September 14, 2025 • 20 mins
A shocking triple homicide shatters the peaceful facade of small-town Windsor, North Carolina, leaving a community forever changed and a killer who vanished without a trace.
When people talk about small towns where everyone knows everyone and doors remain unlocked, they're talking about places like Windsor. With just 2,000 residents in 1993, this tight-knit community believed they knew all the faces that walked their streets—until June 6th, when an unmasked stranger turned a routine grocery store robbery into an execution-style triple murder that remains unsolved three decades later.
The Be-Lo grocery store served as more than just a place to shop—it was where locals caught up on gossip while grabbing their essentials. But as manager Grover Cecil and cashier Joyce Friesen prepared to close on that fateful Sunday evening, they had no idea someone had been hiding among the aisles, waiting. After a cleaning crew arrived and Cecil locked the front door, the gunman emerged with a .45 caliber pistol and a chilling claim: he was a former police officer with "nothing to lose." What followed was a methodical attack that left three people dead, two seriously wounded, and a community traumatized.
The case yielded tantalizing evidence—a fingerprint, DNA from the killer's blood when he broke his knife while stabbing a victim, witness descriptions, and reports of a white sedan with Maryland plates fleeing town. Yet despite the FBI's involvement, a detailed behavioral profile, and a $30,000 reward that remains active today, the killer's identity remains a mystery. The fingerprint and blood have never matched anyone in law enforcement databases, contradicting his claim of being a former officer. Was this the work of a sophisticated killer who knew how to cover his tracks, or simply a brutal crime of opportunity that benefited from luck and timing? The question haunts Windsor to this day.
Have you heard about this case before? If you have information that might help solve this long-cold triple homicide, contact the Windsor Police Department or the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation—because somewhere, someone knows what really happened that night at the Be-Lo store.
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Special thank you to Lunarfall Audio for producing and doing all the heavy lifting on audio editing since April 13, 2025, the Murder of Christopher Meyer episode https://lunarfallaudio.com/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Small towns are great .
Everyone knows everyone.
People don't lock their doors.
Everybody knows your business.
Can't go anywhere withoutrunning into a familiar face.
You can't spit on Main Streetwithout that bitch Mary over a
knife knowing about it fiveminutes later.
There are no strangers, but onone night in 1993, a stranger
(00:26):
did come into a small town inNorth Carolina and three people
would end up dead A robbery andtriple homicide that would
remain unsolved for over 30years.
So what happened?
I'm Andrew, and this isHistory's A Disaster.
(00:52):
Tonight we're taking a diveinto an unsolved murder that
took place in Windsor, northCarolina, in 1993.
Tonight's episode is brought toyou by Stack-Em-Up, the
revolutionary new storage systemthat'll let you stack anything
to meet your storage demands.
(01:15):
Now, windsor is a small town inthe county seat of Birdie County
in North Carolina.
It's located in the inlandcoastal area of Northeast North
Carolina called the Inner Banks.
It's a small town in a sea ofsmall towns, and by small, it
currently has a population ofroughly 4,000 people, and back
(01:37):
in 1993, that number was closerto 2,000.
So, like I said in the intro,it's the type of place where
everyone knows everyone, andover on Granville Street was the
local B-Lo store.
That's B-Lo, not Bilo.
I had to look it up because Iwas confused and I thought there
(02:00):
was a typo.
The B-Lo store was part of asmall regional chain of grocery
stores in the area.
This store in particular wasalso one of the town's central
meeting places.
It was both a place to get yourshopping done and catch up with
local gossip, as localsstrolled up and down the aisles
(02:21):
getting their shopping done andchatting with whoever they ran
into.
Strangers weren't uncommon inthe area, with US 17, the
coastal highway running rightthrough the center of town,
which would bring some peoplethrough who would stop to visit
the parks in the area.
B-lo, however, was not on thehighway and kind of off the main
(02:42):
road, so you really had to knowit was there.
It's not something most peoplepassing through would stumble
upon.
On Sunday, june 6th, most peoplewere out enjoying the weather
on this Memorial Day weekend.
Rover Cecil was not.
He was the relatively newmanager at B-Lo and had to work
(03:03):
the closing shift on this Sunday, and he's looking at a long
night ahead of him with havingto close the store, plus a
cleaning crew was coming in todo the floors.
While this was mostly routine,I'm sure this 47-year-old
husband and father of five hadbetter things to do on a holiday
weekend.
Joyce Friesen, a 36-year-oldsingle mother of two, was
(03:27):
getting ready for her closingshift as the cashier at B-Love.
She was looking forward to theearly closing hours.
With the store closing at 6,she would have plenty of time to
spend with her new fiancé.
With the summer coming, herupcoming wedding was getting
closer.
It was just a few months away.
The day dragged on as a slowstream of customers came in to
(03:50):
shop and gossip.
Joyce and Grover made the bestof it by chatting with customers
as they came in and when no onewas in there they got a jump
start on the closing cleaningchecklist.
As six o'clock rolls around, thefour-man cleaning crew pull up
in their pickup truck.
Johnny Rankins Jr, sylvesterWelch Jr, who went by, tony and
(04:12):
brothers Jasper and Thomas Hardystart unloading their equipment
in preparation of waxing andcleaning the floors.
As Cecil locked the front door.
While Cecil walked through thestore, leaving Joyce alone, near
the front, an unknown figure, ablack male with a
(04:37):
military-style haircut andslender build, steps out of
hiding With no mask or any meansto hide his identity.
He pulls a .45 caliber pistoland aims it at Joyce.
He tells her to stay calm andcall for the manager.
As Grover comes forward, thegunman takes control of the
situation, using the gun as ameans of controlling his two
(04:58):
hostages.
He orders them into the cashoffice With the gun in his back.
Grover is ordered to open thesafe and fill a canvas bag with
the money $3,000 quickly fillsthe bag.
Money inhand.
The attacker orders hishostages toward the back of the
store.
As they near the back, jasperHardy, who had been sweeping the
(05:19):
floors, rounds the corner andsees the trio.
He sees the weird looks onGrover and Joyce's faces and
some guy he doesn't know.
Then he notices the gun pressedinto Grover's back.
Grover tells him to do what theman says.
He meansbusiness.
The attacker takes a detourthrough the pet section,
stopping momentarily to grab ahandful of leashes before
(05:43):
ordering the group onwards.
They stumble on two othermembers of the cleaning crew who
submitted to the attacker'sdemands and called for the
fourth member to come out.
He pushed them onwards to theback storeroom.
Still in control.
He tells the hostages that he'sa former cop and since he just
got fired he has nothing left tolose.
(06:04):
A clear threat of evilintentions.
He pulls out a roll of ducttape and tells his hostages to
tie each other up with the tapeand the leashes, before
eventually tying the last one uphimself.
His calm demeanor slowly splitsaway as he mutters to himself I
don't want to have to killanybody.
The mood in the room turnssinister as he orders his
(06:28):
cooperating hostages to lie onthe floor, one on top of each
other in three piles, his pistolwaving in the air.
To punctuate his commands, theylay one on top of the other,
grover on top of one stack,joyce another and Johnny Rankins
the last.
They held their breaths andwaited for the sounds of his
(06:48):
receding footsteps.
What they heard was far worse.
The gunman, still muttering tohimself, says I hope God
forgives me for what I'm aboutto
do.
Then a gunshot breaks thesilence, followed by another and
another On the fourth triggerpull.
(07:09):
The gun clicks on an emptymagazine.
He had fired one shot each intothe three stacks of bodies,
hoping that the large caliberbullet would go through and kill
both people in the stack.
It does not.
He separates them and placesthem face down in a growing pool
of blood.
The brothers, thomas and JasperHardy, are uninjured.
(07:32):
Seeing this, the attacker walksaway, the brothers remain still
and silent as they offer up aprayer that it was all over.
That hope was crushed as theirattacker comes back with a large
knife from another room, hewalks up to Thomas and asks if
he can identify him to police.
Thomas says no, and this pissedoff the killer.
(07:55):
He yells at Thomas, saying hedoesn't believe him.
He lashes out with the knifeand cuts Thomas's throat.
Still enraged, he stabs Thomasin the back over and over, with
enough force to snap the bladeoff in his back.
With Thomas bleeding out, heturns his attention to Jasper
and repeats his question.
(08:15):
Jasper tells him no man, Idon't know you.
He holds his breath, waitingfor the death blow that's surely
coming.
Instead he hears Okay, big man,I believe you, and the sounds
of the attacker's footstepsfading
away.
The attack was over as quicklyas it had begun.
Tony Welch, who had beenseverely wounded as the bullet
(08:37):
passed through, another bodystruck him, managed to free
himself.
Blood had covered the duct tapeto the point it lost its
stickiness.
He manages to control his fearand immense pain from the
gunshot wound and crawls to thefront of the store, leaving a
trail of blood behind as hemakes his way to get to a phone
to call thecops.
(08:57):
Windsor police were on scenequickly.
The scene from the outsidelooked normal enough.
The only vehicle is in theparking lot belonging to the
cleaning crew and the employees.
The front door was locked whenthey tried it and no one
answered the phone when theymade attempts to contact anyone
inside.
Once they gained entry, thestore was deathly quiet and
(09:25):
still Only the hum of thefreezers filled the air.
They came across Tony Welchfirst.
They waited for paramedics tosee to Tony before following his
blood trail to the rear of thestore and the horrors that
awaited them.
Grover, cecil and Joyce Reasonlay in a pool of blood, dead
from gunshot wounds to the head.
(09:46):
Johnny Rankins lay in the poolnearby, dead from a gunshot
wound to the back.
Tony Welch and Thomas Hardy,both gravely injured, are rushed
to the Pitt Memorial Hospitalin Greenville, 42 miles away.
Jasper Hardy managed to remainuninjured.
Securing the scene, the copscollected evidence and tried to
(10:09):
piece together what happened.
They find the three shellcasings near where the victims
laid.
Two bloody footprints werefound.
One was from medical personneland the other is believed to
have come from the killer.
A stray fingerprint on the ducttape not belonging to the
victims was lifted, as well as asmall blood sample that didn't
(10:31):
match anyone was found.
The killer was believed to havecut himself when the knife
broke and left his DNAbehind.
While the police searched forevidence, two separate witnesses
called the police about a whitesedan with Maryland plates
speeding out of town northboundon US 17.
They would give a vaguedescription of the driver of the
(10:53):
car.
Tony and Thomas would latertalk to police and give them
more information, which wouldeventually lead to a sketch of
the killer.
Early in the investigation theywould get plenty of leads, but
none of them amounted to anyserious information.
They put out the word to otherlaw enforcement agencies about
the killer's claim of being aformer cop, while they would
(11:16):
receive lists of recently firedcops.
Nothing came of it and many ofthe people working the case had
their doubts on the claim tobegin with.
The fact that he went into arobbery with only three bullets
led them to believe he didn'thave any sort of police or
militarytraining.
No one in the surrounding areaseen or heard anything out of
(11:38):
the ordinary no gunshots, noscreams, nothing as far as the
town was concerned.
Until police showed up at B-Lo.
Nothing was wrong.
It was just another Sunday.
They put up wanted posters allover town, the sketch of the
killer's face, a constantreminder around town everywhere
(11:58):
you look, with no one in custodyand no suspects.
The town was scared.
Firearms classes held by theBirdie County Sheriff's
Department were filled up.
No one was taking chances withtheir safety.
Everyone was onedge.
Five days after the murders,b-lo reopened but sales were way
(12:25):
down.
No one wanted to shop there anddeal with another constant
reminder of this tragedy.
By the end of July the storewas permanently closed and left
boarded up, a terrible reminderof that night.
More leads came pouring in,some from as far away as
Washington State.
People were seeing the suspecteverywhere and I'm sure none of
(12:47):
it had anything to do withpeople hoping to cash in on the
$30,000 reward that was raisedfor information.
However, no progress was made.
All the leads were vague andled nowhere.
The store's surveillance systemwas not working the night of
the murders so there was no helpthere.
The fingerprint and DNA lednowhere.
(13:09):
No matches have ever been found, which, to me at least, rules
out any former cops ormilitary.
The FBI's behavioral scienceunit got involved and took what
little was known and developed aprofile of the killer.
According to their profile, thekiller had served time in
prison, likely for aquote-unquote serious felony.
(13:33):
During his time in prison, hewas probably a model prisoner,
cooperative andnon-confrontational.
Odds were he had fallen in witha religious group, maybe even a
cult.
Now, whether he was simply afollower or worked his way into
a position of leadership in thisgroup is another question.
(13:53):
The profile paints him ascharismatic, able to manipulate
people to suit his will.
His overall demeanor during thecommission of his crimes is an
extension of his personality,one that uses a friendly facade
to mask his true intentions.
It is also unlikely that thebelow murders were his first, a
(14:15):
fact that likely helped buildhis
confidence.
This is a dangerous man.
The bonds of family and friendsdo not ensure safety.
This is especially true if hesuspects someone knows about the
things he has done.
The FBI strongly believed hewould have confided in someone
about the crime.
Plus, if the reports about thewhite sedan are true, there was
(14:39):
a second person involved.
Now, my main issue with thisprofile is the killer being in
prison.
If he had been convicted of aserious felony, as the profile
suggests, would his prints havebeen in the system, unless he
just managed to get lucky, beingthe early 90s and they hadn't
been put in yet.
Maybe I don'tknow.
(14:59):
With nothing coming back fromany leads, the investigation is
looking grim.
Then a company out of Texascomes forward with a possible
solution Satellites.
If they were lucky, there was asatellite in orbit above
Windsor that may have gotten apicture that night, a picture
they could blow up and maybe getmore information out of.
(15:21):
In August the town councildesperately agreed to pay the
$300 fee to run a scan to see ifthere was a satellite overhead
that night.
Okay, I know they're desperateand grasping at any straws in
hopes of solving the case, butwhat are the chances that in
1993, a satellite is going to bedirectly overhead of a random
(15:46):
small town in North Carolina?
Unsurprisingly, the scan cameback that there was none in the
sky thatnight.
With the investigation stallingout, fear had a stranglehold on
the town.
Parents wouldn't let their kidsoutside to play.
(16:07):
Merchants called for policeescorts to make their nightly
deposits.
They all feared the killer wasstill in town, waiting right
around the corner to get them.
As time ticked by, the fearlessened, but only slightly.
Leads continued to come in andlaw enforcement agencies
investigated everyone.
(16:28):
For the residents of Windsor,life started to go back to
normal.
In June of 1994, they held amemorial service in the parking
lot of the now vacant store.
Over 200 people came to bothpay their respects and to show
support for the families of thevictims.
With the killers still at large, the survivors didn't show up
(16:50):
For them.
Like the families of thosekilled, normalcy was never going
to happen and this would not bethe only unsolved robbery
turned murder in the area at thetime.
21 miles south of Windsor isthe town of Beargrass, home of
Cherry's Cupboard, a conveniencestore just a few miles off of
(17:12):
US 17.
It was a favorite of the localswho came in for the hot food
being served at the grill inside.
The fresh fried chicken was atown favorite.
The owner, jerry Cherry and Ilove that name.
The owner Jerry Cherry, kneweveryone that came in mostly May
(17:32):
30th of 1993, a week before theB-Lo murders started, like any
other, customers came and wentpicking up supplies for the
holiday weekend or to get someof that fried chicken.
As business slowed down, jerryCherry left to run some errands
which left the 65-year-oldAudrey Leggett alone in the
(17:54):
store.
She helped out a few customersand talked to her daughter on
the phone.
She would eventually have toget off the phone when another
customer came in.
A while later a customer walksin to find this store unintended
.
After a quick search, audrey'sbody was found in the cooler.
She had been shot multipletimes by a .22 caliber pistol.
(18:16):
Police were called in and theyset up roadblocks, but nothing
came of it.
There was no witnesses and noleads.
There's some speculation tolink the two murders, but
nothing concrete Could just beone hell of a coincidence based
onthe timing.
On May 10th of 1994, anotherB-Lo in Hertford, north Carolina
(18:38):
, was similarly robbed.
Hertford is 34 miles north ofWindsor.
The gunman hid in the store andwaited till after closing to
come out and rob the store witha large caliber handgun.
The manager and cashier wereagain bound with duct tape and
leashes.
However, the gunman did notshoot anyone.
(18:58):
He let them live anddisappeared with an undisclosed
amountof money.
There was a few otherdifferences in the robbery.
The gunman didn't speak duringthe crime.
He also wore a mask to hide hisface and was described as
having a stocky build, where thekiller in the Windsor robbery
was described as slender.
It's unknown if the two areconnected or if this was just a
(19:22):
copycat.
The case still remains activeto this day.
Leads still come in that needto be chased down and that
fingerprint and DNA are checkedto see if anything ever comes up
.
The $30,000 reward is stillactive for anyone with
information leading to an arrest.
Anyone with information isencouraged to contact the
(19:45):
Windsor Police Department or theNorth Carolina State Bureau of
Investigation.
And that was the unsolved B-Lowmurders and that was the
unsolvedbelow murders.
Thanks for listening and if youlike the show, please consider
leaving a rating or review onyour app of choice, and you can
(20:06):
reach out to the show athistoriesofdisaster at gmailcom
with questions, comments orsuggestions, as well as follow
the show on social mediaFacebook, instagram, tumblr, a
few others, you know, tiktok,youtube, whatever and share the
episode.
Your friends will love it.
Take care of yourself out there.
(20:27):
Chase that dream.
Live for today, becausetomorrow is never guaranteed.
Thanks and goodbye.
Small towns are great .
Everyone knows everyone.
People don't lock their doors.
Everybody knows your business.
Can't go anywhere withoutrunning into a familiar face.
You can't spit on Main Streetwithout that bitch Mary over a
knife knowing about it fiveminutes later.
There are no strangers, but onone night in 1993, a stranger
(00:26):
did come into a small town inNorth Carolina and three people
would end up dead A robbery andtriple homicide that would
remain unsolved for over 30years.
So what happened?
I'm Andrew, and this isHistory's A Disaster.
(00:52):
Tonight we're taking a diveinto an unsolved murder that
took place in Windsor, northCarolina, in 1993.
Tonight's episode is brought toyou by Stack-Em-Up, the
revolutionary new storage systemthat'll let you stack anything
to meet your storage demands.
(01:15):
Now, windsor is a small town inthe county seat of Birdie County
in North Carolina.
It's located in the inlandcoastal area of Northeast North
Carolina called the Inner Banks.
It's a small town in a sea ofsmall towns, and by small, it
currently has a population ofroughly 4,000 people, and back
(01:37):
in 1993, that number was closerto 2,000.
So, like I said in the intro,it's the type of place where
everyone knows everyone, andover on Granville Street was the
local B-Lo store.
That's B-Lo, not Bilo.
I had to look it up because Iwas confused and I thought there
(02:00):
was a typo.
The B-Lo store was part of asmall regional chain of grocery
stores in the area.
This store in particular wasalso one of the town's central
meeting places.
It was both a place to get yourshopping done and catch up with
local gossip, as localsstrolled up and down the aisles
(02:21):
getting their shopping done andchatting with whoever they ran
into.
Strangers weren't uncommon inthe area, with US 17, the
coastal highway running rightthrough the center of town,
which would bring some peoplethrough who would stop to visit
the parks in the area.
B-lo, however, was not on thehighway and kind of off the main
(02:42):
road, so you really had to knowit was there.
It's not something most peoplepassing through would stumble
upon.
On Sunday, june 6th, most peoplewere out enjoying the weather
on this Memorial Day weekend.
Rover Cecil was not.
He was the relatively newmanager at B-Lo and had to work
(03:03):
the closing shift on this Sunday, and he's looking at a long
night ahead of him with havingto close the store, plus a
cleaning crew was coming in todo the floors.
While this was mostly routine,I'm sure this 47-year-old
husband and father of five hadbetter things to do on a holiday
weekend.
Joyce Friesen, a 36-year-oldsingle mother of two, was
(03:27):
getting ready for her closingshift as the cashier at B-Love.
She was looking forward to theearly closing hours.
With the store closing at 6,she would have plenty of time to
spend with her new fiancé.
With the summer coming, herupcoming wedding was getting
closer.
It was just a few months away.
The day dragged on as a slowstream of customers came in to
(03:50):
shop and gossip.
Joyce and Grover made the bestof it by chatting with customers
as they came in and when no onewas in there they got a jump
start on the closing cleaningchecklist.
As six o'clock rolls around, thefour-man cleaning crew pull up
in their pickup truck.
Johnny Rankins Jr, sylvesterWelch Jr, who went by, tony and
(04:12):
brothers Jasper and Thomas Hardystart unloading their equipment
in preparation of waxing andcleaning the floors.
As Cecil locked the front door.
While Cecil walked through thestore, leaving Joyce alone, near
the front, an unknown figure, ablack male with a
(04:37):
military-style haircut andslender build, steps out of
hiding With no mask or any meansto hide his identity.
He pulls a .45 caliber pistoland aims it at Joyce.
He tells her to stay calm andcall for the manager.
As Grover comes forward, thegunman takes control of the
situation, using the gun as ameans of controlling his two
(04:58):
hostages.
He orders them into the cashoffice With the gun in his back.
Grover is ordered to open thesafe and fill a canvas bag with
the money $3,000 quickly fillsthe bag.
Money inhand.
The attacker orders hishostages toward the back of the
store.
As they near the back, jasperHardy, who had been sweeping the
(05:19):
floors, rounds the corner andsees the trio.
He sees the weird looks onGrover and Joyce's faces and
some guy he doesn't know.
Then he notices the gun pressedinto Grover's back.
Grover tells him to do what theman says.
He meansbusiness.
The attacker takes a detourthrough the pet section,
stopping momentarily to grab ahandful of leashes before
(05:43):
ordering the group onwards.
They stumble on two othermembers of the cleaning crew who
submitted to the attacker'sdemands and called for the
fourth member to come out.
He pushed them onwards to theback storeroom.
Still in control.
He tells the hostages that he'sa former cop and since he just
got fired he has nothing left tolose.
(06:04):
A clear threat of evilintentions.
He pulls out a roll of ducttape and tells his hostages to
tie each other up with the tapeand the leashes, before
eventually tying the last one uphimself.
His calm demeanor slowly splitsaway as he mutters to himself I
don't want to have to killanybody.
The mood in the room turnssinister as he orders his
(06:28):
cooperating hostages to lie onthe floor, one on top of each
other in three piles, his pistolwaving in the air.
To punctuate his commands, theylay one on top of the other,
grover on top of one stack,joyce another and Johnny Rankins
the last.
They held their breaths andwaited for the sounds of his
(06:48):
receding footsteps.
What they heard was far worse.
The gunman, still muttering tohimself, says I hope God
forgives me for what I'm aboutto
do.
Then a gunshot breaks thesilence, followed by another and
another On the fourth triggerpull.
(07:09):
The gun clicks on an emptymagazine.
He had fired one shot each intothe three stacks of bodies,
hoping that the large caliberbullet would go through and kill
both people in the stack.
It does not.
He separates them and placesthem face down in a growing pool
of blood.
The brothers, thomas and JasperHardy, are uninjured.
(07:32):
Seeing this, the attacker walksaway, the brothers remain still
and silent as they offer up aprayer that it was all over.
That hope was crushed as theirattacker comes back with a large
knife from another room, hewalks up to Thomas and asks if
he can identify him to police.
Thomas says no, and this pissedoff the killer.
(07:55):
He yells at Thomas, saying hedoesn't believe him.
He lashes out with the knifeand cuts Thomas's throat.
Still enraged, he stabs Thomasin the back over and over, with
enough force to snap the bladeoff in his back.
With Thomas bleeding out, heturns his attention to Jasper
and repeats his question.
(08:15):
Jasper tells him no man, Idon't know you.
He holds his breath, waitingfor the death blow that's surely
coming.
Instead he hears Okay, big man,I believe you, and the sounds
of the attacker's footstepsfading
away.
The attack was over as quicklyas it had begun.
Tony Welch, who had beenseverely wounded as the bullet
(08:37):
passed through, another bodystruck him, managed to free
himself.
Blood had covered the duct tapeto the point it lost its
stickiness.
He manages to control his fearand immense pain from the
gunshot wound and crawls to thefront of the store, leaving a
trail of blood behind as hemakes his way to get to a phone
to call thecops.
(08:57):
Windsor police were on scenequickly.
The scene from the outsidelooked normal enough.
The only vehicle is in theparking lot belonging to the
cleaning crew and the employees.
The front door was locked whenthey tried it and no one
answered the phone when theymade attempts to contact anyone
inside.
Once they gained entry, thestore was deathly quiet and
(09:25):
still Only the hum of thefreezers filled the air.
They came across Tony Welchfirst.
They waited for paramedics tosee to Tony before following his
blood trail to the rear of thestore and the horrors that
awaited them.
Grover, cecil and Joyce Reasonlay in a pool of blood, dead
from gunshot wounds to the head.
(09:46):
Johnny Rankins lay in the poolnearby, dead from a gunshot
wound to the back.
Tony Welch and Thomas Hardy,both gravely injured, are rushed
to the Pitt Memorial Hospitalin Greenville, 42 miles away.
Jasper Hardy managed to remainuninjured.
Securing the scene, the copscollected evidence and tried to
(10:09):
piece together what happened.
They find the three shellcasings near where the victims
laid.
Two bloody footprints werefound.
One was from medical personneland the other is believed to
have come from the killer.
A stray fingerprint on the ducttape not belonging to the
victims was lifted, as well as asmall blood sample that didn't
(10:31):
match anyone was found.
The killer was believed to havecut himself when the knife
broke and left his DNAbehind.
While the police searched forevidence, two separate witnesses
called the police about a whitesedan with Maryland plates
speeding out of town northboundon US 17.
They would give a vaguedescription of the driver of the
(10:53):
car.
Tony and Thomas would latertalk to police and give them
more information, which wouldeventually lead to a sketch of
the killer.
Early in the investigation theywould get plenty of leads, but
none of them amounted to anyserious information.
They put out the word to otherlaw enforcement agencies about
the killer's claim of being aformer cop, while they would
(11:16):
receive lists of recently firedcops.
Nothing came of it and many ofthe people working the case had
their doubts on the claim tobegin with.
The fact that he went into arobbery with only three bullets
led them to believe he didn'thave any sort of police or
militarytraining.
No one in the surrounding areaseen or heard anything out of
(11:38):
the ordinary no gunshots, noscreams, nothing as far as the
town was concerned.
Until police showed up at B-Lo.
Nothing was wrong.
It was just another Sunday.
They put up wanted posters allover town, the sketch of the
killer's face, a constantreminder around town everywhere
(11:58):
you look, with no one in custodyand no suspects.
The town was scared.
Firearms classes held by theBirdie County Sheriff's
Department were filled up.
No one was taking chances withtheir safety.
Everyone was onedge.
Five days after the murders,b-lo reopened but sales were way
(12:25):
down.
No one wanted to shop there anddeal with another constant
reminder of this tragedy.
By the end of July the storewas permanently closed and left
boarded up, a terrible reminderof that night.
More leads came pouring in,some from as far away as
Washington State.
People were seeing the suspecteverywhere and I'm sure none of
(12:47):
it had anything to do withpeople hoping to cash in on the
$30,000 reward that was raisedfor information.
However, no progress was made.
All the leads were vague andled nowhere.
The store's surveillance systemwas not working the night of
the murders so there was no helpthere.
The fingerprint and DNA lednowhere.
(13:09):
No matches have ever been found, which, to me at least, rules
out any former cops ormilitary.
The FBI's behavioral scienceunit got involved and took what
little was known and developed aprofile of the killer.
According to their profile, thekiller had served time in
prison, likely for aquote-unquote serious felony.
(13:33):
During his time in prison, hewas probably a model prisoner,
cooperative andnon-confrontational.
Odds were he had fallen in witha religious group, maybe even a
cult.
Now, whether he was simply afollower or worked his way into
a position of leadership in thisgroup is another question.
(13:53):
The profile paints him ascharismatic, able to manipulate
people to suit his will.
His overall demeanor during thecommission of his crimes is an
extension of his personality,one that uses a friendly facade
to mask his true intentions.
It is also unlikely that thebelow murders were his first, a
(14:15):
fact that likely helped buildhis
confidence.
This is a dangerous man.
The bonds of family and friendsdo not ensure safety.
This is especially true if hesuspects someone knows about the
things he has done.
The FBI strongly believed hewould have confided in someone
about the crime.
Plus, if the reports about thewhite sedan are true, there was
(14:39):
a second person involved.
Now, my main issue with thisprofile is the killer being in
prison.
If he had been convicted of aserious felony, as the profile
suggests, would his prints havebeen in the system, unless he
just managed to get lucky, beingthe early 90s and they hadn't
been put in yet.
Maybe I don'tknow.
(14:59):
With nothing coming back fromany leads, the investigation is
looking grim.
Then a company out of Texascomes forward with a possible
solution Satellites.
If they were lucky, there was asatellite in orbit above
Windsor that may have gotten apicture that night, a picture
they could blow up and maybe getmore information out of.
(15:21):
In August the town councildesperately agreed to pay the
$300 fee to run a scan to see ifthere was a satellite overhead
that night.
Okay, I know they're desperateand grasping at any straws in
hopes of solving the case, butwhat are the chances that in
1993, a satellite is going to bedirectly overhead of a random
(15:46):
small town in North Carolina?
Unsurprisingly, the scan cameback that there was none in the
sky thatnight.
With the investigation stallingout, fear had a stranglehold on
the town.
Parents wouldn't let their kidsoutside to play.
(16:07):
Merchants called for policeescorts to make their nightly
deposits.
They all feared the killer wasstill in town, waiting right
around the corner to get them.
As time ticked by, the fearlessened, but only slightly.
Leads continued to come in andlaw enforcement agencies
investigated everyone.
(16:28):
For the residents of Windsor,life started to go back to
normal.
In June of 1994, they held amemorial service in the parking
lot of the now vacant store.
Over 200 people came to bothpay their respects and to show
support for the families of thevictims.
With the killers still at large, the survivors didn't show up
(16:50):
For them.
Like the families of thosekilled, normalcy was never going
to happen and this would not bethe only unsolved robbery
turned murder in the area at thetime.
21 miles south of Windsor isthe town of Beargrass, home of
Cherry's Cupboard, a conveniencestore just a few miles off of
(17:12):
US 17.
It was a favorite of the localswho came in for the hot food
being served at the grill inside.
The fresh fried chicken was atown favorite.
The owner, jerry Cherry and Ilove that name.
The owner Jerry Cherry, kneweveryone that came in mostly May
(17:32):
30th of 1993, a week before theB-Lo murders started, like any
other, customers came and wentpicking up supplies for the
holiday weekend or to get someof that fried chicken.
As business slowed down, jerryCherry left to run some errands
which left the 65-year-oldAudrey Leggett alone in the
(17:54):
store.
She helped out a few customersand talked to her daughter on
the phone.
She would eventually have toget off the phone when another
customer came in.
A while later a customer walksin to find this store unintended
.
After a quick search, audrey'sbody was found in the cooler.
She had been shot multipletimes by a .22 caliber pistol.
(18:16):
Police were called in and theyset up roadblocks, but nothing
came of it.
There was no witnesses and noleads.
There's some speculation tolink the two murders, but
nothing concrete Could just beone hell of a coincidence based
onthe timing.
On May 10th of 1994, anotherB-Lo in Hertford, north Carolina
(18:38):
, was similarly robbed.
Hertford is 34 miles north ofWindsor.
The gunman hid in the store andwaited till after closing to
come out and rob the store witha large caliber handgun.
The manager and cashier wereagain bound with duct tape and
leashes.
However, the gunman did notshoot anyone.
(18:58):
He let them live anddisappeared with an undisclosed
amountof money.
There was a few otherdifferences in the robbery.
The gunman didn't speak duringthe crime.
He also wore a mask to hide hisface and was described as
having a stocky build, where thekiller in the Windsor robbery
was described as slender.
It's unknown if the two areconnected or if this was just a
(19:22):
copycat.
The case still remains activeto this day.
Leads still come in that needto be chased down and that
fingerprint and DNA are checkedto see if anything ever comes up
.
The $30,000 reward is stillactive for anyone with
information leading to an arrest.
Anyone with information isencouraged to contact the
(19:45):
Windsor Police Department or theNorth Carolina State Bureau of
Investigation.
And that was the unsolved B-Lowmurders and that was the
unsolvedbelow murders.
Thanks for listening and if youlike the show, please consider
leaving a rating or review onyour app of choice, and you can
(20:06):
reach out to the show athistoriesofdisaster at gmailcom
with questions, comments orsuggestions, as well as follow
the show on social mediaFacebook, instagram, tumblr, a
few others, you know, tiktok,youtube, whatever and share the
episode.
Your friends will love it.
Take care of yourself out there.
(20:27):
Chase that dream.
Live for today, becausetomorrow is never guaranteed.
Thanks and goodbye.
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