NC NC - Jesse McBane, 19, & Patricia Mann, 20, Durham, 12 Feb 1971

DNA Solves
DNA Solves
DNA Solves
True crime podcast looks at Durham's unsolved Valentine's Day Murder
Jul 05, 2018
A new true crime podcast from Eryk Pruitt and Drew Adamek, "The Long Dance," looks into the 1971 murders in Durham of Watts nursing student Patricia Mann of Sanford and NC State student Jesse McBane of Pittsboro.

Read more here: True crime podcast looks at Durham's unsolved Valentine's Day Murder
 
Wonder if the main suspect is aware he's identified and featured on the podcast, even a recorded interview with him! Now that his identity is known , perhaps the case will be solved.
 
Just listened to all eight episodes. Shocked to hear the main living suspect named. He had an office here and practiced until about a year ago. Now he has retired and moved to Florida. Barring a confession, which I don't believe will ever come, I don't see the relatives and loved ones of these victims ever seeing justice. I hope I am wrong.
 
Just listened to all eight episodes. Shocked to hear the main living suspect named. He had an office here and practiced until about a year ago. Now he has retired and moved to Florida. Barring a confession, which I don't believe will ever come, I don't see the relatives and loved ones of these victims ever seeing justice. I hope I am wrong.
I’m hoping the lead detective agreed to the podcast releasing his name to put pressure on him, but think that would work better if he still lives here.

I have had incidental contact with him and am waiting to become a verified insider.
 
I’ve emailed twice about becoming a VI and haven’t heard anything back, so I’m assuming I don’t need to be a VI for this.

For 3 years I worked two houses down from the prime suspect’s office. The street is a mix of offices and houses - my office is on the first floor of a residence.

As far as any of us could tell, his practice was closed these last several years, but he still came to the office every day, sitting by the window and guarding his parking lot.

One day I parked my car on the street in front of his office and when I came back, he had placed a 3x5 index card on my windshield with a typed message about some crazy parking rules that I’d never heard of and said he would have my car towed if I parked there again. I called the city transportation department because it was so upsetting. I read it to the person and they laughed, saying those aren’t real parking regulations and he can’t have your car towed from a public street. I started to write an ugly note back to him, but something about the hostility of his index card stopped me.

At some point after this, I arrived at work one morning to see a clearly shaken woman with her dog on the sidewalk in front of his office. I asked her if she was okay and she’d just had an ugly run in with the doctor because she asked him to trim his ground cover back from the sidewalk as it was blocking it. I don’t know exactly what he said to her, but she was pale and upset. I talked to her for a while longer and she said she was going to call the City about the sidewalk. A couple of weeks later the groundcover was trimmed.

All of us at the office were creeped out by this guy and thrilled when his office was put up for sale. Someone bought it and put it up for rent, but no one has moved in. The office is ugly at best and I can just imagine the horrible energy that is inside.
 
And main suspect had that hat on (or one like it) every single time I saw him, mostly sitting at his desk in front of a window overlooking his parking lot.

I do seriously think he may have a parking/vehicle problem. Think about it - with the exception of his stalking his former practice, everything we know that he has done has been connected to vehicles.
 
Just walked down to take pics. The first one is the window he sat in front of every day. The second one is too big so I will mess with it and post it soon.
 

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And main suspect had that hat on (or one like it) every single time I saw him, mostly sitting at his desk in front of a window overlooking his parking lot.

I do seriously think he may have a parking/vehicle problem. Think about it - with the exception of his stalking his former practice, everything we know that he has done has been connected to vehicles.
Interesting, the alleged Golden State Killer J.D, regularly hopped fences to break into homes and disturbed people at all times of night, was pretty touchy too !
Golden State Killer suspect was a recluse, neighbors say - CNN
"DeAngelo's neighbors said they thought he was a little odd. He kept to himself and sometimes yelled at people who got too close to his fence or mowed their grass too early, neighbors said."
rbbm.
 
I’ve emailed twice about becoming a VI and haven’t heard anything back, so I’m assuming I don’t need to be a VI for this.

For 3 years I worked two houses down from the prime suspect’s office. The street is a mix of offices and houses - my office is on the first floor of a residence.

As far as any of us could tell, his practice was closed these last several years, but he still came to the office every day, sitting by the window and guarding his parking lot.

One day I parked my car on the street in front of his office and when I came back, he had placed a 3x5 index card on my windshield with a typed message about some crazy parking rules that I’d never heard of and said he would have my car towed if I parked there again. I called the city transportation department because it was so upsetting. I read it to the person and they laughed, saying those aren’t real parking regulations and he can’t have your car towed from a public street. I started to write an ugly note back to him, but something about the hostility of his index card stopped me.

At some point after this, I arrived at work one morning to see a clearly shaken woman with her dog on the sidewalk in front of his office. I asked her if she was okay and she’d just had an ugly run in with the doctor because she asked him to trim his ground cover back from the sidewalk as it was blocking it. I don’t know exactly what he said to her, but she was pale and upset. I talked to her for a while longer and she said she was going to call the City about the sidewalk. A couple of weeks later the groundcover was trimmed.

All of us at the office were creeped out by this guy and thrilled when his office was put up for sale. Someone bought it and put it up for rent, but no one has moved in. The office is ugly at best and I can just imagine the horrible energy that is inside.

Thanks for the first person background info! This guy does seem very tightly wound and fits a similar profile of other killers. I've listened to about 6 episodes of the podcast so far and he seems like a pretty likely suspect. If only they could get more evidence. Sad that the latest DNA extraction attempt from the rope evidence didn't yield enough to test. Hopefully, they'll find more.

It was a heinous, terrifying crime. "Parking" or lover's lanes were very common back then. We used to joke about the creeper stories and urban legends at the time, but it really was somewhat risky when you look back on it. Where I grew up, the local LE knew all the spots, so would patrol them regularly. They never stopped or harassed kids, they would just drive by slowly and flash their lights a little. That was usually enough. Sometimes they would stop and warn kids that it was a dangerous thing to do.

I do hope the current investigative team can uncover something, somewhere in the evidence or have a witness come forward. If this doctor is the killer, it's so wrong that he should be enjoying a long and healthy life, free. I hope he's been looking over his shoulder every day since then.
 
Thanks for the first person background info! This guy does seem very tightly wound and fits a similar profile of other killers. I've listened to about 6 episodes of the podcast so far and he seems like a pretty likely suspect. If only they could get more evidence. Sad that the latest DNA extraction attempt from the rope evidence didn't yield enough to test. Hopefully, they'll find more.

It was a heinous, terrifying crime. "Parking" or lover's lanes were very common back then. We used to joke about the creeper stories and urban legends at the time, but it really was somewhat risky when you look back on it. Where I grew up, the local LE knew all the spots, so would patrol them regularly. They never stopped or harassed kids, they would just drive by slowly and flash their lights a little. That was usually enough. Sometimes they would stop and warn kids that it was a dangerous thing to do.

I do hope the current investigative team can uncover something, somewhere in the evidence or have a witness come forward. If this doctor is the killer, it's so wrong that he should be enjoying a long and healthy life, free. I hope he's been looking over his shoulder every day since then.

Definitely tightly wound. And I hope they arrest him before he dies. Also, when I talked to our landlord about it, he said he had heard about him being a prime suspect a year ago (thanks for the warning, Dude), which is about the time prime suspect moved to FL. I just wonder if he got out of town because word was getting around.
 
Definitely tightly wound. And I hope they arrest him before he dies. Also, when I talked to our landlord about it, he said he had heard about him being a prime suspect a year ago (thanks for the warning, Dude), which is about the time prime suspect moved to FL. I just wonder if he got out of town because word was getting around.

I was wondering the same thing as I listened to the podcasts. The timing of his move seemed more than coincidental as the case and theories were back in the news. I gotta go listen to the rest of it now.

Just wanted to add a link to one of the songs we were all listening to back in February 1971

 
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I was wondering the same thing as I listened to the podcasts. The timing of his move seemed more than coincidental as the case and theories were back in the news. I gotta go listen to the rest of it now.

Just wanted to add a link to one of the songs we were all listening to back in February 1971

Thanks for the memories! I was 8 but I remember this song word for word!!!
 
Ok, those were good podcasts, very thorough investigation of the case. As they said, there's a lot about the crime that they haven't told us and I think the evidence may still yield a little more than they realize.

I'm still confused as to whether the story two of the investigators told of setting up a trap for Dr. Britt. They had undercover officers park at the same place, late at night, when they knew he would be driving by. It's alleged that he stopped, approached the car, then stopped and left. Were they telling the truth about that sting?

I have to agree with the one prosecuting atty who said DNA evidence may not help. I have to agree to an extent, because so many people have handled those ropes over the years. I still find it odd there was no sexual assault. I'd be willing to bet there was one, but not conventional. Back in those days, they may not have known to look at other areas of the crime scene for that kind of evidence.

Though there weren't many details, the method of killing the couple was very unique and should have served greater value in pursuing prosecution. They should get a good expert on knots (if they still have photos) to examine them and determine the skills and practice necessary to rig up the system, tie the knots, etc. It probably has characteristics unique to use in surgery, etc., not something a hospital orderly would know. Check out the Rebecca Zahau case for info on how her family's attorney was able to get a great knot expert to testify in trial.

Also don't understand why only 1 investigator interviewed Dr. Britt. They should have gotten some kind of alibi from him and an accounting of where he was that night. If he were the killer, he probably needed someone to lie to cover his absence somewhere. Re-checking and questioning alibis on cold cases should always be done.

I wasn't surprised when the politics and corruption angle surfaced in the 7th epidsode. Just a feeling when reading about the investigation that the good ole boy network would pop up somewhere. It sounds like local LE worked very hard and still do, but it was at the prosecutorial and state level that things went awry. Could have been politics mixed with "rich guy syndrome" - when a wealthy/ influential/ connected perp is involved. No doubt everyone was concerned about how the murder would affect the hospital & university's reputation, local economy, etc. let alone having the perp be a doctor on staff. It's never mentioned, but there was probably a lot of pressure from school/uni officials and politicians to protect those institutions. Making it more difficult was the fact the victims were good young local people from nearby rural areas. Had these two been a couple of hippies or a working class black couple, the case would have been swept under the rug with little fanfare. The invisible hand of powerful influence seems so unfair to the detectives and others who worked so hard on the case.
 
I took it that the undercover sting didn’t really happen, but I don’t know.

And somewhere along the way didn’t they mention that the “good doctor” said he was at a basketball game (maybe out of town?) the night of the murders but others said they saw him at watts hospital? That’s my vague memory.

I think prime suspect has been given a pass for bad behavior all of his life because he’s a white doctor. Time for him to pay!
 
Since the podcast was released , tips have been flowing in , and the author of the podcast has hinted there may be a ninth episode. One thing they have gotten info on is the abduction of the folks from nearby Duke Forest the year following the Mann/McBane murders. These people were tied up , put in a trunk , and driven into Orange County as well, but somehow escaped . I believe one of them was recently interviewed after the podcast was released . I believe this case can be solved if people will just speak up and tell what they know.
 

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