Due to the primitive state of forensics in 1990, along with the fact that the fire destroyed evidence, the case remains cold. Hes a stalker; he gets excited about his victims. All victims were found naked, bound, and with gunshot wounds to their heads. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local. Read More: Well, it is sad to say that mass murder has been a problem for a while now. But it wasn't one of our shining successes. But everyone that knew her felt like they were loved by her, and that was extraordinary.". The couple got dressed and jumped into their Ford Explorer parked in the carport. "I fully expected when we got down there, they would have found her and it would be over. 'Unsolved Mysteries' linked to Alabama Jones was also implicated in the deaths of Amanda Greenwell, 16, of Douglasville, Ga. and Katherine Collins, 45, a New Orleans sex worker. The source material for author Beth Lowrys 2016 true crime book Who Killed These Girls?, the yogurt shop murders continue to haunt the citizens of the Lone Star State. Others suggested that drug addicts had killed the Dardeen family in order to hock their possessions for drug money. She was also Bland's cousin by marriage, and the two were close. Other clues at the crime scene included the position of the bodies. White was known to associate with local gangsters, including Solmonte, who had given Kelly the job at Blackfriars following his sacking at the television station. There weren't a lot of murders in Jasper," Lawson said in a recent interview, his first about the case in more than 20 years. Authorities got a major break when Bland was identified as a suspect. Investigators quickly learned on that awful morning that they had a terrible and inexplicable crime on their hands. Lawson said he managed to free himself. "He's made a career out of it," David Smith said affectionately in 2002. A search of her home turned up thousands of dollars, and ultimately she identified Bland as Carrie's kidnapper. It was early that Tuesday morning -- about 4:30 a.m. -- that agents reported hearing a single gunshot inside Bland's home. "I've always admired my dad so much -- he just keeps plugging on. These murders became known locally and state-wide as "The Mars Hill Murders". I can see the window off the guest room. ", "It was an event that brought tragedy to our community and brought a lot of attention, and it's something that still reverberates today," Adair said. She started crying which started to make me cry, Jones said of Endres. Meanwhile, the investigation continued. And then, Day 2, they told you again. The first man suspected was Ted Uland, the owner of Records Security. "I have four sisters-in-law and I'm close with them, but missing a sister is so difficult. If you know anything about these persons, or their last known locations, please call 205-302-6464. He forced Lawson to the ground and instructed Carrie to bind her husband with duct tape. The case. When she entered the salon, she first saw the corpse of 62-year-old Dorothy Harris. A quarter century since she vanished without a trace in a mystery that became one of the most talked-about missing person cases in Alabama history. document.write ("'><\/scr"+"ipt>"); Jones said he killed Endres and threw her off a bridge into a creek 65 miles from the salon. There weren't a lot of murders in Jasper," Lawson said in a recent interview, his first about the case in more than 20 years. Miraculously, three young boys managed to sleep through the entire massacre. "I knew, and I guess that I was overly hopeful, that the minute I got back to my house, the word is going to be that he released her and we'd find her," he said. She said she had a family that loved her very much. Christmas is usually a time of good cheer, good food, and good times spent with family. var width = $(window).width(); Investigators quickly ruled out robbery as a motive, for nothing was taken from the store. It has been 25 years since 25-year-old Carrie Smith Lawson disappeared in Walker County on Sept. 11, 1991. "Financially, my dad has spent hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars.". Mobile County Sheriffs Office Sgt. The microscopic town of Ina, Illinois, was rocked by a quadruple homicide on November 18, 1987. Please note in order for the office to follow up on any information . In a sworn statement, Investigator Sean Mukaddam said he initially spoke to Whited, who agreed to show police the crime scene. It is a case that has outlasted investigators who tried to track her down, one that haunted and hounded Lawson, his family and Carrie's. Not only does this list deal with some of the worst mass murders in American history, but each remains unsolved to this day. Even we have a limit that you can push us to before we stand up and cry foul.". document.write ("?zoneid="+zoneid+"&block=1&blockcampaign=1"); Do you see the house across the street?' The kidnapping happened about 3 a.m. at the home Lawson, 25, shared with her husband, 26-year-old Earl Lawson, also an attorney. "Macarena" by Los Del Ro was also the No. The day the FBI pulled off the case, and out of Lawson's house, he found himself sitting in total darkness while he waited for a friend to come pick him up. "No matter how old your child is, you want to protect your child. Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site. Still, Bland didn't know that and called off the drop. The first discovery was a vehicle belonging to one of the abducted four. The other three were so badly burned that further examination was almost impossible.[9]. Family members demanded assurances Carrie was alive and well, and Lawson spoke to her briefly Sept. 12. 2023 Advance Local Media LLC. "I was talking on a payphone. U.S. Alabama murder case goes unsolved for 25 years. As a result, all three were wealthy and successful bachelors. One victim had been stabbed to death with a hunting knife, while another had been bludgeoned to death.[6]. I'd never heard of a carjacking. Walker County Missing & Unsolved Deaths(Surrounding Areas)-Group Discussion Then he had to call Carrie's parents, David and Harriett Smith, in Tennessee. My uncle lived in Nebraska. On November 18, 1978, an off-duty employee of the Burger Chef, a local fast food joint in Speedway, Indiana, found the restaurant's back door wide open. "Having somebody kidnapped was the last thing you could ever think. "And when we woke up the next morning, he was dead. All four were brought into Senacs office by the two gunmen, who told the women to lie facedown. The only tangible evidence is a composite sketch released in 1990 which shows two middle-aged black or Hispanic males with mustaches. The WCSO currently has two Cold Case investigators that work 40+ hours a week solely on cold cases. November 20, 2020 / 6:33 AM The victims hands were bound, and their throats had been so deeply slit that they had all nearly been decapitated. Kubiszyn was on a business trip in Cincinnati. Simpson had just ended in early October 1996, but remained fresh in the public psyche and dominated headlines. Daniel McLeod, a ranch worker at the Palmer Ranch, where Cliff Walker worked, went to the Walker home in order to grab Cliff for a planned pig-hunting excursion. Authorities asking public for help in unsolved murder of Jasper man. The former location of Classics Lounge is currently occupied by Crimson Bar. Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. Ill write me a book and laugh my ass off, Jones said. He was the best dad to both of us. They cried with us. Mr. Her family continues to fight for parole, and say her role in the abduction was minor. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local. The murders were carried out for a variety of apparent reasons, ranging from greed to bloodlust. McPherson appeared before the parole board Thursday. Some of the cases remain unsolved. Both had been beaten to death with a baseball bat that had been a birthday present for Peter. "It's stuff like that that gets you through. The killer or killers had beaten Elaine so badly that she had gone into labor midway through the attack. 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"Do I think it was one of the agency's biggest failures? If your interested in cold cases, you may find yourself wondering about how many unsolved murders in US a year. Then, at that moment, the alleys mechanic, 26-year-old New Mexico State University student Steven Teran, arrived with his daughter and stepdaughter in tow. Buy newspaper front pages, posters and more. The kidnapper initially demanded Lawson's father, Earl Lawson Sr., make the delivery in Cullman. This item is available in full to subscribers. You didn't want to hear it, but you appreciated it.". Harris was found in the front room in a pool of her own blood. Inside the trailer, the police found a veritable house of horrors. The potential suspect was described to then-Homicide Unit Commander Capt. Proceeds from the shirts fund the Stop the Violence event in Jasper County. Read about more disturbing unsolved murders on 10 Unsolved Murders Linked To Organized Crime and 10 Unsolved Murders With Strange Links To The Occult. Then they got in my car and they left.". Unsolved Alabama Murders According to Project: Cold Case, from 1980 to 2019 there were 20,003 homicides in Alabama alone, leaving 7,893 unsolved murders in Alabama. "It was amazing to watch. 6 The Burger Chef Murders. The Smith family also has long thought there were more than Bland and McPherson involved, as does McPherson's family. Three of the bodies were stacked together, and at least one of the girls had been raped. RELATED: Details About The Murder Of Arkansas Teen Dana Stidham And Why Police Have Yet To Find Her Killer Alabama. Indeed, the victims were nearly decapitated by their killer. Authorities said it was not clear what prompted the call from Whited, who was jailed for the killing with bail set at $15,000. The family hired private investigator W.W. "Red" Self, a former Birmingham police officer and district attorney's office investigator, a few months after the investigation and he stayed on the case until his death. A popular theory has it that ex-cons Perry Smith and Dick Hickock, the main villains in Truman Capotes In Cold Blood, actually carried out the murders. if (!document.MAX_used) document.MAX_used = ','; "The FBI was taping the call, but the tape recorder was turned off," Kubiszyn said. Sadly, Senac died in 1999 due to complications from the shooting. The cover of "Facing September," a murder mystery based on the case of Kelly Lynn Albright's murder. Mobile County Sheriffs Office Capt. All rights reserved. WSFA 12 News was unable to reach Browns mom. Shorter, AL. The article ran two days before Endres body was found and police seemed to consider Jones a prime suspect. On December 6, 1991, firefighters in the capital city of Austin, Texas, responded to a suspected arson at a strip mall. The bottom line is this: I dont disagree that my sister deserved to be punished. "Her legacy is her kindness and how you can make an impact on people just by being thoughtful. "He had duct tape and told Carrie to duct tape my hands behind my back. "So we never heard her voice, because the tape had malfunctioned.". McPherson was the "nurse" who made the call, and she dropped Bland off at the Lawson home to carry out the kidnapping. "The fact that Bland killed himself without doing anything is incomprehensible to me.". Cookie Settings/Do Not Sell My Personal Information. "The whole thing was poorly handled," Kubiszyn said. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. She was alone with Carrie for a long time when they were holding her and she got to know her and still didnt let her go, she said. It was kind of crazy.". Four days after Kelly Lynn Albright disappeared from her family's home, she was found dead in a field. McPherson quickly pleaded guilty in November 1991 and was sentenced to life in prison. "Of course it bothered me. Five years later, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned Springsteens conviction. But it was a ruse. The murder of the 38-year-old mother is profiled in an episode of Netflixs reboot of the classic Unsolved Mysteries that points to Alabama Death Row inmate Jeremy Bryan Jones as a possible suspect. Alabama Department of Corrections lists McPherson as being in a Birmingham work release program. "And we never heard anything.". Dana was left lying on his stomach with his hands linked with Johns, thanks to a piece of electrical cord. These belonged to 44-year-old Brenda Patch and 71-year-old Cynthia Paulus. The next to die were Cliff, Jimmie, and Debbie. The Federal Bureau of Investigation released a report in 2019 that explained that 250,000 is the number of unsolved murders in U.S. 2019 or unsolved murders USA 2020, and that the number rises by around 6,000 each year that passes. If you have any information on an unsolved murder, you can make an anonymous phone call to the LowcountryCrimeStoppers at 843-554-1111. Glenna was found naked from the waist down and gagged with a blue bandana and her own panties. John Sharp was found face-up and with bloody hands near the front door. Her remains were found 600 days later, on Dec. 6, 2005, in Dawson County, Ga. Jowers was buried the following Wednesday at Demopolis Memorial Gardens in Marengo County, according to a brief newspaper obituary. '&charset='+document.characterSet : '')); McPhersons cousin, Jerry Bland, was identified as the main suspect and committed suicide as lawmen surrounded his home. At around 2:00 AM on June 29, 1978, three gunmen entered a Boston bar called Blackfriars. For a while, Hinson and Gierse had worked for Records Security, a company based in Jasper, Indiana. Inside the yogurt shop were the bodies of four young women13-year-old Amy Ayers, 17-year-old Eliza Thomas, 17-year-old Jennifer Harbison, and her 15-year-old sister Sarah. There is no statue of limitations for murder which means for all of the families involved in Dallas County and Selma, there will always be hope for justice, hope for closure. For two days, police and citizen volunteers searched the area for the missing workers. On Sept. 13, another meeting was arranged and Lawson delivered $300,000 at a service station on the outskirts of Jasper. var zoneid = '30'; What's more, another witness in the parking lot informed police at the time of the shooting that they saw a white man wearing black clothing run behind the lounge immediately after the shot rang out. According to a story written by reporter Wendy Reeves and published in the Tuscaloosa News the day after the shooting, Jowers was shot in the head while walking a girlfriend to her car in the parking lot of Classics Lounge at 613 37th Street between 2:10-2:15 a.m. Jones recanted his confession and police found no evidence to link Jones to her murder, but have never eliminated him as a suspect. Discuss Jasper, Alabama (AL) on our hugely popular Alabama forum. The three men were reputed to be very hard workers. Now. Christmas 1959 was supposed to follow this tradition. (WSAV) There are 42 unsolved murder cases in Jasper County dating from 1979 to 2018. //]]>-->, Copyright 2023, Cleveland Newspapers, Inc., operating as the Daily Mountain Eagle. There is talk among both departments of forming a special cold case unit. Were wealthy and successful bachelors in order for the missing workers dollars, and say her role the! 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