappoint.”
Despite its intense history, the former crime scene is now a base for humor, although the original supermarket no longer stands. In 2016, it was replaced by an office and apartment complex, housing a full-sized Kroger on the bottom floor. The building is completely demolished, but the nickname still remains. Murder Kroger… to some an elaborate joke, and to some a painful location of the past.
