Identified! Mystery couple murdered in South Carolina, 1976 - Pamela Buckley & James P Freund #8

[CoJoLofty]

Sep. 17th 1946 or the 16th?

"A son to Mr. and Mrs. Adam W. Freund (Lolaetta Coates), 22 Prescott street,'Leominster."

Fitchburg Sentinel from Fitchburg, Massachusetts on September 17, 1946 · Page 1

Sorry if this has been answered. I'm new to all this. How is this known to be his parents? In the newspaper posting announcing him going into the military it says his parents were Mr and Mrs James W Freund.

 

[landis]

Sorry if this has been answered. I'm new to all this. How is this known to be his parents? In the newspaper posting announcing him going into the military it says his parents were Mr and Mrs James W Freund.

Findagrave. com, he's in his father's obituary.

 

[worldwatcher]

I know, it has been discussed before, but a serial killer, named Henry Lucas, was investigated into the murders of Pam and James. Here is a part of a Screenshot of the article.
Source:
19 Aug 1984, 12 - The Charlotte Observer at Newspapers.com

 

[glamourkitty1922]

This is wonderful! They have their names back! I hope the police can find their killer or killers!

 

[vermontaigne]

If I remeber right, Pamela's DLC on NamUs was December 1st. It's quite interesting, because it makes me wonder: was it really December 1st, or did her family, when reporting her missing, couldn't remember exactly whether it really was December or maybe sometime earlier, maybe earlier and they just settled for December 1st? Or I'm just going too far and it just simply was December 1st.

Well, it could well have been December 1st, and they could have gotten worried when they couldn't contact her by Christmas. We know that they reported her missing out of Colorado Springs before Jan. 1, 1976, so that's not a lot of time. It would be nice if someone who knew Pamela in Colorado Springs could give us some insight into her situation. I imagine the family checked with the ex to see if he'd heard anything from or about her, before they decided to report her missing. If nothing else, they may have been in contact about the divorce proceedings.

If she were living apart from her soon-to-be ex-husband, December 1 may have been the day by which she moved out of wherever she was living.

 

[UnlicensedPI]

For the other confused sleuths, these are the same person (his father)
Fitchburg Sentinel from Fitchburg, Massachusetts on November 8, 1966 · Page 12
Adam Wendelin Freund (1917-1966) - Find A Grave...

 

[glamourkitty1922]

The specific question was "Where were they going?". So, no chance that someone "might have seen them", because they never got to the place they were headed to. But, that place (if there was in fact a place they were headed to), can hold the answers to all our questions! And, who knows, even ends in an arrest?

MOO JMO

I thought it was established that they were headed to the Talladega Raceway, or did they already do that and were going somewhere else?

 

[PatLaurel]

Sorry if this has been answered. I'm new to all this. How is this known to be his parents? In the newspaper posting announcing him going into the military it says his parents were Mr and Mrs James W Freund.

Don't recall seeing James W. Freund mentioned anywhere.
MOO

Findagrave. com, he's in his father's obituary.

Thank you! And also JPF's marriage announcement, etc.

 

[MadMcGoo]

The initials JPF on the ring would have been enough to produce major leads if James P. Freund was in NamUs, something I mentioned already. I will also point out that the following search term for newspapers.com "J????" and "P." and "F?????" and "presumed decedent" produced about 8000 hits. The question marks represent unknown search characters.

So "J????" as a search term covers "James" and "F?????" as a search term covers Freund. Including "presumed decedent" hits onto legal notices because that's a common phrase used in them (although there are many other similar search terms that may do that).

8000 hits is plenty to sift through but the legal notice for James P. Freund's death in absentia was in there. It takes at least seven years or something like that to be declared dead in absentia, I think, so maybe some of the hits could be winnowed out by identifying a target range.

The point is, we had the missing person's initials all along. If you ever come across a case where you only have initials again then the initials can be used in newspaper databases by using the question marks. It might seem tenuous but I don't think it is: it would just take patience and organization.

You would have to cover a target range of years and work with names of different lengths and that would make it hard. Honestly, I think using the question marks, studying terms that are included in legal notices involved dead-in-absentia topics, and a whole lot of organization and patience could have hit on James P. Freund's legal death notice with about 40 hours of work.

I wish I had that brainwave back in 2007 when I first read about this case. One hour a week and maybe it would have taken a year to find the lead. With a streamlined process then maybe it could take less time. Hope that makes sense.

I completely agree that the initials alone would have been enough to spark a connection had he been entered into NamUs, or any database for that matter. And the search of newspapers archives would be tedious but completely feasible. The only problem is, to even get it down to 8,000 results, we’d first have to narrow it down to a 5 letter first name starting with a J and a 6 letter surname beginning with an F. Of course we knew the initials, but narrowing down to names’ lengths would really make the task much harder. If that makes sense.

If his first name had turned out to be Jeremiah, searching for “J????” would have been a fruitless search. This is if I’m understanding the “unknown search characters” search method. Because it’s not one I’ve used before. I am however, constantly searching newspaper archives for these very things. So, please correct me if I’m wrong. I do agree with you though, it’s things like this that can be done with, like you said, a little patience and organization.

Cases where there is an item found bearing initials (or other similar specifics; class rings, for example) are always interesting to me. We just have to keep in mind that they could be red herrings or no help whatsoever in identifying the victim. Such as with the class ring in Julie Davis’ (“Princess Blue”). It couldn’t/wasn’t linked to her directly.

I’m always eager to learn new, unconventional methods of researching for cases after identifications have been made. It most instances a lot can be learned for us sleuths after the fact. Thanks for your post!

 

[PatLaurel]

I thought it was established that they were headed to the Talladega Raceway, or did they already do that and were going somewhere else?

Talladega Raceway? No idea. A reporter questioned the Sheriff about the place where they where headed to. The Sheriff hesitated and didn't answer. My guess is that it might compromise the investigation if they release that info. Or maybe he has no clue...

MOO JMO

 

[Awsi Dooger]

whilst at work today I suddenly imagined what family members would see when they google 'Sumter Does'.....That was sobering!

I thought about that all day yesterday. But it would be friends more than family members. I'm sure the delay before identification was to allow family members plenty of time to absorb and come to grips with the situation. Those family members were probably here and on other sites in recent weeks and months, already aware of the identification while we were still debating and hoping. Some family members would want to see every photo and read every theory. Others a mere glimpse.

Sobering indeed. I hope they realize how much thought and dedication went into trying to solve this case. Verna Moore made a special trip to the KOA campground area seeking more information near the end of her career and while into her 80s, I believe. Carl K. per norm had more than one version of the depictions, always striving to make everything as representative as possible. If they see the morgue photos I hope they realize that was always a distant variable. I was aware of this case for more than 20 years before ever seeing those photos. I intentionally avoided them for a long time despite being aware they existed. Finally I saw them late at night by accident several years ago while researching another aspect of the case.

 

[Filly]

No silly Freund is German In Dutch it's vriend.

Can translate to boyfriend as well in German which in this case is ironic.

 

[onceuponadecember]

I decided to look for similarities between James and Pam to see if they had anything in common that could’ve helped them form a relationship. Here’s what I found:

• Both had WWII veteran fathers
• Both had gone through separations and had been previously married

 

[wary]

That’s part of what I found interesting. They both were reported missing in 1975, and were found murdered in 1976. And despite that gap in time, the police seem to know where they were headed.

I’m hoping Pamela and James kept in contact with some people in their lives after they were reported missing. (Friends not acquainted with their families, unaware they were reported missing.) And the police can now cross-reference information from both sides.

Or even friends who knew their family casually, but had no idea that it’d be important to know exactly when they became missing.

 

[wmm85]

I thought about that all day yesterday. But it would be friends more than family members. I'm sure the delay before identification was to allow family members plenty of time to absorb and come to grips with the situation. Those family members were probably here and on other sites in recent weeks and months, already aware of the identification while we were still debating and hoping. Some family members would want to see every photo and read every theory. Others a mere glimpse.

Sobering indeed. I hope they realize how much thought and dedication went into trying to solve this case. Verna Moore made a special trip to the KOA campground area seeking more information near the end of her career and while into her 80s, I believe. Carl K. per norm had more than one version of the depictions, always striving to make everything as representative as possible. If they see the morgue photos I hope they realize that was always a distant variable. I was aware of this case for more than 20 years before ever seeing those photos. I intentionally avoided them for a long time despite being aware they existed. Finally I saw them late at night by accident several years ago while researching another aspect of the case.

Verna Moore was a real champion for this couple. She never forgot about them, and pushed for them to get exhumed back in 2007 to try and extract DNA from them for identification. It’s a shame she didn’t get to see them identified.

 

[wary]

It's an automatic thing on NamUs for when there's no exact date

So it probably means: “some time in December?”

 

[StarryStarryNight]

I do think that they were shot in the throat first, then rolled onto their backs, and shot in the back and then in the head.

Didn’t the sheriff yesterday state that he wanted to correct incorrect information that said they had been shot in the throat? I thought he said they were shot in the torso, the back and once in the back of the head. Although it was hard to hear him sometimes.

 

[onceuponadecember]

Verna Moore was a real champion for this couple. She never forgot about them, and pushed for them to get exhumed back in 2007 to try and extract DNA from them for identification. It’s a shame she didn’t get to see them identified.

Sometimes I feel like Verna cared more about James and Pam than the investigators, but we don’t really know what happened during investigation.
IMO

 

[fred&edna]

Standing ovation to the DNA Doe Project for their efforts in finally getting these two identified. Again, better late than never.

RSBM... as I particularly love this part of your post!

 

[wary]

I decided to look for similarities between James and Pam to see if they had anything in common that could’ve helped them form a relationship. Here’s what I found:

• Both had WWII veteran fathers
• Both had gone through separations and had been previously married

Someone posted here yesterday that he’d been in the band in high school—was that a mistake?