Identified! Mystery couple murdered in South Carolina, 1976 - Pamela Buckley & James Freund #10

[Betty P]

What gets me with this is even tho this was well before cell phones or cameras everywhere, it seems like this couple just appeared there in Sumter murdered on the side of the road. Info on them is just really too scant, given that this was a smaller community at the time. When I was growing up in the upstate of SC in the 80s, a stranger in town almost made the news. I’m really not convinced that this couple were hitchhiking, as we’ve discussed earlier, but a hitchhiker in town was big. Even then. I could ramble about this all night.

I assumed the same. Didn't grow up in a small town, but many relatives lived in one. I think they were driving the van or a motorcycle, as was rumored. They were too nicely dressed, clean and groomed to be traveling

If they were living in a surrounding town, someone would have also recognized and said something. Technically, Pam and Jim were closer to the interstate highway than they were to the town, but if they had been passing through as hitchhikers, people would have said something.

JMO, they weren't in Sumter when they were abducted, but they were driven there to be killed and dumped. Their killers wanted to distance the victims from the crime scene and mess with the LE jurisdictions. That sounds to me like an experienced criminal, someone who killed or helped someone kill before.

Does everyone still have the impression there were multiple perps involved in this? I do.

 

[worm]

Excellent points @Betty P . I think they were taken somewhere else by somebody who knew the area and this spot they were found at. Even tho it’s right turns, I just don’t think a stranger stumbled on this place. But then again, that’s very possible. There’s just so many “but this” or “that” questions.

 

[T rex]

Just a repeat of an article of Jan ,this year:
"McDaniel said that he spent eight years trying to get answers about who these people were and what happened to them. He shared a list of potential suspects over that time to investigators."
-------------
"There are still people in of interest in the case, Dennis said."

SBM

Redirect Notice

Hard to believe,that it is almost a year ago,after they were identified,and no news or updates after it..
Hope to see it,before the year passes by...

At first I didn't take this man all that serious but then Sumter Sheriff let him speak at the press conference so I thought maybe he was on to something. Now I'm back to not taking it all that serious again. It appears either what he found wasn't as explosive as he claimed or LE's not doing anything with it.

 

[T rex]

Bump!
I agree.with you there,it's the end of the year!
Any news,that I missed??

"Combining old fashioned investigative work with non-public information , I developed a lead that is potentially explosive and could turn this case on its head. I have turned over this lead along with my other research to the Sumter SD. I believe this new lead will result in an arrest and a conviction.

While working on this case, I have amassed an enormous amount of information which I will be compiling into a book that I plan on releasing by the end of the year."
Rest in peace James and Pamela We love you

When McDaniel first made this announcement I was hoping he had a certain individual in mind.
Although he doesn't mention him by name he does have a link over on his website about some stuff this person was involved in.
Charles Allen McCray has been my main suspect for a few years now and I sure was hoping that's where McDaniel was going with it but now I'm getting impatient. Oh well not much I can do about it but make anothet post.
I can't find a whole lot about McCray. I think he would have been well into his twenties in the mid 70's. I did find an obituary from 2005.
His M.O. lines up pretty good. Shoots his victims multiple times and once sold the murder weapon afterwards. I thought that was interesting. Disposal of bodies seems to depend on
circumstances. He was just right there in the immediate area and I'm sure the murders he committed in the 80's were not his first.
Anyway he seems to me like the type to do this and if he was involved I'm almost for sure he would have been the trigger man.
If nothing else I'm bumping this thread up.
It talks a little about him in this episode of FBI Files and then gets on to some other stuff that would be unrelated.

Edited to say if anyone can find any other info on Charles McCray please post it. I'm not sure of his age and that could altogether rule him out. I would hate to think my main suspect may not even be old enough but that's a possibility.

 

[Andreee]

dbm

 

[StarrChance]

From Ancestry

Name: Charles Allen McCray
Social Security Number: 250-15-7841
Birth Date: 2 Dec 1959
Issue Year: 1973
Issue State: South Carolina
Last Residence: 29162, Turbeville, Clarendon, South Carolina
Death Date: 30 Jan 2005

 

[Andreee]

I had a peek at his FB, and I don't see any sign of that book being mentioned or worked on there or on his website, so I think that's a no go.

 

[worm]

Very interesting @T rex .

 

[T rex]

From Ancestry

Name: Charles Allen McCray
Social Security Number: 250-15-7841
Birth Date: 2 Dec 1959
Issue Year: 1973
Issue State: South Carolina
Last Residence: 29162, Turbeville, Clarendon, South Carolina
Death Date: 30 Jan 2005

So the age makes it much less likely. He could have been five years younger and made it easy on me but it had to be borderline. Nothing easy about this case.

 

[worldwatcher]

Very interesting @T rex .

It is!

 

[Triss]

One year ago we learnt the couple's real names, James Freund and Pam Buckley. Nameless no more!

 

[worm]

One year ago we learnt the couple's real names, James Freund and Pam Buckley. Nameless no more!

I was really hoping these identifications would lead to more answers but we seem to be back to the start. I’m surprised/disappointed too that this didn’t capture some big national attention. We haven’t even heard from anybody who knew these victims. More frustration.

 

[Ozoner]

I was really hoping these identifications would lead to more answers but we seem to be back to the start. I’m surprised/disappointed too that this didn’t capture some big national attention. We haven’t even heard from anybody who knew these victims. More frustration.

I was hoping that we would at least know whether they had a vehicle. I've often thought that they were likely carjacked.

I'm not even sure whether we've gotten confirmation that they knew each other. They might have both been hitchhiking and been picked up separately.

 

[worm]

I was hoping that we would at least know whether they had a vehicle. I've often thought that they were likely carjacked.

I'm not even sure whether we've gotten confirmation that they knew each other. They might have both been hitchhiking and been picked up separately.

I mentioned earlier that I didn’t think Pam was dressed for hitchhiking. The fact that they appeared freshly showered and clean suggests some local connection. How they got together is lost on me too but I have wondered if they possibly met somehow prior to leaving home.

 

[worldwatcher]

I do think that they were carjacked!
They took care of themselves,looked healthy,..not dressed for hitchhiking,or spending nights -outside,also found without possessions,ID,etc

Also I do believe,from reading..
James, who was stationed in Germany,before his dad passed away Had expensive dental work done there,he wasn't a men who would travel ,journeyed without his own vehicle.He was a mechanic!

Doesn't make sense,to me that he didn't had a car on his journey.
Let's be honest,Germany was already very known because of their cars.
And General Motors already did business before WW2.
Auto-industrie

I would be very surprised to find out that James only did expensive dental in Germany,but never put his experience into travels as a mechanic/owner of his own car.
After all..not something,you would expect from someone,who lived years overseas..

Why would Pam hitchhiking with him?they didn't seemed to have any common grounds , what's so ever..
I do think ,they journeyed together in James car.

 

[worm]

I don’t doubt the car theory but I’ve never heard if he had a car when he disappeared. Same with Pamela. I remember checking the weather reports in his area of PA and hers in CO at the time they vanished and doubted that they left these towns walking. I have never even seen a missing report on them. It would seem that with so much time passing there would be more info to go on.

 

[worldwatcher]

James was stationed in the Bremerhaven, Germany :
USAREUR Units & Kasernes, 1945 - 1989

Here is the mentioned newsclipping/source :
Clipping from Sunday News - Newspapers.com

Clipping from Lancaster New Era - Newspapers.com

ETA:
There are more clippings from this member..

 

[worldwatcher]

Some old pictures to be found and history:

“In 1961 and 1962, the US Army Hospital Bremerhaven (33rd Station Hospital) was completely renovated and equipped for the most modern medical procedures. There was a serology department, an X-ray department, a dental clinic and an eye clinic. An ECG could also be written and evaluated here.”


https://www-schwiebert-lima--city-de.translate.goog/amerikaner-in-bremerhaven-folge-1/?_x_tr_sl=de&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=nl&_x_tr_pto=wapp

 

[worm]

I can’t ever forget the coroner there in Sumter, Ms Moore, when I think on this case as I do often. I can only imagine what kind of pressure this lady must have felt with the thorn of this case constantly in her side. And for decades.

 

[Betty P]

I don’t doubt the car theory but I’ve never heard if he had a car when he disappeared. Same with Pamela. I remember checking the weather reports in his area of PA and hers in CO at the time they vanished and doubted that they left these towns walking. I have never even seen a missing report on them. It would seem that with so much time passing there would be more info to go on.

Farther back in the thread I posted links to some old local newspaper stories referencing James getting a ticket for speeding. Though it was several years before his disappearance, it seems likely he had a car.

My hunch is still that, disenchanted with what appeared to be a difficult divorce, James left the small, conservative town. With skills as a mechanic, he would have easily found a good job most anywhere. Pam may have done the same after her (pending) divorce. She could have been working as a singer around the greater Denver area or

Had their bodies been identified shortly after their deaths, friends and co-workers probably would have come forward with more details about their plans.

In those missing few months, they met, probably dated and decided to take a trip that brought them through SC.