NC NC - Rhonda Hinson, 19, Burke Co, 22 Dec 1981

[AbandonedNC]

The Killing Of Rhonda Hinson: Parents' Disappointments Continue

 

[dotr]

Lengthy article, rbbm.

Loved ones hoping for resolution in December 1981 murder of North Carolina teen Rhonda Hinson

The 19-year-old was found murdered on the side of the road, two days before Christmas.

www.nbcnews.com

Dec 24 2022 By Kyani Reid

By Kyani Reid

''Judy told Dateline that about three months into her new job, Rhonda was invited to attend a company Christmas party.

“She wasn’t sure she was going to the party,” Judy said. “She really didn’t want to go but her best friend at work said, ‘Well, I won’t go if you don’t go.’” So Rhonda decided to attend.

It was December 22, 1981.

Rhonda worked earlier in the day and called her mother before returning home to get ready. “At the last minute, Rhonda said, ‘Mom, go to town and pick me up an outfit to wear,’” Judy told Dateline. “She looked prettier than I had ever seen her.”

Judy told Dateline that Rhonda drove to her work friend’s house in Hickory and left her car there. She said the friend drove the two of them to the company party. “Rhonda had told me and her dad that she was going to stay in Hickory at the girlfriend’s house because she didn’t want to drive home alone that late,” Judy said.

But at some point in the night, Rhonda’s plan changed.

According to the Burke County Sheriff’s Office website, Rhonda left the party around midnight and “stopped by a friend’s house to pick up her vehicle and call her boyfriend.” Then, “after leaving the friend's residence, Rhonda drove her beige Datsun 210 two-door west on Interstate 40 and exited onto the Mineral Springs Mountain/Highway 350 off-ramp. She turned right (north) and began traveling up a steep hill toward her home.”

Judy told Dateline that she woke up that night with a bad feeling. “I woke her dad up and said, ‘Rhonda’s not home.’ He said, ‘You know that she’s spending the night with [her friend],’” Judy recalled. “And I said, ‘But I’m really scared, there’s something wrong, I don’t feel right.’”

Something was wrong.

According to the Burke County Sheriff’s Office website, “a high-powered rifle projectile was fired into [Rhonda’s] vehicle. The bullet entered the Datsun through the trunk and continued through the back seat and driver's side seat, entering Rhonda's back and piercing her lung and heart.” It goes on to say that “Rhonda was found lying in a ditch beside the open driver's side door of her Datsun. She was less than a mile from the home she shared with her parents in Valdese. The vehicle was running and apparently had rolled backwards across the opposite lane into a ditch near the top of the grade after Rhonda was shot.”

''Rhonda’s mother, Judy, told Dateline that although she had no idea who would want to kill her daughter, she said in the days leading up to her death, Rhonda was acting strangely. “I could just tell a difference. She didn’t seem as happy,” Judy recalled. “Her dad worked at a bakery and had to go to work at 1:00 or 2:00 a.m. He said when he would pass -- going past the house, [he] passed her window [and] she would be awake looking out the window,” which Judy said was unusual.

Judy told Dateline that Rhonda never told her parents why her behavior was changing. “She was a very private person,” Judy said. “She didn’t tell [us] anything.”

''Larry believes that there was only one way the bullet could have entered the car at the angle the way it did. He believes someone was “right directly behind the car” when she was shot.

Larry told Dateline that not only does he believe he knows how Rhonda was killed, but he believes he knows who killed her. “This case has been solved for a very long time,” Larry said. “Law enforcement knows who killed Rhonda.”

Dateline reached out to the Burke County Sheriff’s Office for comment and an update on the investigation, but has yet to receive a response. There are no named suspects or persons of interest in Rhonda’s murder.''

 

[guardian1234]

Mods: I couldn't find a thread on this case. If one does exist, please delete this.

34 years ago today

After 34 years, family and sheriff cling to hope of finding N.C. teen's killer

"On the night of Tuesday, Dec. 22, 1981, Bobby and Judy Hinson of Valdese, N.C., kissed their 19-year-old daughter Rhonda goodbye as she left home to attend an office holiday party at a nearby American Legion Hall. Hours later, her body was discovered in a ditch less than a mile from her parents' home, and alongside her car.

Investigators found Rhonda had been shot with a high-powered bullet that tore through the rear of her beige Datsun 210, striking her in the back. Who murdered Rhonda and why remains a mystery, though 34 years later to the day that they last saw their daughter alive, Rhonda's parents and local law enforcement officials still cling to faint hope that her killer can be brought to justice."

 

[guardian1234]

The Killing Of Rhonda Hinson: Parents' Disappointments Continue

Her boyfriend, Greg knew her route home and was upset wirth her. His alibi was he was at home ?? Was He checked for gunpowder residue

 

[guardian1234]

Lengthy article, rbbm.

Loved ones hoping for resolution in December 1981 murder of North Carolina teen Rhonda Hinson

The 19-year-old was found murdered on the side of the road, two days before Christmas.

www.nbcnews.com

Dec 24 2022 By Kyani Reid
View attachment 389741
By Kyani Reid

''Judy told Dateline that about three months into her new job, Rhonda was invited to attend a company Christmas party.

“She wasn’t sure she was going to the party,” Judy said. “She really didn’t want to go but her best friend at work said, ‘Well, I won’t go if you don’t go.’” So Rhonda decided to attend.

It was December 22, 1981.

Rhonda worked earlier in the day and called her mother before returning home to get ready. “At the last minute, Rhonda said, ‘Mom, go to town and pick me up an outfit to wear,’” Judy told Dateline. “She looked prettier than I had ever seen her.”

Judy told Dateline that Rhonda drove to her work friend’s house in Hickory and left her car there. She said the friend drove the two of them to the company party. “Rhonda had told me and her dad that she was going to stay in Hickory at the girlfriend’s house because she didn’t want to drive home alone that late,” Judy said.

But at some point in the night, Rhonda’s plan changed.

According to the Burke County Sheriff’s Office website, Rhonda left the party around midnight and “stopped by a friend’s house to pick up her vehicle and call her boyfriend.” Then, “after leaving the friend's residence, Rhonda drove her beige Datsun 210 two-door west on Interstate 40 and exited onto the Mineral Springs Mountain/Highway 350 off-ramp. She turned right (north) and began traveling up a steep hill toward her home.”

Judy told Dateline that she woke up that night with a bad feeling. “I woke her dad up and said, ‘Rhonda’s not home.’ He said, ‘You know that she’s spending the night with [her friend],’” Judy recalled. “And I said, ‘But I’m really scared, there’s something wrong, I don’t feel right.’”

Something was wrong.

According to the Burke County Sheriff’s Office website, “a high-powered rifle projectile was fired into [Rhonda’s] vehicle. The bullet entered the Datsun through the trunk and continued through the back seat and driver's side seat, entering Rhonda's back and piercing her lung and heart.” It goes on to say that “Rhonda was found lying in a ditch beside the open driver's side door of her Datsun. She was less than a mile from the home she shared with her parents in Valdese. The vehicle was running and apparently had rolled backwards across the opposite lane into a ditch near the top of the grade after Rhonda was shot.”

''Rhonda’s mother, Judy, told Dateline that although she had no idea who would want to kill her daughter, she said in the days leading up to her death, Rhonda was acting strangely. “I could just tell a difference. She didn’t seem as happy,” Judy recalled. “Her dad worked at a bakery and had to go to work at 1:00 or 2:00 a.m. He said when he would pass -- going past the house, [he] passed her window [and] she would be awake looking out the window,” which Judy said was unusual.

Judy told Dateline that Rhonda never told her parents why her behavior was changing. “She was a very private person,” Judy said. “She didn’t tell [us] anything.”

''Larry believes that there was only one way the bullet could have entered the car at the angle the way it did. He believes someone was “right directly behind the car” when she was shot.

Larry told Dateline that not only does he believe he knows how Rhonda was killed, but he believes he knows who killed her. “This case has been solved for a very long time,” Larry said. “Law enforcement knows who killed Rhonda.”

Dateline reached out to the Burke County Sheriff’s Office for comment and an update on the investigation, but has yet to receive a response. There are no named suspects or persons of interest in Rhonda’s murder.''

I agree law enforcement has not helped with this case , the family should petttion the Govenor for assistance . This was a sharp shooter who killed this young women no accident .

 

[Richard]

Rhonda Annette Hinson​

BIRTH 13 Dec 1962, Rock Hill, York County, South Carolina, USA
DEATH 23 Dec 1981 (aged 19) Valdese, Burke County, North Carolina, USA
BURIAL Burke Memorial Park Morganton, Burke County, North Carolina, USA

Rhonda Hinson was a vibrant 19-year-old. She had been athletic in her school years and played tennis, basketball, ran track, danced, twirled baton, and always marched in Charlotte's Thanksgiving Carousel Parade.

Rhonda was shot while driving her car home after an office Christmas party. The murder, as of 2021, is still unsolved. A gun was fired into the trunk of her car and the bullet killed her.

She is survived by her parents.

Rhonda's murder was featured on the television program Unsolved Mysteries in 1989. The Burke County sheriff's office is still seeking information on the crime.



LINK:

Rhonda Annette Hinson (1962-1981) - Find a Grave...

Rhonda Hinson was a vibrant 19-year-old. She had been athletic in her school years and played tennis, basketball, ran track, danced, twirled baton, and always marched in Charlotte's Thanksgiving Carousel Parade. Rhonda was shot while driving her car home after an office Christmas party. The...

www.findagrave.com

 

[imstilla.grandma]

“She played basketball, she ran track, she was an outstanding tennis player,” said Rhonda’s mother, Judy Hinson, about Rhonda’s time in high school. “She was very likable.”

“She made the decision that she didn’t want to go to college,” Jill, Rhonda’s friend, recalled. “She wanted to get a job.”

Rhonda left the company Christmas party at midnight with two of her friends. After dropping them off, she drove the 10 miles to her home. Around one in the morning, Rhonda’s mother woke up with the strangest feeling.

“I woke up feeling panicky, scared, because I felt like something had happened to Rhonda. I felt like Rhonda was dead. I felt like she had been in an automobile accident.” said Judy Hinson.

Cold Case Files: Christmas party murder

VALDESE, N.C. (WNCT) — It’s been almost 42 years since Rhonda Hinson was murdered. She was killed in Burke County just two days before Christmas in 1981. CLICK HERE for WNCT.com’s…

www.wnct.com

 

[dotr]

.

 

[Betty P]

“She played basketball, she ran track, she was an outstanding tennis player,” said Rhonda’s mother, Judy Hinson, about Rhonda’s time in high school. “She was very likable.”

“She made the decision that she didn’t want to go to college,” Jill, Rhonda’s friend, recalled. “She wanted to get a job.”

Rhonda left the company Christmas party at midnight with two of her friends. After dropping them off, she drove the 10 miles to her home. Around one in the morning, Rhonda’s mother woke up with the strangest feeling.

“I woke up feeling panicky, scared, because I felt like something had happened to Rhonda. I felt like Rhonda was dead. I felt like she had been in an automobile accident.” said Judy Hinson.

Cold Case Files: Christmas party murder

VALDESE, N.C. (WNCT) — It’s been almost 42 years since Rhonda Hinson was murdered. She was killed in Burke County just two days before Christmas in 1981. CLICK HERE for WNCT.com’s…

www.wnct.com

Police said there was some evidence that indicated Rhonda had a potential stalker.

Could this be somehow related to her job? Someone at work?

 

[AbandonedNC]

The Killing of Rhonda Hinson: A pink snake, and a letter jacket

thewilkesrecord.com

Editors note: This is a continuation of a series of stories about the Dec. 23, 1981, shooting death of Rhonda Hinson. She died after a bullet was fired into the back of her car. Decades later, no arrest has yet to be made in connection with the homicide.

By LARRY J. GRIFFIN

Special Investigative Reporter
The Wilkes Record

…I asked about his memory of the pink snake. He couldn’t recall the joke about it or how they got it in Myrtle Beach; but, he did acknowledge it stayed on his dresser at home.” From the case file notes of James Pruett, December 23, 1997.

Greg McDowell has recently celebrated his 61st birthday. Born on Thursday, February 7, 1963, he is the younger of the two children belonging to the Reverend Mr. Charles and Betty McDowell. In December 1981, Greg was the boyfriend of the late Rhonda Hinson, who was murdered during the first hour of December 23rd that year.

Across “years and miles and tears and smiles” it is not at all unusual for, “colors to dull and the candle of memory to dim.” However, it seems unlikely that McDowell could ever forget the ebullient and, at times, insouciant girl with the radiant smile that he dated for approximately two years, before a bullet from a high-powered rifle caused smiles to cease altogether.

And then there is the matter of a pink snake and a letter jacket—perhaps Greg’s memory recalls these two items known to be in his possession but were discovered in the 1981 Datsun 210 belonging to Rhonda Hinson and inventoried at 3:00 PM by law enforcement some 14 hours after the official time of her death. Neither item was in her car when she departed home to attend a December 22nd evening Christmas party sponsored by the company at which she was employed.

Before leaving for work, on what would be her last day of life, Rhonda told her mother, Judy, that she had no jacket to wear that morning because Mark Turner had her gray-hooded sweat jacket, and Greg was in possession of her East Burke letter jacket. And, as previously reported, both clothing items were found in her vehicle—the letter jacket atop other clothing items in the backseat and to the right of the driver; the gray-hooded sweat jacket on the sundeck and visible from the outside through the back glass.

There is no extant record which indicates that law enforcement ever questioned McDowell about the letter jacket, purportedly in his possession, and how it made its way into his girlfriend’s Datsun 210. However, on Tuesday December 23, 1997—16 years subsequent to the killing of Rhonda Hinson—Detective James “Flash” Pruett queried 34-year-old Greg McDowell about another item located on the vehicle’s floorboard, behind the passenger’s seat—a pink stuffed snake.

Jill Turner-Mull, Rhonda’s best friend, was visiting the Hinson home for the expressed purpose of examining items discovered in the Datsun 210 that Miss Hinson was driving the early morning of December 23, 1981. And then she spotted it—the stuffed pink snake that Greg McDowell won for Rhonda at the Pavilion in downtown Myrtle Beach—and details of a Summer 1981 beach trip were retrieved from memory. Detective Pruett recorded Jill’s impressions in his copious case notes, dated Friday December 29, 1995.

“…Jill said there was some joke behind the snake, but could not remember, it may have been some sexual connotation. The most important fact is she stated Greg McDowell had the snake in his possession.” Then “Flash” posed a rhetorical question, “How did it get into Rhonda’s car six months later?”

About five days after his conversation with Ms. Turner-Mull— on Thursday January 4, 1996—Detective Pruett asked Mark Turner about the stuffed serpent as well. It comes as no surprise that Turner told the investigator that he had, “…no memory of the pink snake either at the beach or at Greg’s home,” and did not, “…remember a joke about a snake.”

Fast forward to Tuesday December 23, 1997 and walk into the office of electrical engineer, Greg McDowell, located in the Brittain Engineering suite, 56 Third Street, NW in Downtown Hickory. It was there that Detective Pruett questioned McDowell about his relationship with the deceased 19-year-old, specifically during December, 1981. The late investigator characterized that rather awkward interview during a Messenger conversation with this writer on Sunday August 18, 2019. His wife, Rhonda, recorded what he said and forwarded his recollections:

“‘Flash’ said there were two car-loads of people on that escapade. Besides [Sheriff] Richard [Epley], he thinks it was his majors, Robert Lane, Pat Messick (dead), Paul Mayfield (dead), Greg Calloway… [and] Richard’s preacher who we think was at Hopewell Baptist Church. ‘Flash’ said Richard caught [him] off-guard and said he knew he could look at Greg and tell if he killed Rhonda…This is the interview [that] Greg laid his head on the desk crying and said he didn’t kill Rhonda…”

During the course of the December 23rd conversation, the detective noted that as he increased pressure on him, Greg seemingly became more nervous. In fact, at one juncture, “Flash” estimated McDowell’s heart rate to be 120 beats a minute, predicated upon a 15-second scale. And then came the question about the stuffed pink snake—Greg’s revealing response was recorded in case notes:

“...I asked about his memory of the pink snake. He [Greg] couldn’t recall the joke about it or how they got it in Myrtle Beach, but he acknowledged it stayed on his dresser at home.”

“…But he acknowledged it stayed on his dresser at home.”

It defies explanation and reason as to why McDowell was not aggressively pursued as a suspect in the killing of Rhonda Hinson in the wake of that stunning revelation—"it stayed on his dresser at home.” The very presence of the Myrtle Beach ‘trophy’ in the decedent’s vehicle should have catalyzed focused, enhanced investigative efforts upon her former boyfriend—ostensibly, that did not happen.

And now it has been in excess of 26 years since Detective Pruett interviewed the man whom he believed to be the chief suspect in the fatal shooting of his 19-year-old girlfriend. In fact, Burke County Sheriff’s Department (BCSD) investigators—past and present—who have worked “the most investigated case in the county’s history” have averred that they have known for years that Greg McDowell was the shooter who fired the fatal shot but have not been able to refute a singular alibi proffered by his parents.

In July 2021, evidence was delivered to current BCSD investigators that has the potential for negating that alibi—inside information first revealed to Bobby and Judy Hinson, who were assured that this new finding could finally lead to an arrest and justice long-denied for their slain daughter. Former Sheriff Steve Whisenant first alluded to a significant development on Friday October 22, 2021 and referenced in a press release on Wednesday December 22nd that same year in advance of the 40th anniversary of the killing of Rhonda Hinson.

And then nothing—nothing other than a litany of reasons and excuses for the inactivity that has characterized the investigation of this case across 42 years now. And all the while those implicated continue to live their lives with seeming impunity.

This December 13, past, Rhonda Hinson would have been 61 years old—the age milestone that both Mark Turner and Greg McDowell have now achieved and that her best friend, Jill Turner-Mull, will celebrate this year on April 14. Of that trio, Ms. Turner-Mull is the only one who recalls, with razor-sharp memory, the details surrounding the tragedy.

Of all the things that tend to improve with age, perhaps long-term memory, relative to a letter jacket and a Myrtle Beach commemorative does too—at least the family and their considerable support base, comprised of friends and concerned citizens, hope so.

 

[AbandonedNC]

THE KILLING OF RHONDA HINSON: The Selective Memory of Mark Turner

thewilkesrecord.com

THE KILLING OF RHONDA HINSON: The Selective Memory Of Mark Turner

Mon, Mar 18, 2024
Editor’s note: This is the continuation of an extensive series detailing the December 23, 1981, shooting murder of Rhonda Hinson who killed on her way home from a Christmas party in Burke County. To date, no one has been charged in connection with her death.

By LARRY J. GRIFFIN
Special Investigative Reporter
The Wilkes Record
Faith [Turner] was so shaken…I could literally see the doubt she had in her mind about Mark. I feel she strongly suspected Mark of the crime, especially when I questioned her about Mark’s mother’s bowl and the presence of the gray sweatjacket in Mark’s car. -- From the Case Notes File of Detective James “Flash” Pruett.

Mark Turner celebrated his 61st birthday on Thursday, January 25, 2024. Though he was actually born on a Friday in January 1963, Turner’s birthday also fell on a Thursday in 1996—the year in which he was initially interviewed, regarding the killing of Rhonda Hinson, by Burke County Sheriff’s Department (BCSD) detective, James “Flash” Pruett. Flash’s meticulous case notes detailing his six-hour interview with “Mark Steven Turner”—three weeks before his 33rd birthday on Thursday January 4, 1996—are just as poignant now as they were when he first recorded them:

Mark said he had never been interviewed on the Rhonda Hinson matter. He was somewhat surprised no one had interviewed him. Mark went to school at East Burke with Rhonda and he also was friends with Greg McDowell. He lived [at the time of Rhonda’s murder] with his parent [Sic] in Indians Hills off the Cape Hickory Road….He owned and drove a 1977 Buick Regal, two-door, gold in color in 1981. He sometimes drove his brother’s blue Thunderbird. He dated Jill Turner during the December 1981 time period.

Turner recounted other details of events which transpired in the six months before the projectile from a high-powered rifle ended the life of 19-year-old Rhonda Hinson. Specifically, Detective Pruett noted that early in the interview, Mark Turner described a Summer 1981 beach trip that he, Jill, Rhonda, and Greg had taken together. They roomed at Mark’s grandfather’s mobile home in the Lakewood Campground at Myrtle Beach, S.C. Turner recalled that Greg drank Budweiser beer ‘heavily’ and his ‘putting cans or labels up on the refrigerator.’ He recollected that Rhonda and Greg ‘did argue quite often;’ however, he did not witness Greg’s ever hitting or pushing Rhonda.

Mark did remember that the couple argued about Rhonda’s refusal to have sex with Greg while on their trip, resulting in McDowell’s trolling the beach in search of girls who would acquiesce to his salacious overtures. A confrontation ensued when Rhonda discovered her boyfriend’s activity, and one or the other of them ‘threatened to walk back home.’

In the Fall of 1981, Mark explained to the BCSD investigator, he attended Elon College and he believed he came home at the conclusion of the Fall Semester 1981 on Thursday, December 17th. Flash recorded in his notes that the then 32-year-old asserted he recalled looking forward to being with his girlfriend, Jill Turner [Mull]. Further, he admitted to putting off Christmas shopping to the last minute, going shopping with Rhonda Hinson at the Valley Hills Mall, and being up on the second floor with her, possibly buying a blue sweater for Jill, while Rhonda purchased a coat for Boyfriend Greg McDowell.

Of greater significance, he recalled that Rhonda left a gray hooded sweat jacket with the initials, HH WTC, in the backseat of his Buick—the same sweat jacket that Rhonda told Mother Judy, on the morning of December 22, 1981, she had left in the backseat of Mark’s Buick when the two of them went shopping to buy Jill Turner [Mull] a Christmas present at Valley Hills Mall in Hickory.

And it was the same sweat jacket that authorities discovered on the sundeck of Rhonda’s 1981 Datsun 210 on the morning of December 23, 1981 and inventoried that same afternoon subsequent to her murder—a sweat jacket that was not in her automobile when she left home on the evening of December 22, 1981 to attend her company’s Christmas party at the American Legion Hut in Hickory.

The obvious question that persists is: How did the sweat jacket, that according to Mark Turner, was present in the backseat of his 1977 Buick Regal, find its way to the sundeck of Rhonda Hinson’s vehicle?

Both Rhonda Hinson and Mark Turner indicated that the sweat jacket was—in fact—left on the backseat of his 1977 automobile the day that they shopped for a Christmas present for Mark’s girlfriend and Rhonda’s best friend Jill Turner [Mull]. As previously reported, there was only one day in which the shopping trip could have occurred—Friday December 18, 1981, five days before the fatal shooting.

Jill Turner [Mull] was scheduled to return to Burke County from Western Carolina in Cullowhee on Friday December 18th and had a hair appointment scheduled for 3:30 that afternoon. According to Jill’s statements, she did not date boyfriend Mark on that evening. Greg McDowell, Rhonda’s boyfriend, did not return home from N.C. State until Saturday the 19th.

It appears, then, that both Turner and Hinson were free to go shopping at Valley Hills Mall on Friday the 18th—likely Mark picked up Rhonda during her Hickory Steel lunch hour. Clearly, the mall trip did not occur subsequent to the end of her workday because she arrived home in Valdese at her usual time, according to Judy Hinson. But whenever Turner returned her to Hickory Steel after gift-buying, Rhonda forgot to retrieve her sweat jacket from the rear seat where she apparently placed it.

At no time did Mark Turner deny that he was in possession of Rhonda Hinson’s sweat jacket, according to Detective James “Flash” Pruett. “He cannot remember how the gray sweat jacket got out of his Buick. He has no memory of what he did with it or how it got out of his car,” Flash recorded in his case file notes.

Logically between the Christmas shopping trip on Friday the 18th and the first hour of Wednesday December 23rd, there were only two points in time that Mark Turner could have found a conduit through which to return the sweat jacket to its owner. The first opportunity presented itself on Tuesday December 22, 1981. The potential conduit? Greg McDowell.

On the morning of Tuesday December 22nd , as she was preparing to go to work at Hickory Steel, Rhonda told her mother that her sweat jacket was in Mark Turner’s car. Much earlier—at 12:55 a.m.—and sixteen miles away from the Hinson home, Mark was released from the Frye Hospital emergency room, after being treated for excruciating pain attributable to a back injury that he purportedly suffered on Sunday afternoon December 20th. He was given pain medication and sent home—medication that he claimed, during his interview, clouded his memory.

Later during the afternoon of December 22nd, Greg McDowell drove to the Turner residence to visit Mark, after having learned of his back injury from mother Barbara Turner, who casually encountered him at K-Mart in Hickory. During her Thursday January 18, 1996 interview with Detective Flash Pruett, Ms. Turner stated that her son, Mark, told her that McDowell came by to visit. Had he had the presence of a mind unclouded, it would have been feasible for Turner to have mentioned that Rhonda’s sweat jacket was lying on the backseat of his vehicle and to have suggested that Greg retrieve it for her.

Previously however, during his Thursday January 4, 1996 interview with Detective Pruett, Mark averred that he could not, “…recall Greg coming to his home on December 22 or going shopping with him, because he likely would have still been in too much pain to go shopping….” If young Turner was in “too much pain” and his memory clouded by medication, it seems unlikely that he would have possessed the presence of mind to apprise McDowell that his girlfriend’s sweat jacket was on the backseat of his 1977 Buick Regal.

Later on Tuesday evening December 22nd, Mark Turner traveled to the Holly Hills development in Valdese to pick up his girlfriend, Jill Turner [Mull], for an evening of dinner and a movie at his parents’ house. Turner told Detective Pruett that he could not recall retrieving his girlfriend but admitted to taking her home.

Jill, however, distinctly remembered the details of her date with Mark Turner on the evening in question. “I remember everything that happened that evening—everything. How could I ever forget the last evening that my best friend in the world was alive?”

Across years and interviews—from her first interview with Detective Pruett in 1995, to a Saturday January 26, 2019 initial interview with this reporter, and most recently a Tuesday August 23, 2022 session with BCSD detectives Isaac Propst and Rodney Norman—Jill’s recounting the sequence of events of the evening and early morning in question has remained consistent:

“Mark had driven to my house in Valdese to pick me up to take me to his house [in Indian Hills]. We had eaten dinner with his family that evening and decided to watch a movie. I don’t recall what we were watching, but apparently it wasn’t very interesting—we both fell asleep. I had a Midnight curfew and when I woke up, it was already a few minutes after 12:00 Midnight. I jumped up, got Mark up as well, and we hurried to his car—I was going to be really late.”

It was about 12:25 a.m., when Turner pulled up in front of Jill’s parents’ residence located on Hazel Street in Holly Hills in Valdese. He did not attempt to pull down into the driveway, fearing that it might have a glaze of ice covering it. Instead, he momentarily parked on the street near a streetlight. While the 1977 gold Buick Regal idled, Jill kissed her boyfriend ‘goodnight,’ and started to exit the passenger’s front seat. It was then that she saw it—Rhonda’s gray-hooded sweat jacket lying on the backseat:

“I asked Mark why Rhonda’s jacket was in the backseat of his car. And he told me that she had left it there when the two of them went shopping for my Christmas gift. I said, ‘Do you want me to take it and give it back to her next time I see her?’ He replied, ‘That’s OK; I will just give it to Greg the next time I see him.’ I didn’t think anything about that—I just said, ‘OK’ and got out of the car. I was focusing on getting inside as soon as I could—I was already past my curfew.”

From where Turner was parked, he could have almost coasted down the hill to the stop sign at the end of Hazel Street. It was approaching 12:30 a.m., when he paused there to look both ways. Timeline evidence suggests that it was at that juncture that a blue Chevy Nova passed in front of him—he recognized the car and the driver—a driver who had been observed earlier that day when he appeared at lunchtime at Hickory Steel to pick up his girlfriend, Rhonda Hinson.

Curiously, the sweat jacket, that Jill Turner [Mull] saw on the backseat of Boyfriend Mark’s automobile, was resting on the sundeck of Rhonda Hinson’s 1981 Datsun 210 when law enforcement arrived on the crime scene the early morning of December 23, 1981.

As previously stated, 32-year-old Mark Turner told Detective James “Flash” Pruett that he could not remember how the gray sweat jacket exited his Buick. He maintained that he had no memory of what he did with it or how it got out of his car. Near the end of his life, the accomplished detective speculated, to this writer, that he had continued to question the extent of Turner’s involvement in the killing of Rhonda Hinson—he was never allowed to seek the answer.

And it seems that law enforcement, across the years since his initial interview with Detective Pruett, appears to have given Mark and his “selectively defective memory” a pass. However, according to a meticulously researched timeline and interviews with principals in the case, there were only two opportunities that Turner had to cede the sweat jacket to someone who could have returned it to Rhonda Hinson—either the afternoon of December 22, 1981 or the early morning of December 23, 1981. There does not appear to be any other way that a transfer could have been transacted—it had to have been either one time or the other.

So, the nagging, persistent question remains: “Mark, which time was it?”

 

[dotr]

Cold Case: Reward increased to nearly $95K for information in 1981 murder of Burke County woman

To this day, officials say they have spent thousands of hours over the last 42 years investigating Hinson's death.

www.yahoo.com

Logan Jennes May 29, 2024
'BURKE COUNTY, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — Law enforcement is offering a combined reward of up to $94,700 for any information leading to an arrest in a 1981 murder, according to the Burke County Sheriff’s Office.'

Family has new hope in decades-old Burke County cold case

Channel 9′s Dave Faherty spoke with the family who said they hope the reward may help them find the missing piece.

www.wsoctv.com

May 29, 2024
''The Hinsons are thankful for law enforcement deputies and hope someone does come forward.

“It’s been horrible,” Judy Hinson said. “You know we think something is gonna be done. We think it’s almost ready to be closed and then it turns out to be nothing and we’ve gone through that for 42 years.”

The Burke County Sherriff’s Office has dedicated a tip line solely for the case. If you have credible information, you are asked to call (828) 764-9549.''