A 74-year-old retired Gordon College professor is thought to have died of natural causes after she was found dead at her home last Tuesday, July 30.
Dr. Pam Terry lived at 22 Brooklyn Avenue with her grown daughter, who is mentally challenged, according to coroner Joey Proctor. On Tuesday, July 30, the yard man arrived to cut the grass at the Terry home. When he knocked on the door, Proctor said the daughter told him that her mother had fallen in the kitchen and asked if he would help her get up. But when he went to grab her, he could tell she was dead.
Forsyth police were called to the scene and then Proctor was summoned. Forsyth officers were seen going into the home wearing bulky white haz-mat suits. Proctor said he thinks Terry had been dead 2-3 days. He said the daughter didn’t appear to interact very much with her mother.
“I guess she did her thing for 2-3 days and didn’t think that much about it,” said Proctor.
Law enforcement sources told the Reporter that they’re not sure if clutter in the home played a role.
“It was somewhat cluttered,” said one, who asked not to be identified.
Proctor said when family came to the scene, the daughter wouldn’t even come out of the house for them.
Proctor said the daughter’s father had already passed and he’s not sure where the daughter will go. Terry had bought her home, which was built in 1920, in 2019.
Proctor said that Terry had some health issues and he thinks it was a natural death. But as a precaution, authorities sent the body to the GBI crime lab for autopsy. See obituary on page 6A.
