Mystery couple murdered in South Carolina, 1976 - #6

[Sweetluv]

TedMac: I believe this couple was killed execution style....3 bullets each seems excessive and overkill for a random killing. They were not shot in the face..as to keep them identifiable to family , inner circle....send a message perhaps? Drug running? Your thoughts

 

[Sweetluv]

Also, a car was seen leaving....must of been at least two killers...one to drive, and one to keep an eye on our victims. No sign of ligature marks....

 

[Magnum P.E.]

Possessing a firearm with no serial number, was not a crime in 1976. Yes, as I mentioned in my post, LE did lose the gun. It is certainly not the first piece of evidence that has gone missing from LE's possession. It doesn't happen often, but it does happen. Not sure inept is the correct word-more like lack of experience in handling cases of this magnitude. If LE was protecting someone (Henry or the relative), they would have never tested the gun to begin with to see if it was the murder weapon. If they knew this already and wanted to cover up the crime, they would have tossed it away after the DUI arrest so no test could be done.

Technically you are probably right about state law, I don’t know. However, under federal law (18 U.S.C. § 922(k)), if he had crossed a state line with altered or missing numbers, it would have been pretty serious. That became law in 1968.
How experienced do you have to be to just put the murder weapon in the evidence room with a tag and leave it there?
I don’t think it was a grand conspiracy, but perhaps someone wanted it to be quashed after they got wind of things. I’ve seen that happen, investigations are dropped without a word. Evidence goes missing, crippling a case. Everyone in the world did not have to be in on it. LE is not some monolithic entity.

Anyway, the killer will never be known with certainty, the evidence had too much of a minor league or willful mishandling. But the DNA is in the system, and we will know who they are, within a year I would think.

 

[T rex]

Technically you are probably right about state law, I don’t know. However, under federal law (18 U.S.C. § 922(k)), if he had crossed a state line with altered or missing numbers, it would have been pretty serious. That became law in 1968.
How experienced do you have to be to just put the murder weapon in the evidence room with a tag and leave it there?
I don’t think it was a grand conspiracy, but perhaps someone wanted it to be quashed after they got wind of things. I’ve seen that happen, investigations are dropped without a word. Evidence goes missing, crippling a case. Everyone in the world did not have to be in on it. LE is not some monolithic entity.

Anyway, the killer will never be known with certainty, the evidence had too much of a minor league or willful mishandling. But the DNA is in the system, and we will know who they are, within a year I would think.

I agree with you that these people will be identified. The DDP is on it and I wish them speed and luck. I also agree that the perps will probably not be known but you never know what might happen when the victims are known. Answering this one question of who these people are could answer so many other questions or it could just raise more questions. Either way I'm ready to find out. There are some here that think when the DDP or some other organization gets involved in a case that everything else should just come to a screeching halt. I am not one of them and I hope people never stop talking about this case. Look at Jack the Ripper, probably the most infamous case of them all. People still like talking about it and always will. Now I'm not saying that this case is of that calibre but it's still one for the ages, there's a lot that can be learned from it and about it and I for one hope that people never stop talking about it.

 

[IndieCindy]

I read it in a newspaper, I will send a link but it requires a subscription payment. I have clipped the story & saved so I do not know if you will be able to view it that way or not. I have also found his death certificate through genealogy contacts.

 

[IndieCindy]

I agree with you that these people will be identified. The DDP is on it and I wish them speed and luck. I also agree that the perps will probably not be known but you never know what might happen when the victims are known. Answering this one question of who these people are could answer so many other questions or it could just raise more questions. Either way I'm ready to find out. There are some here that think when the DDP or some other organization gets involved in a case that everything else should just come to a screeching halt. I am not one of them and I hope people never stop talking about this case. Look at Jack the Ripper, probably the most infamous case of them all. People still like talking about it and always will. Now I'm not saying that this case is of that calibre but it's still one for the ages, there's a lot that can be learned from it and about it and I for one hope that people never stop talking about it.

“Chain of Custody” evidence is also gone?

 

[IndieCindy]

I don’t greater access to library databases at the moment, but there seems to be a strong possibility that Guy could be the child of Dr. Jules Carignan (deceased) of Trois-Rivières.

Dr. Carignan, interestingly, was a dentist listed in the directory of the Canadian dental society members (see attached).

These were my thoughts as well. Glad to see we are on the same page.

 

[IndieCindy]

I read it in a newspaper, I will send a link but it requires a subscription payment. I have clipped the story & saved so I do not know if you will be able to view it that way or not. I have also found his death certificate through genealogy contacts.

Here is the link:https://www.newspapers.com/clippings/download/?id=35685577

 

[IndieCindy]

Here is the link:https://www.newspapers.com/clippings/download/?id=35685577

Death certificate, public info. Death of son, public info.

 

[canteloupe]

These were my thoughts as well. Glad to see we are on the same page.

I think we might be in the minority...someone posted it to reddit and didn’t get any traction, either.

It’s super weird that these two don’t show up on the Quebec missing persons list??

 

[IndieCindy]

According to this site it seems George Henry did have another child. He went by the same name and was born in 1946.
In Ancestry.com’s records, someone posted another son with death date also as 1973. But he did not have another son as far as I could find. You have to be careful when researching because sometimes people that post the info believe their information is correct when in fact, they only have bits and pieces. It appears you found the fathers information. And I have also seen the son’s information recorded as a “JR” (on Ancestry & in another newspaper story), but the death certificate is accurate. I believe DNA will prove who these people were.

Lonnie George Henry (1918-1982) • FamilySearch

 

[IndieCindy]

I think we might be in the minority...someone posted it to reddit and didn’t get any traction, either.

It’s super weird that these two don’t show up on the Quebec missing persons list??

They do show up in Canada’s Database of missing persons. 1973. The photos I provided were from their 1973 records; they would be a few years older than shown in the “missing persons” photos. I believe these are the same persons as Jock and Jane Doe. But DNA will be the key.

 

[IndieCindy]

To me these two girls are not the same person...

The photos of the Canada couple would be approximately three years younger than the Carolina couple. The shape of the mouth, chin, eyes and nose look the same to me. And the measurement from each point appears to line up. ‍ But who knows. I hope the DNA can tell us more.

 

[T rex]

Thanks for the links, IndieCindy, I may try to put them over in our media thread sometime. We really should try to keep that thread up a little better. Most of the old links over there don't work anymore.


Yes, the son their referring to having died in 1973 is, of course, the same one we've been talking about that drowned at that same time but I am becoming convinced that Henry still had another son. This is two different ancestry sites giving pretty much the same information. His name was Lonnie George Henry (after his father) and it lists the mother as Doris Horne, who was indeed Henry's wife. It's true that one site could have taken information from the other but the fact that both sites are accurate on the rest of the family, both immediate and extended, gives me confidence that this information is accurate too.

 

[T rex]

I think we might be in the minority...someone posted it to reddit and didn’t get any traction, either.

It’s super weird that these two don’t show up on the Quebec missing persons list??

I considered it back when I made this post but I still think it's a long shot.

If you look right below Lucie Gelinas on this same site there is this man, Guy Carignan. He went missing from the same place less than a week later and had the same story of going to Vancouver with a friend.
Them being this couple may be a long shot but I wonder if they went missing together and if anyone else has ever noticed this. The friends could never be located in either case so maybe they are the friends to each other.

Canada's Missing | Case details

 

[Sweetluv]

What ever became of the mcminns? Definite rule out?

 

[TedMac]

What ever became of the mcminns? Definite rule out?

Ruled out

 

[Triss]

Also, a car was seen leaving....must of been at least two killers...one to drive, and one to keep an eye on our victims. No sign of ligature marks....

I too think that more than one person was involved in the couple's death. I assume that one of the victims would try to run or fight after witnessing the other victim being shot. That makes me think they were either held at gunpoint by more than one person or there was just one killer and he tied them up, but I couldn't find anything online about the victims having any marks on their bodies from a rope.

 

[T rex]

The reason he is known as Jock is a misleading one and perhaps involves a little incompetence too. The witness said his name was Jack. LE decided that it was probably Jock or Jacques and more or less changed his statement.

I posted this not too long ago and since then I've been searching for the source of that information. I remember reading it although it has been some years ago and I think it was a direct quote of one of the investigators. However, I have not been able to find it and everything else I'm finding contradicts what I said in this post. (dont ya hate it when you have to sleuth yourself?) So maybe the witness did say Jock or maybe one day I will find what I'm looking for. I definitely don't want to post anything that's not correct, atleast not knowingly. Old cases and long threads can be frustrating sometimes. I would apologize to the LE in this case for calling them incompetent but...nahhh, there's other good reasons for making that claim.

 

[Laughing]

I posted this not too long ago and since then I've been searching for the source of that information. I remember reading it although it has been some years ago and I think it was a direct quote of one of the investigators. However, I have not been able to find it and everything else I'm finding contradicts what I said in this post. (dont ya hate it when you have to sleuth yourself?) So maybe the witness did say Jock or maybe one day I will find what I'm looking for. I definitely don't want to post anything that's not correct, atleast not knowingly. Old cases and long threads can be frustrating sometimes. I would apologize to the LE in this case for calling them incompetent but...nahhh, there's other good reasons for making that claim.

BBM

uhm, JHMO, a murder weapon missing from an evidence room does seem to require some 'splainin'.