May 31, 2024 • 25 mins
Dive deep into the perplexing mystery surrounding the Sumter County Does, Jane Doe and Jock Doe also known as Buckley and Freund. This chilling unsolved case has puzzled investigators for years. Join us as we explore the clues, theories, and possible leads in an attempt to shed light on this haunting case. Subscribe for more true crime content and join us in unraveling the enigma of the Sumter County Does.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Before I even start this story, I wanted to mention the whole pretext that a human being
(00:05):
could be found dead.
And no one, and I mean no one else in the whole world, knows who that person is.
I find it so very sad.
The families of these missing people never know if their loved one is dead or alive.
And it seems like such a lonely, restless death to never be identified.
(00:27):
It's maddening that we have thousands of missing people in the United States alone.
At last count in 2023, there were approximately 14,000 dead bodies awaiting identification.
Many are cases where the killer of Jane or John Doe, as unidentified people are known,
are never caught and forced to face justice.
(00:48):
Think about that.
So many killers never caught, able to live freely among us.
Come along with me for a ride through odd, strange, and mysterious, here at Odd Mysteries
Stories.
For 44 years, James Front and Pamela Buckley were part of these statistics.
(01:08):
Murdered yet unidentified.
Way back in 1976, they were both found shot to death on a lonely stretch of I-95-year-old
St. John Church Road in Sumter County, South Carolina.
This was a dirt road, rarely traveled and isolated from the rest of the world.
Fast-moving traffic on I-95 rarely stopped or slowed enough to even know what may be
(01:31):
lying forgotten nearby.
There was nothing at the crime scene identifying James and Pamela.
Their discarded bodies offered few clues as to who they were, why they'd been together,
and most importantly, why they'd been murdered.
It would take modern DNA testing to uncover their identities, more than four decades after
(01:52):
their bodies went permanently cold.
Yet, even knowing the names of these two murder victims has failed to explain what happened
to them.
You might not believe the odd and bizarre details of these two people, as their story
comes to light.
Let me unravel the strange and mysterious background of the Sumter County Jane and John Doe's.
(02:18):
The media has released few details about the life of James, the 30-year-old male of the
murdered pair.
With over four decades between his murder and his identification, it may be that very
few additional details remain to be found.
James was born in 1946 in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, where he lived before relocating to Lancaster,
(02:40):
Pennsylvania.
There, he attended JP McCaskey High School, graduating in 1965.
He immediately joined the Army and was assigned to a base in Germany.
His father died of a heart attack at age 49 while James was abroad.
He was unable to return home at the time.
He was just 20 years old when his father passed away and losing him so unexpectedly could
(03:03):
certainly have had a profound impact on such a young man.
On December 11, 1965, he came home to Pennsylvania and married Cheryline Albright, his high school
sweetheart.
But for whatever reason, the marriage did not go well.
He filed for divorce citing irreconcilable differences.
(03:24):
He had a daughter with her and got into some trouble with the law in 1974 over unpaid child
support.
He soon cleared up the problem and the courts dropped the charges.
Cheryline is not a suspect in his murder case.
James' mother passed away in 2004 long before authorities would finally identify her son's
(03:44):
body.
There are some discrepancies in the media over whether anyone ever reported James missing.
Some sources suggest either James' mother or Cheryline reported him missing in 1975 and
Cheryline had him declared legally dead in 1988.
However, many sources report that nobody filed a missing persons report for James at all.
(04:05):
Either way, it seems that James lived a lonely life after he parted ways with Cheryline.
It appears that he had become a drifter, never staying in one place for long.
Once he took to the highway, James was likely living a life full of mystery.
Some of those mysterious secrets might well have gotten him killed.
(04:28):
Pamela, a native of Redwood Falls, Minnesota, was just 25 years old when she died.
She was a talented singer and a local beauty queen, a member of her high school choir,
and the Redwood Falls Snow Queen in February of 1970.
In February of 1971, she was set to become Miss Redwood Falls.
(04:52):
Instead, she decided to tour with her musical folk trio named Sunlending.
That year, the band toured the West Coast.
Upon finishing the tour in 1972, she married a Colorado Springs man but ended up divorcing
him in 1975.
Pamela's ex-husband is also not a suspect in this case nor is any member of the group
(05:15):
Sunlending.
The band quickly replaced their lost member and continued touring across the country.
Nobody knows for sure how Pamela ended up in South Carolina.
She was still in the middle of divorce proceedings at the time.
Her divorce would, in fact, be finalized on August 20, 1976.
By then, she was already dead.
(05:40):
It was August 9, 1976, when a truck driver named Martin Durant discovered Pamela and
James' bodies by the side of the road.
He headed to a nearby store to report the bodies.
The Sumter County Sheriff's Department arrived at the scene.
To discover the pair had been shot several times with the same gun.
They had each been killed in precisely the same way, shot twice in the chest, then once
(06:05):
in the head, execution style.
The method of the murder suggested professionalism and career criminality on the part of the
killer.
But there was little evidence to suggest who the pair were or why they were murdered.
They also weren't carrying identification.
Or it's quite possible that the murderer took their IDs upon leaving the scene.
(06:26):
The only items police had to investigate were their clothes and belongings.
James was wearing a red t-shirt.
It had the words, Corps America's light beer on the front and Camel Challenger GT Sebring
75 on the back.
It was a reference to the 1975 races at the Sebring Florida Raceway.
He was also wearing an accoutron watch and a gold ring with a tiger eye setting.
(06:50):
The ring was engraved with the initials J.P.F.
James also had a book of matches on him.
The matchbook was from a place known as Grant's Truck Stop.
There were only three Grant's Truck Stops in the United States at the time.
One in York, Nebraska.
One in Lepton, Arizona.
And the last one in Boise, Idaho.
(07:11):
None of those cities would have been likely routes that James would have traveled to
get to Sumter County.
But Pamela could have passed through Nebraska on her way out of Colorado.
The matchbook may offer hints about where one or even both might have visited.
It raises plenty of questions, but offers few answers.
Pamela was wearing a white blouse, cut off jeans, and wedge sandals, as well as several
(07:36):
costume rings that weren't worth very much.
Some have suggested the pair may have been hitchhiking at the time of their death.
But it's worth noting that the sandals she was wearing would not have been ideal for
wandering around on the side of the highway looking for a ride.
Of course, this is a detail that might not mean anything at all.
Perhaps she was quite comfortable in those shoes, or maybe they were the only shoes she
(07:59):
had.
The local police kept both bodies in glass-lidded coffins.
They were hoping someone would show up to identify them, but no one ever did.
Soon some people in Sumter County would take pity on the apparently friendless pair and
donate burial plots at the Bethel Church Cemetery.
James and Pamela were buried on August 14, 1977, still with so many questions unanswered.
(08:25):
That same year, police found the murder weapon.
It was an unexpected discovery.
A man named George Henry was pulled over in South Carolina and was arrested for driving
while intoxicated.
He had a gun in his possession.
Police ran standard ballistics testing only to realize they had a match to the bullets
in the bodies of Sumter County John and Jane Doe.
(08:48):
George Henry denied his involvement in the murders.
Henry even claimed he had an alibi.
He said that on the night of the murders, he was at his sick wife's bedside at a hospital
in North Carolina.
He claims that his brother gave the gun to him as a gift.
Law enforcement found that the firearm had initially been stolen before eventually ending
(09:10):
up in Henry's possession.
Thanks to a scratched off serial number, police were unable to develop a strong chain of custody
for the murder weapon, and they lacked physical evidence, a motive, or a way to verify Henry's
alibi.
Police were forced to conclude that the weapon could have been in another person's possession
on the night of the murders, and James and Pamela's case sadly went cold again.
(09:40):
Fast forward 31 years after their deaths.
In 2007, the bodies of James and Pamela were exhumed by the police, but DNA still hadn't
advanced far enough to identify them at that time.
Law enforcement was only able to verify that the two of them were not related.
This eliminated any theories that they'd been brother and sister.
(10:03):
It's now been 45 years since James and Pamela met their untimely demise.
The DNA DOE project stepped up in 2021.
It is a volunteer-based non-profit with a simple humanitarian mission to identify John
and Jane Doe's using investigative genetics.
Using bone marrow DNA and genealogy, they were able to identify the bodies at last.
(10:28):
Police notified the remaining surviving family members and reopened the investigation, claiming
at the time that they had several suspects.
So many questions swirl around this case that it's difficult to know where to start.
Let's cover some of the theories in this murder case.
(10:50):
First, investigators want to understand what the relationship was between James and Pamela.
The prevailing theory has been that the two of them were in an intimate relationship,
traveling the country together, and that one of them got caught up in the other's troubles,
leading to both their deaths.
But it's also possible that James and Pamela met on the actual day of the murder, making
(11:15):
one of them the victim of a motivated killer and the other collateral damage, or it could
be any combination of possibilities in between.
There's simply not enough evidence to pinpoint the timing or nature of their association.
Next, investigators want to learn about what happened to each of them during the eight
months between going missing and being murdered.
(11:36):
A mechanic in York, Nebraska, said he thought he'd worked on a van for a couple who matched
Pamela and James' descriptions, except he thought the van's plates were from either
Washington or Oregon.
So maybe the mechanic confused the plates for Colorado.
Remember that Pamela had left Colorado Springs after her divorce in 1975 and could have traveled
(11:57):
through Nebraska on her way out.
Let's also revisit the matchbook in James' pocket from Grant's truck stop, which has
a location in the same town as the mechanic in York, Nebraska.
It seems possible that James and Pamela met in Colorado and took off on their cross-country
adventure from there.
Using this theory further, it would place both James and Pamela at the Raceway in Sebring,
(12:21):
Florida, and they would ultimately make their way to South Carolina.
Otherwise, there is little explanation as to why Pamela would have been in South Carolina
where she was eventually killed.
Unfortunately, it's very difficult to track their movements or to know for certain a timeline.
Many of the people who might have seen them at any point during that final eight months
(12:43):
may have already died by now, and even living witnesses may have forgotten important details
from so long ago.
There were no traffic cameras up in the 70s, and this was well before the era of social
media which might have offered additional clues.
Bank records weren't kept the same way they are now, and cash was still the most common
(13:04):
way to pay for everything, from gas to the services of a mechanic somewhere in Nebraska.
Little physical evidence exists that might help us track the pair's progression around
the country.
One of the earliest theories of the crime was that Pamela and James picked up a hitchhiker,
(13:25):
only to have the hitchhiker murder them and steal their car.
Of course, while we have some indication, they may have owned a van.
We don't know if they still had the van by the time the murder happened.
They could just as easily have been hitchhiking themselves if the van had broken down again.
Since they didn't have any money or identification on them at the time the bodies were found,
(13:48):
the murder could have been a robbery gone terribly wrong.
The watch James was wearing wasn't particularly valuable, and the costume jewelry that Pamela
was wearing didn't have much resale value either.
It's quite possible anything they did have of value was taken at the time of the murder.
The strength of this theory is that it's straightforward and simple.
(14:11):
At some point the two meet and drift around together somewhat aimlessly.
Lacking much in the way of resources, they end up in some kind of trouble like a hitchhiking
incident or a robbery.
However, it doesn't quite explain the execution style murder or the stolen gun, both of which
seem to point at a professional criminal the idea that the pair would just happen to run
(14:33):
into a seasoned murderer in the middle of the backwoods of South Carolina in time for
that person to decide to rob and kill them.
It seems a little less credible.
Were the Sumter County murders the kind of senseless, random crime that happens every
day in America?
Or do you think there was more to it than that?
(14:58):
Let's explore the mob connection theory.
August 9, 1976 is a noteworthy day in true crime history.
And not just for James and Pamela.
On the same day, 627 miles to the south, a mobster named John Roselli was found floating
dead in a barrel near Miami, Florida.
Some people claim there's a connection because it's not outside of the realm of possibility
(15:22):
for James to have encountered Roselli at some point while he was in Florida.
The raceway in Sebring, matching the T-shirt James was wearing when his body was discovered,
is only a two-hour drive north of Miami, or roughly 197 miles.
Roselli was most likely killed by a mafia hitman.
(15:42):
He was a mobster himself, best known for his connection to the Kennedy assassination.
He had testified once already in front of the Warren Commission, claiming that rogue
elements within the CIA had joined forces with the mafia to orchestrate Kennedy's murder.
The Warren Commission had planned to recall him for further testimony, but he was found
(16:03):
dead before they had a chance.
It is unclear what connection James and Pamela could have had to such a prominent and famous
mobster.
However, mafia style murders and cleanups were often grouped together.
But there isn't much to hang this theory on other than a shared day of death and a flimsy
connection to Florida.
It is hard to imagine what relationship the pair would have had with Roselli.
(16:28):
It's possible James, Pamela, or both witnessed something the mob wanted to be kept quiet.
But this mob theory seems like a stretch.
Do you believe the Roselli connection is little more than grasping at straws and baseless speculation?
Or do you believe that this young couple could well have been part, however peripherally,
(16:48):
of the greater story and mystery of the murder of an American president?
Crazier things have happened, right?
Then there's the theory of corruption in Sumter County itself at that time.
It was not the safest place Pamela and James could have landed.
Even though this event took place 11 years after they died, it illustrates the possible
(17:13):
environment in the area.
It was June 1987, when Charles Smith and Roger Prince were charged in the execution
style slaying of a tobacco farmer named Billy Graham.
Ultimately, South Carolina state court tried and convicted Prince and Smith of conspiracy
(17:34):
and solicitation in the murder of Prince's foster father, Billy Graham.
Evidence at that trial showed that Prince and Smith hired a man to kill Graham to eliminate
their $259,000 debt to him and to collect on a $500,000 life insurance policy.
Smith was the former president of the Citizens Bank of Atlanta.
(17:57):
He also faced banking fraud charges in federal court.
Prince was the beneficiary of Graham's life insurance policy.
The two were also accused of murdering Paul Bradley, one of Graham's farm workers in
the hopes of keeping him quiet.
They didn't pull the trigger themselves though.
Instead, they got the small town mayor of Turbaville, Clayton Bingham Sr. to act as
(18:19):
an intermediary and hired Charles McCray to do the deed.
It was corruption all around.
In addition, Sumter County Sheriff Ira Byrd Parnell was the initial investigator on the
case and also the man who paid for James and Pamela's burial in Headstone.
Coincidentally, his daughter was named Jean Graham.
(18:40):
Could she have been somehow related to the murdered Billy Graham?
It's not clear whether this is the case, but it is an interesting footnote.
The interconnection of people in small towns runs deep.
None of this directly relates to Pamela and James, of course, except for the method and
manner of murder.
Shot, execution style.
(19:03):
But I wanted to point it out.
Turbaville is less than 30 minutes from Sumter County.
This story illuminates the corruption of some of the most influential individuals in the
local area.
And such corruption tends to filter down to encompass a broad network of dangerous people,
many of whom are in positions of power or authority.
(19:25):
It would have only taken one witness crime, one overheard conversation, or one odd job
working for the wrong people, for Pamela and James to paint a target on their backs.
And no one would have spoken up to report something they may have heard or seen for fear of retribution.
(19:47):
The last theory I'll share asks us to examine the Florida Sebring IMSA race shirt James
was wearing along with the International Motorsports Association itself.
IMSA continues to hold races at the Sebring Raceway to this day.
And a record still exists of that 1975 race James may have attended.
(20:11):
The speculation around this theory is about money.
How did James and possibly Pamela financially support themselves during their travels?
James ended his child support problems in 1975 paying off what he owed.
So he was making money somehow.
Yet as far as we know, he didn't engage in any formal employment.
(20:32):
Indeed, no former boss has stepped forward to claim that James was working for him after
he left Pennsylvania.
The same is true for Pamela.
If she found formal work, nobody knew about it.
So it seems that both of them had untraceable sources of income.
(20:53):
Perhaps one or both found informal work.
They may have earned money under the table that was paid in cash and possibly in a less
than legal way.
The reason I bring this up is because in the 1980s, police arrested several IMSA racers.
(21:14):
They were smuggling both meth and marijuana.
And in the 1980s, the drug marijuana wasn't legal anywhere in the United States.
And smuggling weed was big business back then.
When law enforcement caught up with the corrupt race teams, they found a significant stash
of drugs that was worth a considerable amount of money.
Many of the racers were deeply involved in embezzlement as well.
(21:38):
If James and Pamela participated in smuggling drugs for the IMSA drug rings, then it is
entirely possible they got in over their heads.
Perhaps they wanted out.
Maybe they even tried to steal and sell drugs from the ring so they could start their lives
over together somewhere else.
If that is the case, then it's possible someone in that crime ring caught up with them.
(22:03):
This would explain the stolen gun and the professional execution style murder.
Actually, the IMSA racing connection may be the strongest theory this story has to offer.
Drug smuggling was huge business in the 70s and 80s.
Is it possible that Pamela and James got involved because they needed the income?
(22:23):
Only to discover it was more than they could handle.
Now, let's go back to 2021.
After the initial excitement of identifying the bodies and reopening the case, the story
of Pamela and James disappeared from the media once again.
Sheriff Anthony Dennis made the announcement that they'd identified the bodies of the Sumter
(22:47):
County John and Jane Doe's.
And he told the press that he had a list of suspects to be interviewed.
But the leads dried up quickly.
It was also known that the sheriff believed the murders to be an isolated incident.
Unfortunately, Sheriff Dennis began having legal problems of his own, which may have
brought the case to a standstill.
(23:09):
Or perhaps those initial suspect interviews amounted to nothing.
It is likely that, as with most cold cases, it is going to take a tip from someone who
saw or heard something important to help shed light on this baffling case.
Bethel United Methodist Church made plans to add the names of James and Pamela to their
(23:31):
headstones.
They asked the families to allow them to keep the bodies there in Sumter County.
The surviving family members of both victims continue to await justice and answers.
What are your theories on what really happened to James and Pamela all those years ago?
This story engaged me because it took 45 years before these missing people were even identified.
(23:54):
I feel almost as much compassion for them in death as I do for their living families.
We are only given today a never-promised tomorrow.
So make sure you tell the people who are special in your life that you love them.
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stories.
(24:15):
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(24:37):
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In the next episode, I'll share the odd, mysterious story of the Bricka family murder.
(24:58):
This story continues to baffle and intrigue true crime enthusiasts to this day.
Listen to some theories on who may have murdered this family and who may have been killed
by the murderers.
Listen to some theories on who may have murdered this family and their toddler child in cold
blood.
You may even have a theory of your own.
(25:20):
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Before I even start this story, I wanted to mention the whole pretext that a human being
(00:05):
could be found dead.
And no one, and I mean no one else in the whole world, knows who that person is.
I find it so very sad.
The families of these missing people never know if their loved one is dead or alive.
And it seems like such a lonely, restless death to never be identified.
(00:27):
It's maddening that we have thousands of missing people in the United States alone.
At last count in 2023, there were approximately 14,000 dead bodies awaiting identification.
Many are cases where the killer of Jane or John Doe, as unidentified people are known,
are never caught and forced to face justice.
(00:48):
Think about that.
So many killers never caught, able to live freely among us.
Come along with me for a ride through odd, strange, and mysterious, here at Odd Mysteries
Stories.
For 44 years, James Front and Pamela Buckley were part of these statistics.
(01:08):
Murdered yet unidentified.
Way back in 1976, they were both found shot to death on a lonely stretch of I-95-year-old
St. John Church Road in Sumter County, South Carolina.
This was a dirt road, rarely traveled and isolated from the rest of the world.
Fast-moving traffic on I-95 rarely stopped or slowed enough to even know what may be
(01:31):
lying forgotten nearby.
There was nothing at the crime scene identifying James and Pamela.
Their discarded bodies offered few clues as to who they were, why they'd been together,
and most importantly, why they'd been murdered.
It would take modern DNA testing to uncover their identities, more than four decades after
(01:52):
their bodies went permanently cold.
Yet, even knowing the names of these two murder victims has failed to explain what happened
to them.
You might not believe the odd and bizarre details of these two people, as their story
comes to light.
Let me unravel the strange and mysterious background of the Sumter County Jane and John Doe's.
(02:18):
The media has released few details about the life of James, the 30-year-old male of the
murdered pair.
With over four decades between his murder and his identification, it may be that very
few additional details remain to be found.
James was born in 1946 in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, where he lived before relocating to Lancaster,
(02:40):
Pennsylvania.
There, he attended JP McCaskey High School, graduating in 1965.
He immediately joined the Army and was assigned to a base in Germany.
His father died of a heart attack at age 49 while James was abroad.
He was unable to return home at the time.
He was just 20 years old when his father passed away and losing him so unexpectedly could
(03:03):
certainly have had a profound impact on such a young man.
On December 11, 1965, he came home to Pennsylvania and married Cheryline Albright, his high school
sweetheart.
But for whatever reason, the marriage did not go well.
He filed for divorce citing irreconcilable differences.
(03:24):
He had a daughter with her and got into some trouble with the law in 1974 over unpaid child
support.
He soon cleared up the problem and the courts dropped the charges.
Cheryline is not a suspect in his murder case.
James' mother passed away in 2004 long before authorities would finally identify her son's
(03:44):
body.
There are some discrepancies in the media over whether anyone ever reported James missing.
Some sources suggest either James' mother or Cheryline reported him missing in 1975 and
Cheryline had him declared legally dead in 1988.
However, many sources report that nobody filed a missing persons report for James at all.
(04:05):
Either way, it seems that James lived a lonely life after he parted ways with Cheryline.
It appears that he had become a drifter, never staying in one place for long.
Once he took to the highway, James was likely living a life full of mystery.
Some of those mysterious secrets might well have gotten him killed.
(04:28):
Pamela, a native of Redwood Falls, Minnesota, was just 25 years old when she died.
She was a talented singer and a local beauty queen, a member of her high school choir,
and the Redwood Falls Snow Queen in February of 1970.
In February of 1971, she was set to become Miss Redwood Falls.
(04:52):
Instead, she decided to tour with her musical folk trio named Sunlending.
That year, the band toured the West Coast.
Upon finishing the tour in 1972, she married a Colorado Springs man but ended up divorcing
him in 1975.
Pamela's ex-husband is also not a suspect in this case nor is any member of the group
(05:15):
Sunlending.
The band quickly replaced their lost member and continued touring across the country.
Nobody knows for sure how Pamela ended up in South Carolina.
She was still in the middle of divorce proceedings at the time.
Her divorce would, in fact, be finalized on August 20, 1976.
By then, she was already dead.
(05:40):
It was August 9, 1976, when a truck driver named Martin Durant discovered Pamela and
James' bodies by the side of the road.
He headed to a nearby store to report the bodies.
The Sumter County Sheriff's Department arrived at the scene.
To discover the pair had been shot several times with the same gun.
They had each been killed in precisely the same way, shot twice in the chest, then once
(06:05):
in the head, execution style.
The method of the murder suggested professionalism and career criminality on the part of the
killer.
But there was little evidence to suggest who the pair were or why they were murdered.
They also weren't carrying identification.
Or it's quite possible that the murderer took their IDs upon leaving the scene.
(06:26):
The only items police had to investigate were their clothes and belongings.
James was wearing a red t-shirt.
It had the words, Corps America's light beer on the front and Camel Challenger GT Sebring
75 on the back.
It was a reference to the 1975 races at the Sebring Florida Raceway.
He was also wearing an accoutron watch and a gold ring with a tiger eye setting.
(06:50):
The ring was engraved with the initials J.P.F.
James also had a book of matches on him.
The matchbook was from a place known as Grant's Truck Stop.
There were only three Grant's Truck Stops in the United States at the time.
One in York, Nebraska.
One in Lepton, Arizona.
And the last one in Boise, Idaho.
(07:11):
None of those cities would have been likely routes that James would have traveled to
get to Sumter County.
But Pamela could have passed through Nebraska on her way out of Colorado.
The matchbook may offer hints about where one or even both might have visited.
It raises plenty of questions, but offers few answers.
Pamela was wearing a white blouse, cut off jeans, and wedge sandals, as well as several
(07:36):
costume rings that weren't worth very much.
Some have suggested the pair may have been hitchhiking at the time of their death.
But it's worth noting that the sandals she was wearing would not have been ideal for
wandering around on the side of the highway looking for a ride.
Of course, this is a detail that might not mean anything at all.
Perhaps she was quite comfortable in those shoes, or maybe they were the only shoes she
(07:59):
had.
The local police kept both bodies in glass-lidded coffins.
They were hoping someone would show up to identify them, but no one ever did.
Soon some people in Sumter County would take pity on the apparently friendless pair and
donate burial plots at the Bethel Church Cemetery.
James and Pamela were buried on August 14, 1977, still with so many questions unanswered.
(08:25):
That same year, police found the murder weapon.
It was an unexpected discovery.
A man named George Henry was pulled over in South Carolina and was arrested for driving
while intoxicated.
He had a gun in his possession.
Police ran standard ballistics testing only to realize they had a match to the bullets
in the bodies of Sumter County John and Jane Doe.
(08:48):
George Henry denied his involvement in the murders.
Henry even claimed he had an alibi.
He said that on the night of the murders, he was at his sick wife's bedside at a hospital
in North Carolina.
He claims that his brother gave the gun to him as a gift.
Law enforcement found that the firearm had initially been stolen before eventually ending
(09:10):
up in Henry's possession.
Thanks to a scratched off serial number, police were unable to develop a strong chain of custody
for the murder weapon, and they lacked physical evidence, a motive, or a way to verify Henry's
alibi.
Police were forced to conclude that the weapon could have been in another person's possession
on the night of the murders, and James and Pamela's case sadly went cold again.
(09:40):
Fast forward 31 years after their deaths.
In 2007, the bodies of James and Pamela were exhumed by the police, but DNA still hadn't
advanced far enough to identify them at that time.
Law enforcement was only able to verify that the two of them were not related.
This eliminated any theories that they'd been brother and sister.
(10:03):
It's now been 45 years since James and Pamela met their untimely demise.
The DNA DOE project stepped up in 2021.
It is a volunteer-based non-profit with a simple humanitarian mission to identify John
and Jane Doe's using investigative genetics.
Using bone marrow DNA and genealogy, they were able to identify the bodies at last.
(10:28):
Police notified the remaining surviving family members and reopened the investigation, claiming
at the time that they had several suspects.
So many questions swirl around this case that it's difficult to know where to start.
Let's cover some of the theories in this murder case.
(10:50):
First, investigators want to understand what the relationship was between James and Pamela.
The prevailing theory has been that the two of them were in an intimate relationship,
traveling the country together, and that one of them got caught up in the other's troubles,
leading to both their deaths.
But it's also possible that James and Pamela met on the actual day of the murder, making
(11:15):
one of them the victim of a motivated killer and the other collateral damage, or it could
be any combination of possibilities in between.
There's simply not enough evidence to pinpoint the timing or nature of their association.
Next, investigators want to learn about what happened to each of them during the eight
months between going missing and being murdered.
(11:36):
A mechanic in York, Nebraska, said he thought he'd worked on a van for a couple who matched
Pamela and James' descriptions, except he thought the van's plates were from either
Washington or Oregon.
So maybe the mechanic confused the plates for Colorado.
Remember that Pamela had left Colorado Springs after her divorce in 1975 and could have traveled
(11:57):
through Nebraska on her way out.
Let's also revisit the matchbook in James' pocket from Grant's truck stop, which has
a location in the same town as the mechanic in York, Nebraska.
It seems possible that James and Pamela met in Colorado and took off on their cross-country
adventure from there.
Using this theory further, it would place both James and Pamela at the Raceway in Sebring,
(12:21):
Florida, and they would ultimately make their way to South Carolina.
Otherwise, there is little explanation as to why Pamela would have been in South Carolina
where she was eventually killed.
Unfortunately, it's very difficult to track their movements or to know for certain a timeline.
Many of the people who might have seen them at any point during that final eight months
(12:43):
may have already died by now, and even living witnesses may have forgotten important details
from so long ago.
There were no traffic cameras up in the 70s, and this was well before the era of social
media which might have offered additional clues.
Bank records weren't kept the same way they are now, and cash was still the most common
(13:04):
way to pay for everything, from gas to the services of a mechanic somewhere in Nebraska.
Little physical evidence exists that might help us track the pair's progression around
the country.
One of the earliest theories of the crime was that Pamela and James picked up a hitchhiker,
(13:25):
only to have the hitchhiker murder them and steal their car.
Of course, while we have some indication, they may have owned a van.
We don't know if they still had the van by the time the murder happened.
They could just as easily have been hitchhiking themselves if the van had broken down again.
Since they didn't have any money or identification on them at the time the bodies were found,
(13:48):
the murder could have been a robbery gone terribly wrong.
The watch James was wearing wasn't particularly valuable, and the costume jewelry that Pamela
was wearing didn't have much resale value either.
It's quite possible anything they did have of value was taken at the time of the murder.
The strength of this theory is that it's straightforward and simple.
(14:11):
At some point the two meet and drift around together somewhat aimlessly.
Lacking much in the way of resources, they end up in some kind of trouble like a hitchhiking
incident or a robbery.
However, it doesn't quite explain the execution style murder or the stolen gun, both of which
seem to point at a professional criminal the idea that the pair would just happen to run
(14:33):
into a seasoned murderer in the middle of the backwoods of South Carolina in time for
that person to decide to rob and kill them.
It seems a little less credible.
Were the Sumter County murders the kind of senseless, random crime that happens every
day in America?
Or do you think there was more to it than that?
(14:58):
Let's explore the mob connection theory.
August 9, 1976 is a noteworthy day in true crime history.
And not just for James and Pamela.
On the same day, 627 miles to the south, a mobster named John Roselli was found floating
dead in a barrel near Miami, Florida.
Some people claim there's a connection because it's not outside of the realm of possibility
(15:22):
for James to have encountered Roselli at some point while he was in Florida.
The raceway in Sebring, matching the T-shirt James was wearing when his body was discovered,
is only a two-hour drive north of Miami, or roughly 197 miles.
Roselli was most likely killed by a mafia hitman.
(15:42):
He was a mobster himself, best known for his connection to the Kennedy assassination.
He had testified once already in front of the Warren Commission, claiming that rogue
elements within the CIA had joined forces with the mafia to orchestrate Kennedy's murder.
The Warren Commission had planned to recall him for further testimony, but he was found
(16:03):
dead before they had a chance.
It is unclear what connection James and Pamela could have had to such a prominent and famous
mobster.
However, mafia style murders and cleanups were often grouped together.
But there isn't much to hang this theory on other than a shared day of death and a flimsy
connection to Florida.
It is hard to imagine what relationship the pair would have had with Roselli.
(16:28):
It's possible James, Pamela, or both witnessed something the mob wanted to be kept quiet.
But this mob theory seems like a stretch.
Do you believe the Roselli connection is little more than grasping at straws and baseless speculation?
Or do you believe that this young couple could well have been part, however peripherally,
(16:48):
of the greater story and mystery of the murder of an American president?
Crazier things have happened, right?
Then there's the theory of corruption in Sumter County itself at that time.
It was not the safest place Pamela and James could have landed.
Even though this event took place 11 years after they died, it illustrates the possible
(17:13):
environment in the area.
It was June 1987, when Charles Smith and Roger Prince were charged in the execution
style slaying of a tobacco farmer named Billy Graham.
Ultimately, South Carolina state court tried and convicted Prince and Smith of conspiracy
(17:34):
and solicitation in the murder of Prince's foster father, Billy Graham.
Evidence at that trial showed that Prince and Smith hired a man to kill Graham to eliminate
their $259,000 debt to him and to collect on a $500,000 life insurance policy.
Smith was the former president of the Citizens Bank of Atlanta.
(17:57):
He also faced banking fraud charges in federal court.
Prince was the beneficiary of Graham's life insurance policy.
The two were also accused of murdering Paul Bradley, one of Graham's farm workers in
the hopes of keeping him quiet.
They didn't pull the trigger themselves though.
Instead, they got the small town mayor of Turbaville, Clayton Bingham Sr. to act as
(18:19):
an intermediary and hired Charles McCray to do the deed.
It was corruption all around.
In addition, Sumter County Sheriff Ira Byrd Parnell was the initial investigator on the
case and also the man who paid for James and Pamela's burial in Headstone.
Coincidentally, his daughter was named Jean Graham.
(18:40):
Could she have been somehow related to the murdered Billy Graham?
It's not clear whether this is the case, but it is an interesting footnote.
The interconnection of people in small towns runs deep.
None of this directly relates to Pamela and James, of course, except for the method and
manner of murder.
Shot, execution style.
(19:03):
But I wanted to point it out.
Turbaville is less than 30 minutes from Sumter County.
This story illuminates the corruption of some of the most influential individuals in the
local area.
And such corruption tends to filter down to encompass a broad network of dangerous people,
many of whom are in positions of power or authority.
(19:25):
It would have only taken one witness crime, one overheard conversation, or one odd job
working for the wrong people, for Pamela and James to paint a target on their backs.
And no one would have spoken up to report something they may have heard or seen for fear of retribution.
(19:47):
The last theory I'll share asks us to examine the Florida Sebring IMSA race shirt James
was wearing along with the International Motorsports Association itself.
IMSA continues to hold races at the Sebring Raceway to this day.
And a record still exists of that 1975 race James may have attended.
(20:11):
The speculation around this theory is about money.
How did James and possibly Pamela financially support themselves during their travels?
James ended his child support problems in 1975 paying off what he owed.
So he was making money somehow.
Yet as far as we know, he didn't engage in any formal employment.
(20:32):
Indeed, no former boss has stepped forward to claim that James was working for him after
he left Pennsylvania.
The same is true for Pamela.
If she found formal work, nobody knew about it.
So it seems that both of them had untraceable sources of income.
(20:53):
Perhaps one or both found informal work.
They may have earned money under the table that was paid in cash and possibly in a less
than legal way.
The reason I bring this up is because in the 1980s, police arrested several IMSA racers.
(21:14):
They were smuggling both meth and marijuana.
And in the 1980s, the drug marijuana wasn't legal anywhere in the United States.
And smuggling weed was big business back then.
When law enforcement caught up with the corrupt race teams, they found a significant stash
of drugs that was worth a considerable amount of money.
Many of the racers were deeply involved in embezzlement as well.
(21:38):
If James and Pamela participated in smuggling drugs for the IMSA drug rings, then it is
entirely possible they got in over their heads.
Perhaps they wanted out.
Maybe they even tried to steal and sell drugs from the ring so they could start their lives
over together somewhere else.
If that is the case, then it's possible someone in that crime ring caught up with them.
(22:03):
This would explain the stolen gun and the professional execution style murder.
Actually, the IMSA racing connection may be the strongest theory this story has to offer.
Drug smuggling was huge business in the 70s and 80s.
Is it possible that Pamela and James got involved because they needed the income?
(22:23):
Only to discover it was more than they could handle.
Now, let's go back to 2021.
After the initial excitement of identifying the bodies and reopening the case, the story
of Pamela and James disappeared from the media once again.
Sheriff Anthony Dennis made the announcement that they'd identified the bodies of the Sumter
(22:47):
County John and Jane Doe's.
And he told the press that he had a list of suspects to be interviewed.
But the leads dried up quickly.
It was also known that the sheriff believed the murders to be an isolated incident.
Unfortunately, Sheriff Dennis began having legal problems of his own, which may have
brought the case to a standstill.
(23:09):
Or perhaps those initial suspect interviews amounted to nothing.
It is likely that, as with most cold cases, it is going to take a tip from someone who
saw or heard something important to help shed light on this baffling case.
Bethel United Methodist Church made plans to add the names of James and Pamela to their
(23:31):
headstones.
They asked the families to allow them to keep the bodies there in Sumter County.
The surviving family members of both victims continue to await justice and answers.
What are your theories on what really happened to James and Pamela all those years ago?
This story engaged me because it took 45 years before these missing people were even identified.
(23:54):
I feel almost as much compassion for them in death as I do for their living families.
We are only given today a never-promised tomorrow.
So make sure you tell the people who are special in your life that you love them.
I want you to know that listeners like you are the most important people to odd mystery
stories.
(24:15):
Thank you so much for listening to this story.
I hope you would please consider subscribing to my podcast if you know of a story that
is unsolved, strange, odd, and of course mysterious.
I invite you to share the known details of that story with me.
You can either go to one of my social media accounts like Facebook or Twitter, or you
(24:37):
can simply email me at the following address with no spaces, odd mysteries, the number four,
and the letter you at gmail.com.
I will do my very best to answer all messages.
So don't hesitate to reach out to me.
In the next episode, I'll share the odd, mysterious story of the Bricka family murder.
(24:58):
This story continues to baffle and intrigue true crime enthusiasts to this day.
Listen to some theories on who may have murdered this family and who may have been killed
by the murderers.
Listen to some theories on who may have murdered this family and their toddler child in cold
blood.
You may even have a theory of your own.
(25:20):
I sincerely hope you enjoyed this story.
If you did, please leave me a review, download, and share this story with your friends.
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