Mystery couple murdered in South Carolina, 1976 - #1

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bykerladi said:
I just read another thread on here where bones were tested for DNA to determine the body's heritage. Couldn't they do the same thing in this case, to find out what their ethnic heritage is? It might held lead to where their family is.Here's the story from the other thread:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/3901100.html
On the second page of this thread, post #44 it gives a new link from a S. Carolina newspaper that says Sumter County Coroner Verna Moore, who has been working on this case since 1976, now wants to exhume one of the bodies to get a set of teeth. She doesn't say which one or why but maybe it's the guy again because they said he had such expensive dental work done. But that's very interesting about testing the bones to determine heritage. I've never heard of that before!
 
HollywoodBound said:
If they have the serial # from his watch I wonder if it can be checked where that watch was sent to be sold...even if it's just the country. So much time has passed now but I wonder if they tried that back when the bodies were found and know but have not disclosed.
In the Crime Library story on them it says they did check out the serial #, page 3 of the link below. On the last page of the story, the same page that has the coroner's photos, it lists the serial #. About a year and a half ago I actually tried to do research on it but couldn't find anything!

http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/classics/mystery_couple/index.html
 
Here is what the Doenetwork link states about the girl's Jewelry:


Jewelry: Three Silver rings that resembled American Indian or Mexican handmade jewelry. One piece was a faceted band with red, white and blue stones. Another ring had a oblong black stone. The third was a large, intricate feather scroll band with a jade insert into the curves of the scroll.

Looking at the link, you see the second and third rings, but not the first. The year 1976 was when the country was celebrating the Bicentennial. There was Red, White, and Blue stuff in abundance that year. My guess is that the first ring was something of a Bicentennial nature.

The other two rings seem to be good quality Indian made silver rings. The oblong black stone seems to have some turquoise pieces set into it. The turquoise stones are naturally shaped, but the black oblong stone is very symetrical, which is something of an anomaly in regard to Indian Jewelry, since symetrical stones are not normal. Usually the silver is worked into the natural shape of the stone.

I believe that the third described ring is likely the best piece of Indian Jewelry, and the most unique. It might be the piece which can be linked most easily to the craftsman who made it. I believe that the narrative is incorrect, however. It does not appear to be a Jade stone, but rather a Red Coral stone and a Turquoise.
 
Richard said:
Here is what the Doenetwork link states about the girl's Jewelry:

I believe that the third described ring is likely the best piece of Indian Jewelry, and the most unique. It might be the piece which can be linked most easily to the craftsman who made it. I believe that the narrative is incorrect, however. It does not appear to be a Jade stone, but rather a Red Coral stone and a Turquoise.
You are correct. That ring is turquoise and red coral. It resembles the one at this link:
http://cgi.ebay.com/36-Lot-of-Vintage-Sterling-Turquoise-Coral-Jewelry_W0QQitemZ8946142591QQihZ004QQcategoryZ98500QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

The ring appears to be Zuni made, a tribe in the southwestern US area. It could be Hopi or Navajo also. I hitchhiked a lot across North America in the late 1970's. Bisbee, Arizona was considered a mecca for this type of jewelry back then, and many fellow travellers stopped there to buy turquoise and socialize with the hip crowd there. Maybe someone from Bisbee sold them this ring?
 
Yes, it definitely looks like turquoise, not jade. I was thinking too, the guy had some matches from Grant's Truck Stop in his pants pocket. There was a Grant's in New Mexico so maybe they got the jewelry there?? Of course there were other Grant's truck stops back then including Nebraska and Idaho but New Mexico would be another plausible Southwestern state they could have visited...
 
The 30 year anniversary of this case is approaching: 9 August. Any theories or ideas on it. Keep an eye out for possible anniversary press coverage.
 
I really think the Kentucky couple I listed should be at least considered, and they were heading for a truck stop allegedly. I don't understand that site, all the missing persons they have listed on there have no description, and none of them are listed on any of the major missing persons data-bases. Like we're supposed to just know what they looked like.
 
They both look Spanish to me. Since Spain shares a border with France so it would not be unusual for the man to have a french name, especially if he was from say Catalonia.
 
Just bumping this case up...today is the 30th anniversary. I checked the Sumter newspaper today but didn't find any new articles. The last I heard, in June I think Sumter County Coroner Verna Moore wanted to exhume the bodies to get a set of teeth from one of them. I haven't heard anything new beyond that though.
 
Has anyone seen any 30th anniversary articles, or any updates on this case?


Here is a link to a website titled: "Sumter County, SC John and Jane Doe". It features composite drawings of the two unidentified victims.
Link:
http://meyahna.tripod.com/pg5.html
 
I haven't heard anything..and I check on this almost every day. The last news I heard was in June as mentioned in the post above yours that I put on here on the 30th anniversary. Here is a link to the Sumter County Sheriff cold case page..it has a different sketch of the two.

http://www.sumtersheriff.org/unsolved.htm

There are also other cases on there...a very sad one at the bottom about a man and his teenage son who were murdered in their convenience store in Sumter in 1992 which is still unsolved.

But again, nothing new on the Mystery Couple.
 
Both were shot in the exact same places-back, chest and throat. That is very odd to me. Anyone check for other unsolveds with similar wounds?
 
Bumping this case up...

I haven't found anything new on this since last June...I'm just wondering if the Sumter County Coroner ever exhumed the bodies to get the set of teeth they wanted for additional testing.
 
liz325 said:
Bumping this case up...

I haven't found anything new on this since last June...I'm just wondering if the Sumter County Coroner ever exhumed the bodies to get the set of teeth they wanted for additional testing.
Would be nice if they would extract some dna and see if they are siblings. Could make a big difference in how to id them. Was he hitchhiking and "met" her, she decided to travel with him...??

You would think that since they appeared to be "well to do" that the ring is probably his own, hence his initials.
 
LisainWV said:
Would be nice if they would extract some dna and see if they are siblings. Could make a big difference in how to id them. Was he hitchhiking and "met" her, she decided to travel with him...??

You would think that since they appeared to be "well to do" that the ring is probably his own, hence his initials.
Yes, I wish there would be some news as to whether they exhumed the bodies and were able to get DNA. For some reason, I keep thinking she was either his girlfriend or just a friend. I don't think they were siblings. But I could be wrong. I also can't get it out of my head that he was French Canadian and possibly from Quebec. I know there have been other postings on here as to their ethnicity and some good points have been brought up about what nationality they could have been. But I keep going back to what an employee at a KOA campground in SC said, that he thought he played pool with the male victim and he told him he was the son of a famous doctor from Canada, who disowned him because he gave up his own career in medicine. The witness said he thought his first name was Jock which the SC investigators determined was probably Jacques. I thought then that the initials maybe stood for something like Jacques-Pierre, Jacques-Phillipe, Jacques-Paul?? I could be way off base but that has always been at the back of my mind since first reading about this.
 
I agree that they don't "seem" to be siblings. Surely 2 kids missing would be reported??
 
But I keep going back to what an employee at a KOA campground in SC said, that he thought he played pool with the male victim and he told him he was the son of a famous doctor from Canada, who disowned him because he gave up his own career in medicine.

This would explain why the guy appeared wealthier than your average wanderer I guess but it's hard to believe a prominent citizen and/or his relatives would fail to report his son missing even if he had disowned him, or that the gossip media paid no attention to it. Has anyone checked if someone matching his description was reported missing in Canada at the time?

As for the girl she may just have been someone he had met on the road while hitchhiking in which case these would be separate cases, making it all the harder to solve.
 
I can't imagine someone not reporting their child missing either. But I know that some people can be very proud and stubborn. If he was disowned, his father may well have decided he wasn't going to make the first move, thinking his son would come back begging him to reconsider. No matter how proud or angry his father was though, I would think even by the end of that summer of 1976 he would have started searching for his son. Even if his father washed his hands of the whole matter you would think someone else in his family would start searching for him. And what of the girl's family?? Someone has to be looking for her. The one thing that occurred to me is maybe both families had no idea where these kids went for sure. Maybe they just told them there were going to travel and didn't say exactly where. Or they could have told someone they were going to some of the Western United States and then they decided to go to South Carolina and some of the other Southern States after that and no one knew that. The male victim had matches in his pocket from Grant's Truck Stop and they were located in Idaho, Nebraska and New Mexico, none of which are anywhere near SC. Despite that, with the Doe Network and such, you would think that someone would have looked for them on there or a similar missing persons website. But they may be looking in the missing persons section under their names and not in the unidentified victims section.

About 2 years ago I did try looking on a Canadian missing persons website but, of course, I can't find it now. I'm going to keep looking as time allows. It's just so frustrating to not know for sure where they came from. And it has to be equally frustrating for their relatives and friends who don't know for sure where they went.

:doh:
 
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