Suvechha Sarkar
In January 2017, 68-year-old Ethel Atkins Raines, also known as Kay, suddenly went missing from her home in Mobile, Alabama. The missing person’s investigation turned into a homicide investigation as time passed by. Unfortunately, her remains were discovered in a shallow grave around two months after her disappearance. A&E’s ‘The First 48: Buried Secrets’ revisits the case, which exposed a tragic string of betrayal and greed. Additionally, the episode follows the detectives in real time, chronicling the investigation’s progress and the killer’s arrest.
Kay Raines’ Remains Were Discovered Two Months After She Went Missing
Ethel Atkins Raines, affectionately known as Kay among her loved ones, was welcomed into the world on September 19, 1948. Her parents, Clarence Nolan and Ethel Gabel Atkins Sr., had always cheered her on to pursue the career she wanted. Kay’s friends often described her as non-judgmental, a quality that helped her make friends from different walks of life. After graduating from high school and completing her undergraduate studies, she earned a Master’s degree in Early Childhood Development from the University of Alabama. Following that, Kay joined the Mobile Mental Health Center as the Director of Children’s Programs, where she developed a program for children with learning disabilities.
Kay left that role to begin working as a realtor and then a magazine publisher, with one of the magazines featuring the cuisine along 30-A in Florida. As an exceptional athlete, she enjoyed playing tennis with UTSA and cheered for her favorite football team during championships. Kay found love when she met Lawrence Ronald “Ron” Raines. After dating for a while, the pair tied the knot in 1980 and welcomed their son, Clarke Raines. Over the years, they lived in Atlanta, Georgia; Cincinnati, Ohio; and Birmingham, Alabama. After she sadly lost Ron forever on April 16, 2006, she moved in with her mother in Mobile, Alabama. Shortly after, Clarke also moved in with Kay. By 2017, she was working part-time at a Home Depot in Biloxi, Mississippi.
On January 28, 2017, Kay’s loved ones became concerned when they were unable to contact her, leading them to report her missing. When officials checked her home in Mobile, they discovered her purse, wallet, car keys, cellphone, and a red suitcase packed with clothes in her bedroom. They further found her car parked outside. After searching for her extensively, officials uncovered her remains from a shallow grave in a wooded region off Alabama Highway 225 on March 27, 2017. Dental records reportedly helped identify the remains as Kay’s. Reports state that forensic experts noted she was hog-tied and wore the same clothes she was last spotted in. The autopsy report determined her cause of death to be asphyxiation by strangulation.
GPS Tracking and Surveillance Footage Helped Officials Identify Kay’s Killer
Initially, officials spoke with one of Kay’s neighbors, Bruce, who informed them that she was struggling with a gambling problem and spent more than $1 million in the casinos, according to reports. In his statements, he told law enforcement that Clarke had struggled with drug addiction but had recently been doing better after Kay helped him go through rehabilitation, per records. Reports state that when Clarke was questioned, he claimed he didn’t know about his mother’s whereabouts but admitted that she spent over a million dollars of the inheritance money she received after her husband died. After tracking her last location, authorities learned that she had visited the Beau Rivage Casino in Biloxi.
When detectives reviewed the casino surveillance footage, they discovered that Kay had arrived at the hotel with a red suitcase similar to the one found at her home and had left the casino on the morning of January 28, 2017, without it. It indicated that she planned to come back. Court records state that the surveillance footage later that night captured Kay’s car arriving at the hotel and Clarke getting on the elevator. Shortly after, the footage showed him leaving with her suitcase. When he was questioned, he initially insisted he wasn’t at the hotel, but later admitted he had been there and claimed the 68-year-old might have been at other casinos, per records. Meanwhile, officials reportedly placed a GPS tracker on Kay’s car to monitor Clarke’s traveling routes.
Reports state that when forensic experts checked Kay’s cellphone records, they found that there was an outgoing call to a wire transfer service made from her phone two days after she went missing. Upon receiving the call recording, investigators concluded that Clarke had made the call to transfer approximately $800 to himself by impersonating his mother, according to court records. On March 27, 2017, authorities followed the route he had taken the day before, where he reportedly stayed for 15 minutes. On checking the area off Alabama Highway 225, they uncovered Kay’s remains. Police records specify that when Clarke was interrogated again, he denied having any involvement in the crime. On March 28, 2017, Clarke was arrested and charged with murder and 13 counts of fraudulent use of a credit card.
Clarke Raines is Incarcerated at an Alabama Prison Today
After Clarke was taken into custody, there was a delay while questions were raised about his competence to stand trial. A judge ruled in 2019 that he was competent, allowing the prosecution to move forward with the case. His jury trial began in March 2022, during which the prosecution argued that he had strangled Kay to death. They also argued that he used her credit and debit cards after her death. Furthermore, the prosecution presented several witnesses before the court along with GPS evidence, financial records, and surveillance footage.
Court records state that the prosecution alleged that Clarke killed his mother because he felt he was entitled to his father’s inheritance money, but became upset that she spent it in the casinos. Moreover, they highlighted his prior arrests, including driving under the influence, domestic violence, and burglary. During a police interview, it was reportedly indicated that Clarke had previously served 2 years in prison, though details regarding the specific charge were not extensively detailed in the trial as well as public reports. On the other hand, the defense claimed that there was no evidence connecting Clarke to the murder.
The defense argued that the case was circumstantial and reportedly asked the jury not to assume that he was a bad person since he was a drug addict. Ultimately, on March 23, 2022, the jury convicted him of murder and 13 counts of fraudulent use of a credit card. On August 8, 2022, Clarke was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for murder. He also received a sentence of 10 years for each of 13 counts of the second charge, to be run concurrently with the life sentence. Clarke is currently serving his sentence at the St. Clair Correctional Facility in Springville, Alabama.
