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Weekend Edition - DECEMBER 23-24,2022 | $2.00 | GAINESVILLE, GEORGIA | gainesvilletimes.com ISLdSI Honestly Local
3 dead in apparent murder-suicide
Man believed to have killed 57-year-old twin sisters at Holland Drive home
BY BEN ANDERSON
banderson@
gainesvilletimes.com
AND NICK WATSON
nwatson@
gainesvilletimes.com
Three people, including
twin sisters, were found dead
Wednesday, Dec. 21, in a Hol
land Drive home in Gaines
ville in a suspected double
murder-suicide.
The Hall County Sheriffs
Office was called around
11:30 a.m. to the 4200 block
of Holland Drive where Ruth
and Ruby Newberry, 57, were
found dead in a bedroom,
and Andrew Newberry, 24,
was found dead in the living
room from an apparent self-
inflicted gunshot wound.
The Sheriff’s Office said
the man is believed to have
killed the two women, though
the cause of death is still
under investigation.
The Sheriffs Office has not
released a motive.
Family members identi
fied the women as Andrew’s
mother and aunt, Ruth
and Ruby Newberry,
respectively.
The women were twins,
according to their older sister
Jackie London, 80.
“They were good Christian
girls and hard workers,” Lon
don said.
Tim Ragan, who said Ruth
Newberry was his ex-fiancee,
said the killings came as a
“total shock.”
“They were real good
girls,” he said.
He said he wasn’t sure
what the motive might have
been.
The sisters were living in
the same house with Ruth
Newberry’s daughter and her
two daughters, Ragan said.
Family
members gather
outside a home
on Holland Drive
Wednesday,
Dec. 21, where
earlier three
people were
found dead in
a suspected
double murder-
suicide,
according to
authorities.
SCOTT ROGERS
The Times
An extreme game of fetch
Dog has retrieved more than 80K golf balls over 15 years
BY BEN ANDERSON
banderson@gainesvilletimes.com
Frank Booth and his dog Deanie are
getting older, and that means it’s time to
sell their collection of 80,000 golf balls.
Some people collect stamps, trading
cards, coins. Frank Booth, who lives at
hole six of the Chattahoochee Golf Club,
has spent the last 15 years collecting golf
balls with the help of his dog Deanie.
Now, he has an estimated 80,000 of
them taking up half his garage — a
garage he added to his home because
he needed more room for his collection.
His Mini Cooper convertible, meanwhile,
is parked in the driveway under a gray
tarp.
“They don’t make this anymore,”
Booth said. “It’s a 2013 Roadster with a
rounded top and that was the last year
they made those.”
Booth’s hobby — or obsession, as his
wife might put it — began the day he
brought Deanie home.
Deanie is a female feist, a squirrel
hunting dog that descended from terriers
and has been used to hunt small game in
America for hundreds of years.
■ Please see GOLF, 4A
Deanie is a female feist, a squirrel
hunting dog that descended from terriers
and has been used to hunt small game in
America for hundreds of years.
Photos by SCOTT ROGERS I The Times
Frank Booth visits his massive golf ball collection Wednesday, Dec. 21, at his
Gainesville home. Booth is preparing to sell the estimated 80,000 golf balls his dog
Deanie has acquired around the Chattahoochee Golf Course during their daily walks.
Protect pipes
from freezing
temps today
BY BRIAN WELLMEIER
bwellmeier@gainesvilletimes.com
Some of the coldest weather conditions seen
in years are now projected to move into Hall
County early Friday morning.
Temperatures are expected to fall to below
freezing around 4 a.m. and will continue to drop
to a morning low of 14 degrees by 8 a.m. Friday.
That cold front will come in following mod
erate showers between midnight and 3 a.m. —
when the National Weather Service predicts a
20% chance of a wintry mix to fall — increas
ing the possibility of ice forming on the roads
through the early morning hours.
■ Please see PIPES, 4A
UNG names
committee to
seek president
BY BEN ANDERSON
banderson@gainesvilletimes.com
The search for the University of North Geor
gia’s next president is officially underway.
The University System of Georgia’s Board
of Regents on Dec. 20 named 15 members of a
presidential search committee, which will con
duct a national search to replace UNG Presi
dent Bonita Jacobs, who is retiring in June.
Jacobs has led UNG since 2011, when the
board appointed her as the first female presi
dent of what was then North Georgia College &
State University. At the time, she was only the
second woman to lead one of the country’s six
senior military colleges.
UNG’s future holds some challenges as it
braces for a $5 million cut in state funding next
■ Please see UNG, 3A
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