Valerie Coates, of Warner Robins, was reported missing April 9, 1988. Coates, who had a small child when she disappeared, was last seen the day before she was reported missing at what was once the Houston Mall on N. Houston Road in Warner Robins. Coates was also part of what was then a cadet program offered through Warner Robins police. Police believe she was murdered in a wooded area in Pulaski County, possibly near Hawkinsville. A suspect is serving a life sentence for another murder. He filed the missing persons report in 1988. He reported Coates missing from the Houston Mall. He later said she came back to the Hawkinsville house that they once shared and that is when she was killed. The suspect told authorities that an ex-girlfriend committed the murder but that he buried Coates. Authorities have been unable to locate the body, having dug in the area for a period of four or five days.