Man Arrested For Murder of Waffle House Waitress

A 78-year-old Oconee County man has been arrested in connection with the May 29 murder of Misty Myrick, 38, the Oglethorpe County resident whose body was found on Simonton Bridge Road. 

Talmadge Edward Powell was arrested early Saturday without incident at his Lavista Road home, according to the Oconee County Sheriff's Office.

During a news conference Saturday, Chief Deputy Lee Weems summarized a timeline of events leading up to the arrest.

He explained that Myrick left the Waffle House on Clayton Street in Athens at 1 p.m. on Wednesday at the end of her shift. At 2:23 p.m., 911 received a call that her body had been discovered on the roadside between Broadlands Drive and Norton Road.

Her body was sent to the GBI crime lab where it was determined on Thursday that the cause of death was a single gunshot wound to the back, Weems said.

Investigators found her white GMC Jimmy SUV on Wednesday night in the parking lot of Lowe's on Lexington Road in Athens. They had gone to store to meet someone from another agency and spotted the SUV, he said.

"We were able to obtain security footage from several locations and backtrack from there," said Weems. "That's how we determined the make and model of the [truck] that was released on Friday."

The releasing of that information generated several tips Thursday night and Friday afternoon that led investigators to finding the truck and Powell, he said.