Identified! Mystery couple murdered in South Carolina, 1976 - Pamela Buckley & James Freund #9

[Awsi Dooger]

I got a kick out of this one. Anyone who follows the Delphi case is aware of Gray Hughes. He makes frequent videos and has a charming demeanor, going out of his way to call people idiots if they disagree with him. In particular, Gray Hughes stuffily poses himself as an online geography expert, forever tinkering with maps to demonstrate his superiority in piecing together where it happened.

Now, I may not have been able to isolate the Sumter County Doe murder scene until yesterday, when I finally became confident it was on the left side of Locklair and approximately 60-70 yards from the intersection with Old St. John Church Road. But at least I have always been able to find Locklair, both online and in person.

Let's just say Gray Hughes is having a bit of trouble. He ran a 65 minute live video on this case on January 22, featuring numerous attempts to find Locklair Road. At least 4 or 5. I was laughing all the way while watching this tonight. He never came particularly close, even though he had all the relevant info like adjacent to I-95 and near 341. Finally just beyond the 33 minute mark Gray asserted, "That road doesn't exist anymore."

At least he did have the full press conference and also some good articles from early days of the case:

 

[otto]

Exactly. Those positions needed to evolve and sadly they did not evolve. Not sufficiently. Journalists previously filed one or two stories per day and otherwise waited until the next deadline. Now they are asked to keep up with social media duties with deadlines essentially all day long.

Law enforcement somewhere along the line should have understood that online databases of all types needed to be prioritized, even if it required shifting an hour of responsibility per day or adding a new position. As mentioned by Vern, that extra hour would have saved time and solved cases in the long run.

Really pathetic. And you can see now in real time the departments that did take those steps and were quickly able to take advantage of the new genealogical availability. Seattle area has cleared one old case after another. Their related press conferences are all very thorough and well done, with photos and family members, in comparison to the Sumter guy who was woefully unprepared and obviously was not comfortable in a media setting like that.

There were no online databases in 1976. Computers were a new thing and very few people had one in their home. IBM was just booting up.

When computers had databases, everything from tire type to shoe sole and DNA databases were created. Databases must have been used, although more tediously like fingerprint analysis, in 1976.

 

[otto]

I got a kick out of this one. Anyone who follows the Delphi case is aware of Gray Hughes. He makes frequent videos and has a charming demeanor, going out of his way to call people idiots if they disagree with him. In particular, Gray Hughes stuffily poses himself as an online geography expert, forever tinkering with maps to demonstrate his superiority in piecing together where it happened.

Now, I may not have been able to isolate the Sumter County Doe murder scene until yesterday, when I finally became confident it was on the left side of Locklair and approximately 60-70 yards from the intersection with Old St. John Church Road. But at least I have always been able to find Locklair, both online and in person.

Let's just say Gray Hughes is having a bit of trouble. He ran a 65 minute live video on this case on January 22, featuring numerous attempts to find Locklair Road. At least 4 or 5. I was laughing all the way while watching this tonight. He never came particularly close, even though he had all the relevant info like adjacent to I-95 and near 341. Finally just beyond the 33 minute mark Gray asserted, "That road doesn't exist anymore."

At least he did have the full press conference and also some good articles from early days of the case:

Is Locklear the wrong road? Why is it called Locklair?

 

[otto]

Locklair Road near I-95 and S.C.341.






Sumter Does - Newspapers.com

 

[otto]

At the South end of the road, farthest from S.C. 341, the feeder road to Locklear Road is called Locklair. At the Northend of the road, nearest S.C. 341, it is called Locklear.

They were found closer to S.C. 341.



Sumter Does - Newspapers.com

 

[otto]

2008 link to fact that they stepped from the back of a van on a secluded dirt road. It was not a car or a motorcycle.

How did they end up eating fruit with or without ice cream, in the back of a van a few hours later and then murdered on the side of a dirt road by 1 AM? Were they visiting someone in Lynchburg through the music or mechanics scene?



4 Apr 2008, 3 - National Post at Newspapers.com

 

[worm]

True, but it is still helpful to identify the vehicle and what took place.

Investigators have to find the person before looking at someone's shoes. It's like DNA, find a suspect and then compare DNA, or shoes and tires.

Agreed. If they could (or did they already?) nail a vehicle make from those tires, that would be super. I wonder if there is a way for modern tech to aid in that? Im starting to worry that we’re gonna need a miracle here friends.

 

[otto]

Agreed. If they could (or did they already?) nail a vehicle make from those tires, that would be super. I wonder if there is a way for modern tech to aid in that? Im starting to worry that we’re gonna need a miracle here friends.

Investigators determined that the vehicle is a van. There must have been footprints. In 2008, investigators released the fact that "they stepped from the back of a van on a secluded dirt road."

A van with back doors makes me think of a delivery type van rather than a passenger van with trunk space. If it was their van, maybe they were living a nomadic van life - a bit like Lucas Fowler and China Deese in BC 2019, or Esther Dingley and Dan Colgate 2014-2020

 

[MadMcGoo]

As I work from home mostly, I would definitely be interested in volunteering to adding cases into NamUs. It would be very easy for states to utilize Dropbox, etc to send files to be entered. The only time/money cost then, would be uploading into an assigned volunteers Dropbox. I honestly believe it would be efficient and definitely helpful in getting alot of these cases solved.

I am right there with you. And I have a feeling there are more who feel the same. They wouldn’t have to ask me twice to do the job and do it for free.

 

[MadMcGoo]

I got a kick out of this one. Anyone who follows the Delphi case is aware of Gray Hughes. He makes frequent videos and has a charming demeanor, going out of his way to call people idiots if they disagree with him. In particular, Gray Hughes stuffily poses himself as an online geography expert, forever tinkering with maps to demonstrate his superiority in piecing together where it happened.

Now, I may not have been able to isolate the Sumter County Doe murder scene until yesterday, when I finally became confident it was on the left side of Locklair and approximately 60-70 yards from the intersection with Old St. John Church Road. But at least I have always been able to find Locklair, both online and in person.

Let's just say Gray Hughes is having a bit of trouble. He ran a 65 minute live video on this case on January 22, featuring numerous attempts to find Locklair Road. At least 4 or 5. I was laughing all the way while watching this tonight. He never came particularly close, even though he had all the relevant info like adjacent to I-95 and near 341. Finally just beyond the 33 minute mark Gray asserted, "That road doesn't exist anymore."

At least he did have the full press conference and also some good articles from early days of the case:

I got a kick out of this. Let’s just say I’d trust you over GH any day. I remember when you first went out to Locklair Road. You went above and beyond and I’m just as appreciate today as I was back then. THANK YOU!

 

[worm]

Investigators determined that the vehicle is a van. There must have been footprints. In 2008, investigators released the fact that "they stepped from the back of a van on a secluded dirt road."

A van with back doors makes me think of a delivery type van rather than a passenger van with trunk space. If it was their van, maybe they were living a nomadic van life - a bit like Lucas Fowler and China Deese in BC 2019, or Esther Dingley and Dan Colgate 2014-2020

View attachment 281774

I’m curious as to how they know it was a van. Tires I guess. Maybe they could tell they got out of the back by shoe prints and the way it parked. The gun guy had a car I think but I’m sure they checked if he had access to a van.

 

[Feme98]

I’m curious as to how they know it was a van. Tires I guess. Maybe they could tell they got out of the back by shoe prints and the way it parked. The gun guy had a car I think but I’m sure they checked if he had access to a van.

I think that they came to that conclusion based on tire marks, or maybe from witness reports.

If I recall correctly, a witness (presumably the hermit) saw a van going recklessly through the road, it came to a stop and both James and Pamela were pushed from the rear.

 

[otto]

I’m curious as to how they know it was a van. Tires I guess. Maybe they could tell they got out of the back by shoe prints and the way it parked. The gun guy had a car I think but I’m sure they checked if he had access to a van.

It might be that the wheel base of a van is different than a car or a truck. It's likely that investigators were able to say that the victims stepped out of the back of the van based on footprints. Footprints had to be visible to make that statement.

The gun guy has been said to have all types of vehicle such as truck, car, etc. I would like to know whether the clean cut, recently showered couple had a registered vehicle. That seems likely with clean cut people who are not hitchhiking around the country. Now that they have been identified, what is known about vehicles in their names?

 

[otto]

I think that they came to that conclusion based on tire marks, or maybe from witness reports.

If I recall correctly, a witness (presumably the hermit) saw a van going recklessly through the road, it came to a stop and both James and Pamela were pushed from the rear.

I read about an ear witness who heard a vehicle, two shots and the vehicle sped away. I haven't read about a witness who saw a van and the murders.

If someone saw them "pushed from the rear," there should have been a lot more information 45 years ago.

Police statement is that the victims "stepped out of the back of the van," nothing mentioned about "pushed from the rear."

I'll look for the link to ear witness, you look for the link to eye witness.

 

[worm]

I read about an ear witness who heard a vehicle, two shots and the vehicle sped away. I haven't read about a witness who saw a van and the murders.

If someone saw them "pushed from the rear," there should have been a lot more information 45 years ago.

Police statement is that the victims "stepped out of the back of the van," nothing mentioned about "pushed from the rear."

I'll look for the link to ear witness, you look for the link to eye witness.

I remember the ear witness, or nearby resident, account. I think you are right on the prints and wheels. Since I seen the dirt on that road I figured impressions would be good. They would have heard 6 shots in all. I wasn’t aware of gun mans various vehicles, interesting.

 

[Feme98]

I read about an ear witness who heard a vehicle, two shots and the vehicle sped away. I haven't read about a witness who saw a van and the murders.

If someone saw them "pushed from the rear," there should have been a lot more information 45 years ago.

Police statement is that the victims "stepped out of the back of the van," nothing mentioned about "pushed from the rear."

I'll look for the link to ear witness, you look for the link to eye witness.

I remember that I heard it from a video, i think that it was from a series called people unclaimed, the Sumter does were the first one.

 

[Andreee]

I read about an ear witness who heard a vehicle, two shots and the vehicle sped away. I haven't read about a witness who saw a van and the murders.

If someone saw them "pushed from the rear," there should have been a lot more information 45 years ago.

Police statement is that the victims "stepped out of the back of the van," nothing mentioned about "pushed from the rear."

I'll look for the link to ear witness, you look for the link to eye witness.

I've never heard anything about that eye witness! I think we would've heard that here on WS along the way as verified fact if it were so.

 

[wary]

I think that they came to that conclusion based on tire marks, or maybe from witness reports.

If I recall correctly, a witness (presumably the hermit) saw a van going recklessly through the road, it came to a stop and both James and Pamela were pushed from the rear.

I’m not aware of any trustworthy source that claims there’s anyone who actually saw the van, or James and Pamela with the van. I know the story exists....Does anyone know where it came from?

 

[killarney rose]

2008 link to fact that they stepped from the back of a van on a secluded dirt road. It was not a car or a motorcycle.

How did they end up eating fruit with or without ice cream, in the back of a van a few hours later and then murdered on the side of a dirt road by 1 AM? Were they visiting someone in Lynchburg through the music or mechanics scene?

View attachment 281773

4 Apr 2008, 3 - National Post at Newspapers.com

one would hope that if they were visiting someone, the publicity at the time they were found would have caused that person to come forward. They would’ve been identified then, and we wouldn’t be here today.

 

[wary]

one would hope that if they were visiting someone, the publicity at the time they were found would have caused that person to come forward. They would’ve been identified then, and we wouldn’t be here today.

Well, what if the person they were visiting were the murderer?