PHOTOS: 'The Atlanta Child Murders' Premieres Saturday

ATLANTA -- A dark and terrorizing time of Atlanta history has been reopened to the nation's consciousness. On Thursday, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and local law enforcement officials said some of the evidence pertaining to the Atlanta child murders would be reopened and retested using modern forensics technology.

The announcement came just hours before a new Investigation Discovery series, "The Atlanta Child Murders," premieres on Saturday, March 23, at 9pm EST.

Twenty-two of the 29 murders that took place between 1979 and 1981 have been deemed cold cases since Wayne Williams was convicted of two of the killings. Those cases are the subject of the upcoming documentary.

In 1981 Williams was convicted of the murders of two adults in the Atlanta area. The judge allowed the prosecution to attribute 10 additional victims to him, essentially putting Williams on trial for the entire Atlanta Child Murders case.

On Thursday, Bottoms and Police Chief Erica Shields confirmed that technological advances in testing DNA evidence will be the main focus as the cases are reexamined. “As law enforcement, we have an obligation to exhaust every conceivable avenue of investigation and make every effort to make sure these families receive closure,” Shields said.

Read more: Police To Retest Atlanta Child Murders Evidence

“It would certainly be in order for us to look once again at evidence that the city of Atlanta has in its possession, to once again take a fresh look at these cases and to determine once and for all if there's additional evidence that may be tested that may give some peace," Bottoms said. "To let them know that we have done all that we can do...to make sure their memories are not forgotten, and in the truest sense of the word to let the world know that black lives do matter.”

“We are thrilled that the Atlanta Police Department has decided to reexamine these cases, and we hope this moves the city one step closer to finding the closure that these families so desperately need and deserve,” said Henry Schleiff, group president of Investigation Discovery, Travel Channel, American Heroes Channel, and Destination America.