Austin Payne, 15: Four Charged in Albany Killing

DHF-063 — Austin Payne, 15: Four Charged in Albany Killing

Case No. DHF-063 | Subject: Austin Payne, 15, shot dead in Albany, Georgia, on Halloween night, Saturday 31 October 2026, and found the next morning inside an apartment at 810 Cameo Lane. On Wednesday 4 November 2026, four people — Jansquincey Donaldson, 15, Omari Marion, 15, Adarious Wallace, 16, and Detravion Parker, 22 — were arrested and charged with murder | Date: Saturday 31 October 2026 (shooting); Sunday 1 November 2026 (body found); Monday 2 November 2026 (police news conference); Wednesday 4 November 2026 (arrests and charges) | Location: 810 Cameo Lane, Albany, Georgia, USA | Status: CHARGED

Posted: 8 November 2026

Status stamp: CHARGED

Image note for readers: All images in this file are original illustrations created for Dark History Files. They are atmospheric artwork, not photographs and not real evidence. No image in this file depicts Austin Payne, Jansquincey Donaldson, Omari Marion, Adarious Wallace, Detravion Parker, any member of any family, any investigator, any official, or any real person, and no image depicts any act of violence, any death, any arrest, or any weapon.

 

Caption: Case card for DHF-063 — the Albany case, Cameo Lane, Albany, Georgia. Status: CHARGED.

THE FILE CARD

Case File No.	DHF-063
Subject	Austin Payne, 15, was shot dead in Albany, Georgia, on Halloween night, Saturday 31 October 2026. On Sunday 1 November 2026, his mother traced his phone to an apartment at 810 Cameo Lane and found him unresponsive on the floor inside. Officers arrived at about 9:51 a.m., and Dougherty County Coroner Michael Fowler pronounced Payne dead at the scene at about 10:30 a.m. On Wednesday 4 November 2026, Albany police arrested four people and charged them with murder: Jansquincey Donaldson, 15, Omari Marion, 15, Adarious Wallace, 16, and Detravion Parker, 22. All four were booked into the Dougherty County Jail. They are charged, not convicted, and are presumed innocent.
Date	Saturday 31 October 2026 (shooting, Halloween night); Sunday 1 November 2026 (body found; police response at about 9:51 a.m.; death pronounced at about 10:30 a.m.); Monday 2 November 2026 (Albany Police Department news conference); Wednesday 4 November 2026 (four arrested and charged with murder)
Location	An apartment at 810 Cameo Lane, Albany, Georgia, USA, where Payne's body was found; the approach described by witnesses took place on a path between Sands Drive and Cameo Lane
Status	CHARGED
Investigating authorities	Albany Police Department; Dougherty County Coroner Michael Fowler (pronounced Payne dead at the scene)
Persons charged	Jansquincey Donaldson, 15; Omari Marion, 15; Adarious Wallace, 16; and Detravion Parker, 22. All four were arrested on Wednesday 4 November 2026 and charged with murder, and all four were transported to the Dougherty County Jail. Authorities have not released additional details explaining the specific roles each defendant is accused of playing in the shooting. No plea, attorney, arraignment detail or trial date has been publicly reported in the sources relied on here. All four are charged, not convicted, and are presumed innocent. Note on spelling: Fox News and the New York Post spell the 22-year-old's surname "Parke"; WALB, Hazlehurst Now and other reports spell it "Parker", and this file uses "Parker".
One-line summary	On Halloween night, Saturday 31 October 2026, 15-year-old Austin Payne was shot dead in Albany, Georgia. The next morning his mother traced his phone to an apartment at 810 Cameo Lane and found him inside. Four days later, on Wednesday 4 November, police arrested four people — three teenagers and a 22-year-old — and charged them with murder. The charges are allegations, and the case has not been tried.

Why this file is stamped CHARGED: The stamp records only the position as it stands on 4 November 2026. Albany police have arrested four people and charged them with murder in the shooting death of Austin Payne, 15, and the charges rest on the police investigation described in this file — surveillance footage, phone records, witness statements and shell casings recovered at the scene. A charge is not a conviction: all four are presumed innocent, no court has tested the evidence against them, and no plea or trial date has been publicly reported. The stamp has to carry the other half of the story too. The police have not said what part each of the four is accused of playing, they have not confirmed a motive, and the investigation is still open. This file says all of that plainly, in the same breath as the charges, because the charges and the open questions around them are both facts. If any of the four enters a plea, or if the case goes to trial, this file will be updated, dated, and re-stamped if the facts require it — never quietly rewritten.

THE CASE

Halloween night in Albany

Saturday 31 October 2026 was Halloween night in Albany, Georgia, a city in the southwest of the state. Austin Payne, 15, was out that evening with a group of other young people. What happened to him over the next few hours is known only in outline, from the Albany Police Department's incident report and from what investigators have said publicly since — and this file stays inside that outline, because the rest is still part of an open investigation.

The police report, as reported by WALB and set out in detail by Hazlehurst Now, gives the evening a short sequence of timed facts. At about 7:35 p.m., surveillance footage showed six individuals walking toward an apartment on Cameo Lane. About twenty-three minutes later, the footage captured an individual jumping from an apartment window. At about 8:03 p.m., phone records showed that Payne called his mother and told her he had been shot and needed help.

That call is the last confirmed fact of Payne's life in the public record, and it is also the fact that Albany Police Chief Michael Persley put at the centre of the department's news conference on Monday 2 November 2026. "He did make a call to his mother that he had been shot," Persley said. The chief's words were reported by Fox News and the New York Post, and they are the only public statement from the police about what Payne himself said that night.

Payne's mother told investigators that she initially believed he was joking, because of previous remarks, and that she became concerned only when she was unable to reach him later that evening. That detail comes from the police incident report, and this file records it as the report records it — without comment, and without drawing any conclusion from it. It is part of the record of the night, and it explains why the search for Payne did not begin until the next morning.

Payne was a student at Monroe High School, according to the Albany Police Department as reported by WALB. His family later said, in a fundraiser to help cover funeral expenses reported by Fox News, that he would have turned sixteen on Thursday 12 November, and that he is survived by his mother and his seventeen-year-old sister. Beyond that, the public record in the sources relied on here says very little about who he was — no statement from his family has been reported beyond the fundraiser, and no photograph released by police. That silence is itself part of the file: a fifteen-year-old was killed on Halloween night, and the public record holds his name, his age, his school, and the fact of a phone call home, and not much more.

A mother's search

On Sunday morning, 1 November 2026, Payne's mother began searching for her son after he had failed to return home the previous night. She used his phone's location to trace him, and the signal led her to an apartment at 810 Cameo Lane. When she entered the residence, she found her son unresponsive on the floor.

Officers responded to the location at approximately 9:51 a.m. Dougherty County Coroner Michael Fowler pronounced Payne dead at the scene at around 10:30 a.m. The police said at the time that Payne had been shot, and the coroner's pronouncement at the scene is the only official statement about his death in the sources relied on here. No autopsy result has been publicly reported.

The building on Cameo Lane was not Payne's home, and the public record does not say why he was there, who else was there, or how long he had been there before his mother arrived. The surveillance footage shows six individuals walking toward the apartment at about 7:35 p.m. on Saturday, and an individual jumping from an apartment window about twenty-three minutes later. The police have not said who those people were, or how the footage fits with what the witnesses told them.

What the witnesses did tell investigators, according to the police report, was that a group of armed individuals approached Payne and others as they walked along a path between Sands Drive and Cameo Lane, and that the individuals demanded their belongings before shots were fired. That account — an approach, a demand, and then gunfire — is the only public description of the shooting itself. It comes from witnesses, as reported by the police, and this file presents it that way: a witness account, not a police finding.

What the investigation found

Over the next four days, investigators reviewed surveillance footage, cellphone records and witness statements to reconstruct the events leading up to Payne's death. Investigators also recovered seven 9mm shell casings while examining the area, according to the police report. The casings are the only item of physical evidence that has been publicly described. No weapon has been reported recovered, and the police have not said whether any other evidence was found.

The question of why Payne was shot has been reported in two different registers, and this file keeps them apart, because the difference between them is the difference between a belief and a fact. Investigators say they believe the group met up with Payne with the intent to rob him. Witnesses told investigators that Payne may have been targeted in an attempted robbery involving a handgun he had recently displayed on social media. Both of those statements are reported by WALB, and both are attributed in this file to the people who made them — investigators and witnesses, not the police department as a finding.

What the authorities have said, on the record, is narrower. The Albany Police Department says it is unclear whether the group had known each other before the incident. Police have not said whether a robbery took place, or whether they believe the shooting was targeted. And Hazlehurst Now, setting out the police report, states plainly that the authorities have not publicly confirmed the attempted-robbery account as the motive. This file follows the authorities on that point: the robbery account is a witness suggestion and an investigator belief, and it is not a motive in this file until the police or a prosecutor says so.

The same restraint applies to everything else that has not been said. The police have not said what happened inside the apartment on Cameo Lane between the footage at 7:35 p.m. and the discovery on Sunday morning. They have not said who jumped from the window, or why. They have not said how the six individuals on the footage relate to the four people now charged. And they have not said whether the shooting on the path and the apartment are one event or two. All of that is still part of the open investigation, and this file does not fill it in.

Wednesday: four charged

On Wednesday 4 November 2026, the Albany Police Department announced the arrests. Four people had been arrested and charged with murder in Payne's death: Jansquincey Donaldson, 15; Omari Marion, 15; Adarious Wallace, 16; and Detravion Parker, 22. All four were taken into custody and transported to the Dougherty County Jail.

The police said the arrests followed interviews and additional investigative work, and that the four had been identified as allegedly connected to Payne's death. That is the whole of what the police have said about how the four were identified. They have not released additional details explaining the specific roles each defendant is accused of playing in the shooting, and no source relied on here reports a plea, an attorney, an arraignment detail, or a trial date for any of them.

Three of the four charged people are teenagers — two aged fifteen, one aged sixteen — and the fourth is twenty-two. This file names all four, because the police named all four, and because a charge is the threshold this file uses for naming a living person. But the naming comes with the rule that governs everything in this file about them: they are charged, not convicted, and they are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law. The charges are allegations, and the evidence behind them has not been tested in court.

The arrests changed the shape of the case at once. Until that Wednesday, the case had been a fifteen-year-old shot dead on Halloween night, found by his mother the next morning, with no one charged and no motive confirmed. After it, the case had four charged people, a named set of ages, and a jail — and the same open questions it had before, because a charge answers who the police accuse, and nothing else. The investigation, the police said, is ongoing, and they have not released any other information.

What is still open

The most immediate open fact is the motive. Investigators believe the group met Payne intending to rob him, and witnesses have suggested an attempted robbery connected to a handgun Payne had displayed on social media. The police have not confirmed either account as the motive, have not said whether a robbery took place, and have not said whether they believe the shooting was targeted. Until a prosecutor says so in court, or the police say so on the record, the robbery account is a belief and a suggestion — and nothing more. This file will not turn it into a motive, because the people investigating the case have not done so.

The second open fact is the part each of the four charged people is accused of playing. The police have said the four were identified as allegedly connected to Payne's death, and they have said nothing more about who did what. A trial is where that would be set out, and no trial has begun.

The third open fact is the sequence of the night itself. The footage, the phone call, the witness account of the path between Sands Drive and Cameo Lane, and the discovery at 810 Cameo Lane are all in the record — but how they join together, what happened inside the apartment, who jumped from the window, and why Payne was there are not. The police have not released any other information, and the investigation is ongoing.

The fourth open fact is the court process. As of the sources relied on here, no plea has been reported, no attorney has been named, no arraignment detail has been confirmed, and no trial date has been set in public. The four are in the Dougherty County Jail, charged with murder, and presumed innocent. That presumption is not a formality in this file: it is the rule that governs everything written here about them, and it will govern the file until a court decides otherwise.

And there is a fifth fact, quieter than the others, that this file records because it is the one the family will live with. A mother waited for her son to come home on Halloween night, and when he did not, she followed his phone to an apartment on Cameo Lane and found him there herself. That search is the second fact in this file, after the call at 8:03 p.m., and it is the fact that made everything else in it possible — the police response, the coroner's pronouncement, the investigation, and the charges. Payne would have turned sixteen on Thursday 12 November. He is survived by his mother and his seventeen-year-old sister, and the case that now bears his name is still at its beginning: four charged, a motive unconfirmed, and a courtroom that has not yet heard any of it.

TIMELINE

• Saturday 31 October 2026, about 7:35 p.m.: Surveillance footage shows six individuals walking toward an apartment on Cameo Lane, Albany, Georgia. (Albany Police Department incident report, as reported by WALB via Hazlehurst Now, 7 November 2026, read in full)
• Saturday 31 October 2026, about 7:58 p.m.: About twenty-three minutes later, surveillance footage captures an individual jumping from an apartment window. The police have not said who this person was. (Albany Police Department incident report, as reported by WALB via Hazlehurst Now, 7 November 2026, read in full)
• Saturday 31 October 2026, about 8:03 p.m.: Phone records indicate Payne calls his mother and tells her he has been shot and needs help. Albany Police Chief Michael Persley says at the 2 November news conference: "He did make a call to his mother that he had been shot." (Albany Police Department incident report, as reported by WALB via Hazlehurst Now, 7 November 2026, read in full; Fox News, 8 November 2026, read in full; New York Post, 8 November 2026, read in full)
• Saturday 31 October 2026, evening: Witnesses tell investigators that a group of armed individuals approached Payne and others as they walked along a path between Sands Drive and Cameo Lane, and that the individuals demanded their belongings before shots were fired. Investigators recover seven 9mm shell casings while examining the area. (Albany Police Department incident report, as reported by WALB via Hazlehurst Now, 7 November 2026, read in full)
• Sunday 1 November 2026, morning: Payne's mother begins searching for her son after he fails to return home. Using his phone's location, she traces him to an apartment at 810 Cameo Lane, enters, and finds him unresponsive on the floor. Officers respond at approximately 9:51 a.m. Dougherty County Coroner Michael Fowler pronounces Payne dead at the scene at around 10:30 a.m. (Albany Police Department incident report, as reported by WALB via Hazlehurst Now, 7 November 2026, read in full; Fox News, 8 November 2026, read in full; New York Post, 8 November 2026, read in full)
• Monday 2 November 2026: Albany Police Chief Michael Persley holds a news conference and says Payne called his mother after being shot. (Fox News, 8 November 2026, read in full; New York Post, 8 November 2026, read in full)
• Wednesday 4 November 2026: The Albany Police Department announces the arrests. Jansquincey Donaldson, 15, Omari Marion, 15, Adarious Wallace, 16, and Detravion Parker, 22, are arrested and charged with murder, and transported to the Dougherty County Jail. The investigation is ongoing. (WALB, 4 November 2026, read via live browser; Fox News, 8 November 2026, read in full; New York Post, 8 November 2026, read in full; Hazlehurst Now, 7 November 2026, read in full)
• Sunday 8 November 2026: This file is published. The stamp is CHARGED. All four are charged, not convicted, and are presumed innocent, and no plea, attorney, arraignment detail or trial date has been publicly reported in the sources relied on here.

EVIDENCE & LEADS

• The surveillance footage (Saturday 31 October 2026, about 7:35 p.m.): Surveillance footage showed six individuals walking toward an apartment on Cameo Lane. About twenty-three minutes later, footage captured an individual jumping from an apartment window. The police have not said who any of these people were. — Albany Police Department incident report, as reported by WALB via Hazlehurst Now (7 November 2026, read in full).
• The phone call (Saturday 31 October 2026, about 8:03 p.m.): Phone records indicated Payne called his mother and told her he had been shot and needed help. Chief Persley said at the 2 November news conference: "He did make a call to his mother that he had been shot." — Albany Police Department incident report, as reported by WALB via Hazlehurst Now (7 November 2026, read in full); Fox News (8 November 2026, read in full); New York Post (8 November 2026, read in full).
• The witness account of the approach: Witnesses told investigators that a group of armed individuals approached Payne and others as they walked along a path between Sands Drive and Cameo Lane, and that the individuals demanded their belongings before shots were fired. This is a witness account as reported by the police, not a police finding. — Albany Police Department incident report, as reported by WALB via Hazlehurst Now (7 November 2026, read in full); Fox News (8 November 2026, read in full).
• The shell casings: Investigators recovered seven 9mm shell casings while examining the area. No weapon has been reported recovered. — Albany Police Department incident report, as reported by WALB via Hazlehurst Now (7 November 2026, read in full).
• The discovery (Sunday 1 November 2026, morning): Payne's mother began searching for her son after he failed to return home, traced his phone to an apartment at 810 Cameo Lane, entered, and found him unresponsive on the floor. Officers responded at approximately 9:51 a.m. Dougherty County Coroner Michael Fowler pronounced Payne dead at the scene at around 10:30 a.m. The apartment was described by police as apparently abandoned. — Albany Police Department incident report, as reported by WALB via Hazlehurst Now (7 November 2026, read in full); Fox News (8 November 2026, read in full); New York Post (8 November 2026, read in full).
• The robbery account — belief and suggestion, not a confirmed motive: Investigators say they believe the group met up with Payne with the intent to rob him. Witnesses said Payne may have been targeted in an attempted robbery involving a handgun he had recently posted on social media. The Albany Police Department says it is unclear whether the group had known each other before the incident, and police have not said whether a robbery took place or whether they believe the shooting was targeted. The authorities have not publicly confirmed the attempted-robbery account as the motive. — WALB (4 November 2026, read via live browser); Hazlehurst Now (7 November 2026, read in full).
• The arrests (Wednesday 4 November 2026): Jansquincey Donaldson, 15, Omari Marion, 15, Adarious Wallace, 16, and Detravion Parker, 22, were arrested and charged with murder, and transported to the Dougherty County Jail. The police said the arrests followed interviews and additional investigative work. Authorities have not released additional details explaining the specific roles each defendant is accused of playing. — WALB (4 November 2026, read via live browser); Fox News (8 November 2026, read in full); New York Post (8 November 2026, read in full); Hazlehurst Now (7 November 2026, read in full).
• Payne's school and family (single-source, attributed in the post): Payne was a student at Monroe High School, according to the Albany Police Department as reported by WALB. His family said in a fundraiser to help cover funeral expenses, as reported by Fox News, that he would have turned sixteen on Thursday 12 November 2026, and that he is survived by his mother and his seventeen-year-old sister. — WALB (4 November 2026, read via live browser); Fox News (8 November 2026, read in full).
• Presumption of innocence: Jansquincey Donaldson, Omari Marion, Adarious Wallace and Detravion Parker are charged, not convicted. The charges against them are allegations, and they are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law. No other person is named as a suspect or charged in any source relied on here.
• What is NOT evidence in this file: any account of what happened inside the apartment on Cameo Lane between the footage at 7:35 p.m. and the discovery on Sunday morning (not in the public record); any account of a motive beyond what investigators believe and witnesses have suggested (the police have not confirmed one publicly); any account of who jumped from the apartment window, or why (not identified); any account of the specific roles each of the four charged people is accused of playing (not released); any account of a weapon recovered (none reported); any account of the official cause of death beyond the coroner's pronouncement at the scene (no autopsy result publicly reported); any claim about any plea, attorney, arraignment or trial date (none publicly reported); any claim from social-media comments about any person's guilt, innocence, or past (NOT used — see the fact log).

Caption: Illustration of a quiet Georgia residential street at dusk — atmospheric artwork, not a photograph of any place connected to this case, and not evidence.

STILL UNKNOWN

• Was this a robbery? Investigators believe the group met Payne intending to rob him, and witnesses have suggested an attempted robbery connected to a handgun Payne had displayed on social media. The police have not confirmed either account as the motive, have not said whether a robbery took place, and have not said whether they believe the shooting was targeted. Until a prosecutor or the police say so on the record, it is not a motive in this file.
• What part is each of the four accused of playing? The police have said the four were identified as allegedly connected to Payne's death, and they have said nothing more about who did what. Four people charged with one murder can mean many things, and the public record does not say which of them it means here.
• What happened inside the apartment? The footage shows six individuals walking toward the apartment at about 7:35 p.m. and an individual jumping from a window about twenty-three minutes later. What happened inside between then and the discovery on Sunday morning is not in the public record in any source relied on here.
• Who jumped from the window, and why? The police have not identified the individual captured jumping from the apartment window, or said why.
• How do the path and the apartment join together? Witnesses place the approach and the shots on a path between Sands Drive and Cameo Lane; the discovery was at 810 Cameo Lane. How the two places connect in the sequence of the night is part of the open investigation, and the police have not released any other information.
• Was a weapon recovered? Seven 9mm shell casings were recovered. No weapon has been reported recovered in the sources relied on here.
• What was the official cause of death? The coroner pronounced Payne dead at the scene on Sunday 1 November 2026. No autopsy result has been publicly reported in the sources relied on here.
• What happens next in court? No plea, attorney, arraignment detail or trial date has been publicly reported in the sources relied on here. All four are charged with murder and are presumed innocent.
• What will the trial show? All four are charged, not convicted, and are presumed innocent. The evidence will be tested in court, and this file will follow it.

What would change this file: if the police confirm a motive, or say what part each of the four is accused of playing; if a weapon is reported recovered; if the official cause of death is released; if any of the four enters a plea, or if a trial date is set; or if any further official statement is made about the case, this file will be updated with the date, the source, and the new stamp if the facts require it — never quietly rewritten. Until then, the stamp stays CHARGED.

If you have information: The Albany Police Department is investigating the death of Austin Payne. If you know anything about this case, contact Albany Police Department investigators at 229-431-2100. Do not share speculation about the case on social media while it is active.

WATCH THE FULL STORY

No companion video yet. If Dark History Files' sister channel Curiozoid publishes a video on this case, it will be linked here.

SOURCES

• Albany Police Department — the 31 October 2026 shooting of Austin Payne; the 1 November 2026 discovery at 810 Cameo Lane and the police response at about 9:51 a.m.; the 2 November 2026 news conference; the 4 November 2026 arrests of Jansquincey Donaldson, Omari Marion, Adarious Wallace and Detravion Parker and the murder charges; the appeal for information (investigators, 229-431-2100). Reported by WALB, Fox News, the New York Post and Hazlehurst Now (below). The police incident report is quoted through Hazlehurst Now's account of WALB's reporting of it.
• WALB, 4 November 2026 — "3 teens, 1 man arrested, charged with murder in death of 15-year-old in Albany" (https://www.walb.com/2026/11/04/3-teens-1-man-arrested-charged-with-murder-death-15-year-old-albany/), by Ben Rogers: Payne, 15, shot and killed; four arrested and charged with murder — Donaldson, 15, Marion, 15, Wallace, 16, and Parker, 22 — and transported to the Dougherty County Jail; investigators believe the group met Payne with the intent to rob him; witnesses said Payne may have been targeted in an attempted robbery involving a handgun he had recently posted on social media; the police say it is unclear whether the group had known each other, and have not said whether a robbery took place or whether the shooting was targeted; the investigation is ongoing and police have not released any other information; Payne was a student at Monroe High School, according to the Albany Police Department. Read via live browser, 8 November 2026. Note: the live-browser read of this article also returned an account placing the shooting and discovery in a car in the 800 block of Pine Avenue on a Monday, which conflicts with the police incident report as reported by WALB via Hazlehurst Now and with the Fox News, New York Post, political.org and internewscast accounts, all of which place the discovery at 810 Cameo Lane on Sunday 1 November. No fact in this file rests on the Pine Avenue account; the conflict is recorded in the fact log.
• Hazlehurst Now, 7 November 2026 — "Four Charged in Halloween Night Shooting Death of 15-Year-Old Albany Teen" (https://hazlehurstnow.com/four-charged-in-halloween-night-shooting-death-of-15-year-old-albany-teen/): the Albany Police Department announced the arrests on Wednesday 4 November following an investigation into the shooting, which occurred 31 October in Dougherty County; Payne was discovered dead inside an apparently abandoned apartment on Cameo Lane the following morning after his mother used phone tracking to locate him; the mother began searching on Sunday 1 November, traced him to 810 Cameo Lane, entered and found him unresponsive; officers responded at approximately 9:51 a.m.; Coroner Michael Fowler pronounced Payne dead at the scene around 10:30 a.m.; surveillance showed six individuals walking toward the apartment around 7:35 p.m. on 31 October, and an individual jumping from a window about 23 minutes later; phone records showed Payne called his mother at about 8:03 p.m. saying he had been shot; the mother initially believed he was joking; witnesses said armed individuals approached the group on a path between Sands Drive and Cameo Lane, demanded belongings, and shots were fired; witnesses suggested an attempted robbery related to a handgun Payne had displayed on social media, which the authorities have not publicly confirmed as the motive; seven 9mm shell casings recovered; the four charged, with the charges as allegations and each defendant presumed innocent; authorities have not released details on the specific roles each defendant is accused of playing; the Albany Police Department tip line, 229-431-2100. Sources stated as the Albany Police Department information and incident report as reported by WALB, and CBS News Atlanta, 5 November 2026. Read in full, 8 November 2026.
• Fox News, 8 November 2026 — "Three teens, adult charged with murder after woman finds her teenage son dead in abandoned home" (https://foxnews.com/us/three-teens-adult-charged-murder-after-woman-finds-her-teenage-son-dead-abandoned-home): three teenagers and an adult charged with murder after a mother found her 15-year-old son shot to death inside an abandoned residence following Halloween night; the Albany Police Department arrested 22-year-old Detravion Parke (spelled "Parke" in this report), two 15-year-olds and a 16-year-old; all four charged with murder and transported to the Dougherty County Jail; officers responded to the 800 block of Cameo Lane on 1 November and discovered Payne dead inside an abandoned home; his mother found him by tracking his location via cellphone after he failed to return home on Halloween, according to WALB; Chief Persley said at the 2 November news conference that Payne had contacted his mother after being shot — "He did make a call to his mother that he had been shot"; investigators reviewed surveillance footage, cellphone records and witness statements; witnesses told investigators armed individuals approached a group walking with Payne, demanded belongings and opened fire; Payne may have been targeted during an attempted robbery involving a handgun he had recently displayed on social media, according to WALB; the family launched a GoFundMe fundraiser for funeral expenses; a relative said Payne would have turned 16 on 12 November, and the fundraiser noted he is survived by his mother and 17-year-old sister; the Albany Police Department asks anyone with information to contact investigators at 229-431-2100. Read in full, 8 November 2026.
• New York Post, 8 November 2026 — "Georgia teens, adult charged with murder after mom finds son, 15, dead in abandoned home" (https://nypost.com/2026/11/08/us-news/georgia-teens-adult-charged-with-murder-after-mom-finds-son-austin-payne-dead-in-home/): three teenagers and an adult charged with murder after a mother found her 15-year-old son shot to death inside an abandoned residence following Halloween night; the Albany Police Department arrested 22-year-old Detravion Parke (spelled "Parke" in this report), two 15-year-olds and a 16-year-old; all four charged with murder and transported to the Dougherty County Jail; officers responded to the 800 block of Cameo Lane on 1 November; his mother found him by tracking his location via cellphone after he failed to return home on Halloween, according to WALB; Chief Persley said at the 2 November news conference that Payne had contacted his mother after being shot — "He did make a call to his mother that he had been shot"; investigators reviewed surveillance footage, cellphone records and witness statements; witnesses told investigators armed individuals approached a group walking with Payne, demanded belongings and opened fire; Jansquincey Donaldson, 15, Omari Marion, 15, and Adarious Wallace, 16, named, with the Albany Police Department/WALB as the source of the names; Payne may have been targeted during an attempted robbery involving a handgun he had recently displayed on social media, according to WALB; the family launched a GoFundMe fundraiser for funeral expenses; a relative said Payne would have turned 16 on 12 November, and the fundraiser noted he is survived by his mother and 17-year-old sister; the Albany Police Department asks anyone with information to contact investigators at 229-431-2100. Read in full, 8 November 2026.
• Social-media scan, 8 November 2026: social.search was run for this watch and returned heavy discussion of the Austin Payne case, including sensationalist and racially charged commentary that this file does not use and does not repeat, alongside cases already published on this blog (Malayshia Alford DHF-041, Katie Suarez DHF-059, Kylie Arellano DHF-042) and older cases that fail the latest-only rule. That the Payne case is trending right now rests on the news record: WALB carried the arrests on 4 November 2026, Hazlehurst Now carried the full incident-report account on 7 November 2026, and Fox News and the New York Post carried the story on 8 November 2026. No claim in this file rests on a social-media post alone.
• No competitor article text or image is reproduced in this file. Facts are stated in Dark History Files' own words, with official material attributed to its source. No source beyond those listed above was relied on for facts in the draft. No search-volume numbers are stated, because no tool returned any.

Caption: Illustration of a quiet Georgia small-town street at dawn — atmospheric artwork, not a photograph of any place connected to this case, and not evidence.

Reader question: Three of the four people charged are teenagers, and the police have not said what part each one is accused of playing. While the case moves through the courts, what should the rest of us do with the parts of the story that are still unknown?

RELATED FILES

• DHF-062 — Lufkin Mother and Son Killed: Neighbour Charged — https://thedarkhistoryfiles.blogspot.com/2026/11/lufkin-mother-son-neighbour-charged-capital-murder.html
• DHF-061 — Tracy Sikh Volunteer Avtar Singh: Suspect Extradited — https://thedarkhistoryfiles.blogspot.com/2026/11/avtar-singh-tracy-gurdwara-suspect-extradited.html
• DHF-060 — Maine Paddleboarder Sunny Stewart: Teen to Face Adult Trial — https://thedarkhistoryfiles.blogspot.com/2026/11/sunny-stewart-maine-paddleboarder-adult-trial.html

Previous file: DHF-062 — Lufkin Mother and Son Killed: Neighbour Charged — https://thedarkhistoryfiles.blogspot.com/2026/11/lufkin-mother-son-neighbour-charged-capital-murder.html

Next file: DHF-064 — Brittany Powell: Husband Charged in Texas Killing — https://thedarkhistoryfiles.blogspot.com/2026/11/brittany-powell-quitman-husband-charged-murder.html

This file is based on public reporting and official statements available as of 8 November 2026. Read how every file is built on the About page, or request a file via the Contact page.