For 25 years, Tracyraquel Golder believed she had killed her own baby brother. She was two years old on December 27, 1971, when four-month-old Matthew Golder suffered fatal head injuries inside the family home in suburban Decatur, Georgia, and the adults in the house told investigators that she had thrown him from his crib. It would take her decades, an army enlistment, a stack of exhumed medical records, and a race against a parole hearing to learn that the real killer had never been charged at all.
According to Mamamia, Tracyraquel's mother, Kathie Almon, left the family home with two-year-old Tracyraquel on December 27, 1971, while four-month-old Matthew remained at home with Almon's then-partner, Jan Barry Sandlin. Tracyraquel later returned to the apartment and was found standing in Matthew's crib, and both Almon and Sandlin told investigators that Tracyraquel had thrown the infant from it, causing fatal injuries. Matthew was found fatally injured on the floor of the home, and the account offered by the two adults meant that a two-year-old, the only surviving witness, was left to carry the blame while neither adult was ever charged, per the same outlet's reporting.
The original 1971 death was classified as an accidental tragedy, a determination that stood for nearly a quarter century. Part of why it stood so long traces back to a basic records failure: when DeKalb County authorities reopened the case in 1995, they discovered that no official 1971 autopsy record existed in county archives, according to a Burden of Guilt podcast episode from iHeart. That gap left the file thin for decades, even as the child blamed for the death grew up carrying the label.
A Childhood Shaped by Trauma and Blame
Per Mamamia's reporting, Tracyraquel later learned from police reports that she had been formally blamed for Matthew's death, and she experienced physical abuse, neglect and psychological trauma in the years that followed. Kathie Almon, who had been married to Ted Golder, at one point jumped from a second-story balcony and broke both legs and both arms, the outlet reports. Tracyraquel attempted suicide at age 14, after which Almon had her committed to a mental institution, according to the same account. A woman identified only as June supported Tracyraquel through her youth, Mamamia notes, and Almon now lives estranged from her daughter.
The case took a formal turn in 1995 when Matthew's 1971 medical records were reviewed by Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Joe Burton. They concluded that his severe skull fractures were inconsistent with a fall from a crib, according to a Los Angeles Times report from December 1996. Medical experts later found that Matthew's extensive skull fractures and severe brain trauma, in a baby who weighed almost 13 kilograms, did not appear accidental, per Mamamia.
Exhumation and a Race Against Parole
To confirm those findings, authorities exhumed Matthew's body on March 17, 1997, from a church cemetery in Cullman, Alabama, for a secondary autopsy, according to SFGate. DeKalb County officials had the body exhumed 25 years after burial, per Mamamia's account, as part of the broader effort to determine what had actually happened to Matthew.
Tracyraquel's own breakthrough came at age 27, after she had enlisted in the Army, when she realized someone else in the house must have harmed Matthew, according to Mamamia. She concluded she lacked the strength, coordination and stature as a toddler to have thrown Matthew over a crib railing, the outlet reports, and she began writing persistent letters to authorities seeking the truth. She was able to navigate law enforcement agencies in 1995 with guidance from a family friend who worked for the FBI, according to the Los Angeles Times — an unusual outside assist for a cold case that, per the same report, rarely got reinvestigated without such support.
The investigation's focus shifted to Jan Barry Sandlin, who was Tracyraquel's biological father despite being referred to as her stepfather, per Mamamia. At the time, Sandlin was already serving a life sentence in Florida for an unrelated armed robbery conviction. The Los Angeles Times reports that Tracyraquel's push to reopen the case was driven in large part by fear that Sandlin was approaching parole eligibility on that Florida robbery charge and could soon walk free. According to Mamamia, Tracyraquel told her mother that Sandlin was up for parole and that they needed to stop him. Kathie Almon eventually admitted she knew what Sandlin had done and that she had seen him standing over Matthew's crib, the outlet reports — a striking reversal from her original testimony that Tracyraquel had thrown Matthew from the crib, causing fatal head trauma.
Mistrial, Then a Swift Verdict
Sandlin was indicted, and in a December 1996 jailhouse telephone interview from a Florida prison, he told the Los Angeles Times he was “dumbfounded” by the murder charge and denied any role in the infant's death. The first trial ended in a mistrial, according to Mamamia.
DeKalb County prosecutors did not seek the death penalty against Sandlin during the retrial, according to the Tampa Bay Times. A jury in Decatur, Georgia, made up of five men and seven women, deliberated for less than four hours before finding Sandlin guilty of murder, aggravated assault and child cruelty on September 26, 1997, per SFGate. Superior Court Judge Hilton Fuller sentenced him immediately to two consecutive life terms, meaning he will spend the remainder of his life in prison, according to Mamamia.
During the 1996 reinvestigation, authorities also looked back at the September 1971 death of Sandlin's first wife, Nancy Tegeder Sandlin, which occurred three months before Matthew's death and had originally been ruled a suicide, according to The Cinemaholic. Sandlin was accused in connection with that earlier death, the outlet notes.
Advocacy Built From a Cold Case
Now known as Tracyraquel Berns, she is a mother and grandmother who advocates for victims of childhood trauma, domestic violence and systemic failures in child protection, according to Mamamia. She worked with Glass Entertainment Group and iHeartPodcasts to produce Burden of Guilt: Haunted by Lies, a podcast recounting the case in her own words, per the same report.
