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

[superunknown]

Also think about the social/political/societal changes that took place between 1965 and 1976. Huge changes!!!

Sumter County, SC is a really long way from Lancaster County, PA. Back when there were no cell phones and even long distance phone calls were very expensive. It was a different time and it would have been really unusual for a young woman who grew up in a smallish town/city to stalk her ex-husband across the country to murder him.

I'm assuming it was a case of a couple who married very young and grew apart. Remember, Jim was only 30 when he was killed, only 19 when he married in 1965. He was still in the Army, according to their wedding announcement

12 Dec 1965, 25 - Sunday News at Newspapers.com

He may have even done a tour of Vietnam and came home to find he felt alienated from his wife, family and home town. That happened to a lot of vets his age back then. Many moved to different cities, went to college, experienced life differently than before.

Someone mentioned earlier that he could have been on a trip to visit an old Army buddy, as there are some bases in that area. That seems a possibility.

 

[branmuffin]

But which Christmas? I had read that he claimed to have given the gun as a Christmas gift two years prior, before the murders.

I am very interested in learning more about LGH's son. If he did it, then he might have had an accomplice who is still alive. It may even be that his drowning death in the Pee Dee River wasn't an accident.

LE should take a hard look at the people who were with him when he drowned.

I also read that the Henry's had another son born in 1946 called Junior which kind of makes sense since a lot of people, especially in the US, do call their first born son after the father. Junior is listed as deceased without a death date which makes me wonder if he died shortly after birth. Which may be why some think the Henry's only had one child. If he didn't die as an infant I don't know where he is. Here is a link:

FamilySearch.org

 

[Molly's Mom]

Is there a link or a screenshot of this that I missed? Or is there something you can post? TIA

 

[branmuffin]

Lonnie admitted to filing the serial numbers off the gun. His brother admitted that he gave the gun to Lonnie for Christmas.

 

[ktgrrl]

Orphans' Court | Lancaster County, PA - Official Website

I wonder if he had a child. They deal in adoptions and termination of parental rights.

Based on the notice seeking information on the death or whereabouts of James P. Freund that was placed in the paper, it states that it was for the Orphan's Division in Lancaster County. I don't know anything about that court division. Does it mean that a child is trying to get an inheritance?

 

[ajac71]

In that era so many people went 'off the grid' to find themselves.... its a common story . young man marries young, does whats expected..its too soon it falls apart and he decides to explore life. My parents were married very young (My sister was about 6 months premature...if you get my meaning) and were in a miserable marriage for years because it was 'what you do'! Im not saying James got into that trouble but he may have felt the weight of expectation. Plus the early 70s' were still in the glow of the counter culture...so freedom was taken advantage of.

 

[branmuffin]

I wonder if we'll ever know their story. A passing thought of mine was maybe they didn't know eachother at all- maybe they were simply victims of the same killer and both of their bodies were dumped at the same spot. But I very much doubt it, I believe they knew eachother, somehow. I wonder where they were going, what they were thinking.
I hope that somehow they know that 40 odd years later, a lot of people cared about them.

It's quite possible they met as strangers in a mutual area where they had been dropped off and decided to travel together for safety.

 

[StarryStarryNight]

I believe so, the sheriff said that they were re-opening the investigation

When someone asked the sheriff where the two were headed, he hesitated and said he did not want to go into that now, as if that was a piece of information they had just gotten or something. (Or maybe he just didn’t know what to say. He did seem like the most clueless person in the room. Very unprepared. Like he knew nothing about the case at all). Anyway, maybe there is information they got from talking with the families that will help the re-opened investigation.

 

[worldwatcher]

There was some mention, earlier, in this thread, that tire tracks were secured at the crime scene.
Wonder what more evidence LE has kept?
Never saw any clear picture of their clothing, so that must be gone...?!

 

[wary]

I think that most crime investigators believe that ballistic evidence is pretty dispositive. It's not regarded like hair fiber evidence, at any rate. What is interesting is that they nail a guy on DUI, do ballistics on the gun, and match them up. I think that back then, maybe even now, maybe even with a gun which has filed off identification numbers, that was going a bit beyond. So, maybe they had some prior reason to suspect the arrestee. But maybe someone here in LEO or with a close relation to someone working back then could say whether it would be a bit unusual to make those comparisons after a DUI, which was generally a slap-of-the-wrist thing back then.

That’s the impression I had about ballistics evidence too. Thanks.

From what I read, they probably checked his gun because the murder was recent, very much on their minds, and why not? Actually, the filed off numbers might have been some sort of probable cause?

 

[worldwatcher]

When someone asked the sheriff where the two were headed, he hesitated and said he did not want to go into that now, as if that was a piece of information they had just gotten or something. (Or maybe he just didn’t know what to say. He did seem like the most clueless person in the room. Very unprepared. Like he knew nothing about the case at all). Anyway, maybe there is information they got from talking with the families that will help the re-opened investigation.

I saw and noticed that too, lol.
Just re-watched on WIS TV, much better!

 

[wary]

Hah! So if we operate under the assumption that this is "our" Jim, he totally made up that name, Jacques and gave some *advertiser censored* and bull story to the campground guy about being from Canada and having a father who was a doctor who disapproved of his son's life choices. Yeah, he was definitely either a jokester or deliberately trying to conceal his identity while on the road.

Sounds more like a jokester, because it’s too interesting a story—when you’re concealing your identity, I think you want a boring story. But I think it’s equally likely that it was a case of mistaken identity on the part of the KOA guy.

 

[Sillybilly]

ADMIN NOTE;

This was previously posted:

Identified! - Mystery couple murdered in South Carolina, 1976 - #7 Pam Buckley & James P Freund

With 180,000+ members, hundreds of active threads, and only 3 to 4 volunteer Moderators trying to keep things going 24/7, it is physically impossible for Mods to babysit a thread in real time.

We rely on members to Alert us so that we know there is a problem.

 

[branmuffin]

Summer camp center? Have I missed something? Forgive my ignorance

Maybe KOA campground? That's where someone said he was in the bad graces of his family for not wanting to be a doctor and he tried to sell either the watch or the ring, can't remember right off my head. It could be a case of mistaken identity, perhaps. If it is, we've been chasing our tails for over 15 years.

 

[Molly's Mom]

Maybe KOA campground? That's where someone said he was in the bad graces of his family for not wanting to be a doctor and he tried to sell either the watch or the ring, can't remember right off my head. It could be a case of mistaken identity, perhaps. If it is, we've been chasing our tails for over 15 years.

James' high school yearbook says he wants to be an accountant.

 

[superunknown]

I have always felt there might be a racing connection to this case. James was wearing that race T-shirt from Florida, remember? The reason why the campground story seemed plausible was because the man at the campground allegedly told the owner that he had traveled to/from Florida.

 

[superunknown]

Duplicate post. Apologies!

 

[Betty P]

Is there a link or a screenshot of this that I missed? Or is there something you can post? TIA

Here is a link

10 Oct 1985, 43 - Lancaster New Era at Newspapers.com

It was a legal notice of him being declared dead in 1985, which would have been 10 years after he was noted as missing.

Here's a link to another notice of his former wife petitioning the court to have him declared dead. It's from 1988.

22 Apr 1988, 38 - Intelligencer Journal at Newspapers.com

This notice said he hadn't been heard from since December 25, 1975

13 May 1988, 42 - Intelligencer Journal at Newspapers.com

 

[wary]

Is it still an ongoing investigation then?

The sheriff said that it was. I can see how learning who these people were would breathe new life into the investigation.

 

[vermontaigne]

There's more to go on here than in a lot of cases, but we do have to be careful not to assume too much. I'm sure many thousands of hours have been expended trying to chase down French Canadian possibilities.

Colorado Springs is where the Air Force Academy is located, and a large number of Air Force personnel are posted there or retire there. It could mean something, but maybe not. Anyway, although her family is from MN, she is reported missing from there in '75. It's a long time to keep your family guessing, which suggests that maybe there was a reason she didn't want to be in touch, such as a guy.

But in this case, the guy is reported missing, also in '75, but from his hometown of Lancaster, PA. He's about 30 by this time, and he's a guy, and he's ex-military, but his family are still concerned enough to report him missing. And as Carl likes to remind us, this is all--both of them not entered in NamUs before last year, when genetic genealogy had offered them up as possibilities and their status as missing was entered on our accessible databases--a good reminder of what an incomplete picture of missing persons we have available to us on the web. Now, does he go out west, and meet her there, and travel across the country? Sounds romantic, and maybe they head south to AZ, go to the southernmost of the three truck stops represented by the matches, and travel east until they get to SC. Or, maybe not. Maybe Jim gets the matches from a truck driver or someone who's staying at the KOA, assuming they ever were there. At any rate, LE seems to have reason to believe they met each other hitchhiking, and maybe someday we will find out why that is, or what other suspicions they may have regarding PsOI. And it's just as likely that she hitchhiked and he hitchhiked and they fell in together close to where they were murdered.

Robbery doesn't seem to be the motive, if the watch and jewelry are still there. Presumably, though, they would have carried some form of ID, so it's likely that was removed to make ID more difficult. There is some speculation that they may have had a vehicle, and that it may have been stolen, but in that case now that we have ID investigators stand a good chance of finding out whether either had a car registered to them. And I'm going to guess no, because if Jim's family were posting ads regarding an inheritance, there's a good chance they may have hired a PI to run down at least Social Security and car registration records.

So, maybe we will get enough information to speculate intelligently on the circumstances, and maybe not.