who killed the durham family? here's my story
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countryguy
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Posted 9:05 am, 08/28/2010
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is this post about benny staley or the durhams? seems like it changed subjects in the process. maybe there should be a post about benny staley only and seperate.
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Mr. Ed
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Posted 8:21 am, 08/28/2010
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I don't have Staley's birth/death dates in front of me, but that sounds about right. He was killed when his car ran off the road and up a small embankment. It appeared that Staley had been thrown out of the car, and hit by an oncoming vehicle in the road. I believe there was a young girl with him, a co-worker of his from Hardees, who was not injured. I read an article about this several years ago, and I may not remember everything accurately. Someone please correct this infomation if I have reported something in error. He was 26 at the time and had a wife and young daughter.
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Riverbend
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Posted 8:53 pm, 08/27/2010
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What happened to Bennie Staley and was he born in 1951 and died in 1978?
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braves
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Posted 8:51 pm, 08/27/2010
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All I know is that the exhumation never happened.
I remember reading at the time that they wanted to compare him to a latent handprint from the crime scene.
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Pepper22
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Posted 12:43 pm, 08/27/2010
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Earlier someone posted a newspaper article that the police wanted to exhume the body of Bennie Staley in connection with this case. Anyone know more about this?
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braves
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Posted 11:14 pm, 08/26/2010
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I don't think there was a connection. They were all from the Asheville area. That was puzzling too that investigators thought that burglars would have driven from Asheville to Boone, on a snowy night, just to find a place to rob.
But that's one of the details that it is hard to find detailed info about. Did the investigation really get that far off track? There is a link to a story about the 4 men earlier in this thread. It basically just talks about charges against them being dropped.
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mill
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Posted 10:24 pm, 08/26/2010
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Was there any connection to the Durhams and any of the four guys that were questioned for their murder!
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countryguy
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Posted 9:23 pm, 08/26/2010
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thtguy
i don' t think so unless you are talking about the marriage between troy and ginny. tell us what else it could have been. if you don't know then stick to the facts.
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braves
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Posted 7:06 pm, 08/26/2010
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Thtguy2,
Please elaborate/share your thoughts.
Or at least tell us where else to read....
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thtguy2
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Posted 2:56 pm, 08/26/2010
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i HAVE BEEN READING A LITTLE OF THIS. I THINK THE KEY TO THIS CASE IS SOMETHING THAT HAPPENED BEFORE THE DURHAMS MOVED TO BOONE.
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Dixie Cup
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Posted 2:20 pm, 08/26/2010
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The more I read about these murders, the more interesting it becomes. No-one is speaking for the dead and whoever did it made darn sure none of them were ever going to live to??identify or testify. It is almost like nobody cares anymore. If this had been my parents and brother, I would have spent the rest of my life 'til my dying breath trying to bring the killers to justice. Yet every person has went on their merry way and started over. Even the cold cases and unsolved homicides listed on the websites do not mention this case. I wish it could be turned over to some young, aggressive law students who would dig in and try to provide some resolution to this case. I for one do not believe there is a "perfect crime." Ther is someone, somewhere who knows what happened. Troy Hall has had close contact with at least six people who have met untimely deaths. Was he involved in them? I do not know, but if not, he is one unlucky fella that the grim reaper seems to follow.
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countryguy
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Posted 10:55 pm, 08/25/2010
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who was doing the story? i dough if ginny sue was doing a story. i really do. i agree with you on most ideas summer. most of the family thought troy kelp ginny so doped up most the time she didn't have a clue what he was doing. most the family thought he controled her in most every way. bryce and virginia knew he was into drugs and had proof of it to the best of my knowledge. not all the things that went on between the durhams and troy was in the report. the problem is being able to prove it and evedently they could not without bryce and virginia being killed. i seriously dough that the sbi or anyone else is telling all they know about this.
i just hope and pray who ever done this burns in h*** for this from now own.
its hard to go back and prove anything now . people have changed their lives and left the state.
just know this. anyone that could have commited this crime would not hesitate to do it again since they got away with it. who says there is no perfect crime?
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Pepper22
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Posted 1:20 pm, 08/25/2010
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Years ago, I remember seeing one of them, forget which, where Ginny was doing the story. It surely couldn't hurt for one of those type programs to feature the story.
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countryliving
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Posted 12:00 pm, 08/25/2010
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Has Unsolved Mysteries ever featured this story, does anybody know?
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bhaynes
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Posted 12:54 am, 08/25/2010
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Dixie Cup....do you remember what the name of the bar was on 268 east that you mentioned?
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braves
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Posted 10:18 pm, 08/24/2010
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In the story below, note how the Sheriff in the 80s stated that he inherited a "bare file" related to the murders.
That makes it sould like prior Sheriff didn't do a good job with the whole investigation.
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summertime38
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Posted 10:07 pm, 08/24/2010
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I have been wth this post since it started and I still think troy & ginny had something to do with this. He is the only one that claimed he heard Virginia's voice on the phone. Why would she call him? They didn't get along! I am sure she would have called police first. Then they claimed that the vehicle wouldnt start, Ok I understand it gets cold in Boone, but come on the article reads that He had not been home very long from the library. If it started after sittting at the library for a couple of hours, then I dont think 30-45 minutes would hurt it. Then they make sure that they get a ride from someone, for witness and alibi purposes I suspect, to go with them when the bodies are discovered. She sits in the car, That is weird! If that was our famiy and we was that concerned enough to ask for a ride in cold *** snow and wind, then we would have walked up to the house to see what was the matter. Remember, the family didn't think too much of troy, so why would he go up instead of thier own daughter? Also Witnesses said that he keep ginny away from others at the funeral, That is strange also, I mean that is when she needed her friends & family the most. Also she was the sole hier to thier assests. I think ginny & troy know exactly what happened that nigh. and I think If the cops would put the heat on these two , one of them will confess. 
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empowers
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Posted 9:59 pm, 08/24/2010
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WHO IS KILLING THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA? 
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SofaKingCrazy
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Posted 9:56 pm, 08/24/2010
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Thanks Braves. I was too cheap to shell out the $2.95. Too bad the new info and the 40K reward didn't turn up anything.
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braves
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Posted 8:45 pm, 08/24/2010
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Charlotte Observer, The (NC)
July 3, 1989
Section: METRO
Edition: ONE-SIX
Page: 3B
NEW TWISTS COULD HELP CLINCH MYSTERIOUS BOONE-AREA MURDERS
DIANE SUCHETKA, Staff Writer
Collie Durham is 89 and spends every day contemplating something that
happened in a snowstorm outside Boone 17 years ago.
On a February night in 1972, her son, daughter-in-law and grandson were
murdered.
``It`s all she really talks about,`` says Gayle Mauldin, Durham`s daughter. ``She just wants to see it solved.`` | Soon, she could.
Police say new twists could solve the mysterious case this year.
And Mauldin agrees.
``I think this is just the incentive for someone to come forward,`` she
says from her Wilkes County home.
The incentive is $40,000. Most has been raised this year. And Boone Area
Crime Stoppers will give the money to whoever provides the key that leads them to the killer of Bryce Durham, 51; his wife, Virginia, 44; and their son,
Bobby, 18.
``I think the case is ready to be solved,`` says Sgt. J.E. Rucker, crime
stoppers coordinator.
Here`s why.
First, Watauga County Sheriff James ``Red`` Lyons now knows that a woman
driving a car that looked like the Durhams` was spotted near the crime scene
shortly after the killings.
The information is new to Lyons, who inherited a bare Durhammurder file
when he became sheriff in 1982, Rucker says.
Second, the State Bureau of Investigation is about to use a new computer
that identifies fingerprints.
Unidentified prints found inside the Durhams` car and house will be among
the first to be run through the computer, Rucker says.
That evidence or the hefty reward could clinch what Rucker says is the
state`s only unsolved triple murder - a mystery with clues that fill more than one file drawer at SBI offices.
This is the story that file tells:
The Durhams had moved from Mount Airy to the Boone area in 1971 and had
become known as a quiet, hardworking family.
Virginia Durham accompanied her husband to his Modern Buick dealership in
Boone, where she filed and kept the books.
Bobby, a freshman at Appalachian State University, was determined to finish college in three years.
He never got the chance.
On the night of Feb. 3, 1972, nearly 4 inches of snow covered the ground.
The wind howled at 40 mph.
Shortly after 10:30 p.m., the Durhams` other child, Ginny Sue Hall, then
19, sat 4 miles away from her parents` house in a mobile home she shared with her husband, Troy Hall. They were watching television when the phone rang.
The caller was frantic.
``Help,`` the woman`s voice whispered. Men have Bobby and Bryce, she said.
The line went dead.
``I didn`t really recognize her voice,`` Troy Hall recalled later. ``I
thought it was a practical joke.``
But when he called back, the line was busy.
Ginny Hall knew her mother wouldn`t joke like that.
So the young couple, ASU students, rushed out to their car.
It wouldn`t start.
They ran to a neighbor`s home and persuaded private detective Cecil Small
to drive them.
Snow prevented them from making it up the hill to the Durhams` house. So
Ginny Hall waited in the car while the men crept inside.
The house had been ransacked.
The telephone cord was ripped from the wall.
Blood spattered the den.
The television was on. But its sound was muffled by the steady swoosh of
running water.
The two men followed the noise to a bathroom where they found three bodies, their heads dangling in an overflowing bathtub.
Rope burns ringed their necks. Bryce Durham`s head had been smashed with a
blunt instrument. Virginia Durham`s face was beaten.
The men`s wallets had been rifled, but a money bag filled with hundreds of
dollars was left in the living room.
The Durhams` four-wheel drive GMC car was found about 3 miles away, motor
running, lights on, wipers wiping. A pillowcase full of silver lay inside.
At 10:50 p.m., Troy Hall called the sheriff from a nearby apartment.
Medical examiners said Virginia Durham died of strangulation; the two men
drowned.
By June 1972, four men were charged with the murders. By 1974, a judge had
freed two and prosecutors had dropped charges against the other two: not
enough evidence.
``But we`ve never given up,`` Mauldin says. ``We`re just hoping this will
be it.``
So are police.
``It`s time to make things right,`` Rucker says.
``Somebody out there has the answers.``
(The following paragraph did not run in the sixth edition:)
Have A Clue?
If you have information in the Durhammurders, call the Boone Area Crime
Stoppers collect at (704) 262-4555 any time or your local police or sheriff`s department. |
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