Georgia Man's Suicide Note Reveals Location of Body; May Be His Grandfather

April 22, 2011 — -- A Georgia man slit his wrists and left a suicide note for his mother that revealed another man's death and the location of the body, police said.

John Hendrell Chambers, 30, survived the suicide attempt and is now in Clayton County Jail on a felony charge of concealing a death. In the suicide note, police said he revealed to his mother the location of a corpse at a home where he once lived with his girlfriend and grandfather.

Clayton County Police responded to Chambers' apartment on April 15 and he was rushed to the hospital. Detectives said the suicide note indicated that Chambers had been carrying a secret about another person's death.

Chambers told police that the body was at a home in Valdosta, Ga., where he used to live.

"Detectives responded down there and when they did, they discovered that the house was vacant," Valdosta Police Investigations Commander Brian Childress said. "We brought in two cadaver dogs and…began excavating and we did in fact locate the remains of a human being."

The remains are being analyzed by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Childress wouldn't confirm the sex or identity of the body.

Those living near the home where the body was found believe the remains are those of the grandfather. Neighbors said they hadn't seen Chambers' grandfather in nearly three years.

"When he went missing, the grandson [Chambers] told us he had moved to Florida so we just left it at that. We didn't have any reason to doubt it," neighbor Richard McConnehead said.

McConnehead said that Chambers continued to live in the home with his girlfriend for more than a year.

"They conducted themselves just like nothing ever happened and that's the hardest thing to deal with, the way they carried themselves," McConnehead said.

Police say a missing persons report was never filed on the man.

While Chambers has talked to police, they won't confirm if he has confessed to a crime.

"Based on what he's told us so far, we've developed evidence that Mr. Chambers did in fact conceal a deceased body, which is a felony," Childress said. "Are we looking at additional charges, yes. Are we looking at other individuals, yes."

In a phone interview from jail, Chambers told a reporter for ABC Affiliate WSB that someone else in his family killed a family member and he had kept the secret.

"It was cowardly that I allowed it to happen," said Chambers to WSB. He declined to say who was responsible.

Police are investigating the incident as a homicide.