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The Assassination of Sara Tokars
A look into one of Georgia’s most notorious murders.
The Murder
It was Thanksgiving weekend, 1992. Sunday night, November 29, was a quiet one in the Marietta neighborhood of Kings Cove, which housed comfortable, upscale homes that ranged from twenty years old to new. It was not long after 10 p.m. when one of the homeowners heard a knocking at his front door and opened it to two little boys, who were spattered with blood and holding hands. The older of the two told him that “a bad man shot my mom,” “a bad black man” with a “pirate gun.” He wanted the man to call his grandfather, who was a doctor. The little boy, six-year-old Ricky Tokars, thought that since his grandfather was a doctor, he could make his mom better.
Ricky pointed to a white Toyota 4-Runner, parked in a field across the street only half a mile from the Tokars residence. The homeowner took a friend to investigate and found a terrible sight. When they opened the driver’s-side door, the body of thirty-nine year old Sara Tokars fell out. She had suffered a horrifying shotgun wound to the back of her head.
The Cobb County police notified Sara’s family in Bradenton, Florida and her husband, Fred Tokars, who was at a Montgomery, Alabama hotel. Sara’s father, John Ambrusko, later recalled that Fred was hysterical the first time they talked by phone following the notifications. Detectives found Fred to be a sobbing mess, which was understandable, but they also smelled beer on his breath, which Fred claimed to be an attempt from his attorney — one of his first calls — to calm him. Less understandable was Fred’s refusal to cooperate and his resistance to walk through the family home with the investigators. He provided sketchy details on how the house was secured, couldn’t say whether or not Sara’s jewelry had been disturbed, or why the safe was open. He was certain, though, that his guitar had been moved.
The Investigation
As Fred was a well-known attorney and former prosecutor, the murder became an immediate big news story.
