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who killed the durham family? here's my story

Pepper22

Posted 5:24 pm, 08/13/2010

I always thought the only thing Ginny was guilty of was getting involved with a "not so good" guy. That's always bad, but not usually this tramautic. The phone call certainly is suspicious, or so it

appears after the fact. There was something mentioned about Ginny saying the battery was clicking

and the car wouldn't start. A weak battery in Boone will strand you in a heart beat. Even a good battery when the snow is falling and the wind chill factor is off the chart and your car won't start. That happens there, but a battery with one of the cable wires loose or taken off ....and the battery will still probably click, and would be over looked as....oppsy I was trying to get it started. Smith was probably set up thinking he was just taking two college kids to check on Mom & Dad. The report said the house appeared to be staged. There was no evidence of forced entry, so would this not seem that which ever one of the Durhams that answered the door knew the person or persons.

There have been such tragedies in Wilkes, Lenoir, Boone, Yadkinville, and on and on ...many have been solved and others not but isn't it so awful that we live in times where people let their emotions

so out of control that they can take another's life. I was thinking about Johnny Horton and Angie

Hamby..I think her name was ....both of them disapeared years ago ...without a trace. So many poor families that have been torn apart not knowing.

bohemian65

Posted 3:03 pm, 08/13/2010

The crime does sort of point to someone that was in some way close to the family. 5 hours IS a long time in a snow storm even for a dedicated student used to Watuaga driving.

The Call(assuming he got one) --I did think it was strange that he worded news of the call like this --- "Would your mother play a joke on us"? No caller IDs back then and he said, "Virginia is that you?" so she either uttered something to make him think it was her OR he just assumed it was her out of all the people in the world it could have been -- big assumption if she said nothing. Couldn't the call have been a wrong number from some stranger??If he assumed it was some joke or misunderstanding why the rush to go see-they called back and it was busy so why be worried - somebody was on the phone. The Durhams were busy folks and they had an 18 year old boy in the house -- the phone could have been busy for some time (no call waiting then) without an alarm bell sounding in one's head.

Why leave Ginny at the bottom of the hill alone like that --- since it was all fun and games wouldn't she walk up to see her parents if for no other reason than to say hi? Why get the trailer park manager where YOU live to go with you to your in-laws house? Did he have reason to think/know what he would find there? Seasoned LEOS say the scene was staged?? Hmm.

Boy to hear him questioned would have been nice and maybe there were good and reasonable answers. They destroyed cold case records prior to 1976??? Somewhat ridiculous considering some of the folks involved in some ways are still alive or didn't die until relatively recently. Mr Smith didn't die until the 1990s.

Somebody got away with murder folks -- I hope the truth will be discovered.

barkere59@conninc.com

Posted 2:07 pm, 08/13/2010

Ol Troy left in the middle of a blizzard at 5:00 in the afternoon - didn't return until 10:00 PM. Wonder what he was studying???? Where was he "studying", and did anyone witness him studying during that time period? During that 5 hours, he would have had plenty of time to do what was done at that house. I believe the phone call was either bogus, or a signal that the coast was clear to come with witnesses.

bohemian65

Posted 1:41 pm, 08/13/2010

I figured Ginny was pretty young and it sounds like both she and Troy were students at ASU then since he had gone to the Library to study. I never read that Troy was a student at ASU but just that he went to the Library so I wondered if he might have been too. Sadly as we now know youth doesn't take away being involved in criminal acts. If none of our arm chair theories hold any water I hope all made it through this as well as they could ---- maybe one day there will be answers.


Sometimes I wonder if some horrific thing took place around my life one day (God forbid) if any of my actions from that day would seem strange to anyone - especially if I may have been a person of interest or something. We just never know what will happen and could we account for our every movement that day?

Well I must run an errand but I shall return !!!

magnumpi

Posted 1:31 pm, 08/13/2010

Bryce and Virginia Durham as well as both of their children Ginny and Bobby were native to Wilkes County. Troy Hall was born and raised in Wilkes County as well. I believe he graduated from Wilkes Central High School in 1967.

Bryce Durham was a World War II veteran having served in the Navy.

Bobby was described as a husky youth, who had played football at Watauga High School. Both of these tidbits of information are from a Winston-Salem Journal article that appeared on Saturday February 5, 1972.

We need to remember that Ginny was only a sophomore at ASU when this happened.

bohemian65

Posted 1:21 pm, 08/13/2010

I too wondered about Hall or Smith having military training.


Hall and Ginny divorced in 1976 (not sure when they separated) and that was 4 years after the murders.
So Hall went on to become a lawyer and change his name? I think I read that on here this morning.
Law school is expensive. Why change your name if you had moved out of state and never been accused of anything? Then you have Mr Smith who allegedly was unknowingly involved in one of the biggest events in 20th century history and he just HAPPENS to be right in the thick of this and finds the bodies - a private detective no less.

Yes very interesting.

Emmy08

Posted 1:18 pm, 08/13/2010

I love a mystery, and I had never heard of this before. Do they have any evidence what so ever still around from this case or is it all gone. I know there are lots of new DNA testing being done.

To me it seems the son-in-law had to have had a part in it. Like many have said, with the profiler saying the person would had been comfortable, also making the scene looked staged.

Also, the phone call...did the wife know for sure who it was that had called. If he had hired a hit man it could had been them calling saying the job is done.

SofaKingCrazy

Posted 1:02 pm, 08/13/2010

I love a mystery myself. Maybe we can solve it right here on GoWilkes. A question: does anyone know if either Hall or Smith had any military training? This might explain the hog tying of the victims. I think it's notable also that the victims were strangled and drowned. Lot less messy than shooting or stabbing. Why would rank strangers care about not leaving a bloody mess behind? The only reason it would matter would be if someone stands to inherit the property and doesn't want to deal with the clean up, right?

Pepper22

Posted 12:55 pm, 08/13/2010

Someone posted a news article naming Bennie Staley as possible involvement. He was in the military giving him a working knowledge of the military knots quoted in the reports for sure and the police must have checked his military record and knew if he was on leave during the date of the murders. From court records he certainly was well on his way to being a strong contender for "public enenmy #1" type of person. Did Troy Hall know Bennie Staley? Remember, Troy had a wife in North Wilkesboro that later commited suicide so the story goes....so he had to live in North Wilkesboro for a period of time. Perhaps Troy ate at Hardee's and met him there or has been discussed, they possibly had another common interest causing their paths to cross. Either or, I think it's highly possible that these two men knew each other.on some level. Going back to the

profiler's report it said they were comfortable in the house but after a passage of time the event might be like an "out of body" experience to them. With Benny's sudden death, that statement made a lot

of sense.

I agree that if this happened today, the person or persons would most probably have been caught

before they knew what hit them, but remember back in those days we did not even have cell phones,

GPS tracking, and DNA testing was just coming into existence.

swimgal

Posted 11:32 am, 08/13/2010

Very Interesting Cases!

bohemian65

Posted 8:33 am, 08/13/2010

Back to the Durham case --- I do find it very strange that someone thought something was wrong on this snowy cold night in the mountains and when they got to the driveway and couldn't get up through it they left a defenseless young woman sitting in the car to go check. The 105 area in 1972 was pretty darned dark and scary - my great grandmother lived right off 105 and I thought it was the middle of nowhere even during the day.


They get up there, discover the bodies, and then RUN when they thought they heard something??? Two men, one a private eye, and nobody is armed or ready for a confrontation? Even the guy that was telling the story in one of the posts said -- "the phone call Troy received was a clue" and "it was local so there was no record".

Given the current investigative techniques that weren't available then ---- do we all feel it would have been solved in it happened in 2010 instead of 1972???

Personally I do because nowadays they could have tracked down things like where the rope was bough and by whom as well as DNA - you can't do that to people and not leave behind pieces of yourself.

dabbob

Posted 7:39 am, 08/13/2010

That sounds about right Bohemian. I remember reading it in the paper and 76 is about right. I knew A.C. a little bit from around town is the reason I remember it.

bohemian65

Posted 7:22 am, 08/13/2010

Michael Dean Keller was the other one !!
Robinette served from 1980 to 1993 for two manslaughter charges.

Well we care Fins - just discussing old cases.

bohemian65

Posted 7:10 am, 08/13/2010

Actually the brother was found in a car wash on 321south (Blowing Rock Rd was still a two lane) in Caldwell County. The car wash or what remained of it was there until work began on the 321 widening to Blowing Rock. Its all coming back to me now.

Let me see if I can find more about this one. It had to have happened in 1976 or thereabout. This has to be the same crime - Greene brothers with Wilkes ties, car wash, etc, etc.

Fins

Posted 7:08 am, 08/13/2010

Who cares? Hagaman is a f'ing useless sheriff. How about instead of wasting time on a 35 year old case, he put some efforts into doing something about the meth problem that has come back since he took office and killed off the drug program that the previous sheriff had. The former sheriff worked hard to get rid of meth labs in Watauga but thanks to Hagaman they are back and thriving.

tonga

Posted 7:01 am, 08/13/2010

Reference the Green brothers, A.C. lived in Wilkesboro and was found dead near the Wilkes/Watauga line. His brother was found at a car wash dead in Taylorsville.

Jackie Robinette from taylorsville was charged w/manslaughter and has since been released.

I can't remember the other person involved who was charged w/ murder. I'm thinking his first name was Mike.

bohemian65

Posted 7:01 am, 08/13/2010

Poker were those the Greene brothers found at the car wash as you go down from Boone to Lenoir - happened in the late 70s? The car wash was right above my grandma's house where we were living at the time. Seems they did get the folks but it too was years later IF I remember correctly. I think that was involving drugs and possibly squealing on someone.

pokerthug

Posted 6:55 am, 08/13/2010

the greene brothers were from boone,but were around wilkes alot.1 was found in the trunk of his car with something cut off and put in his mouth.the other was found shot to death...i think not sure.they had hot rod corvettes,would drag race on the highways for $1000s.just never heard if they found who killed them.

bohemian65

Posted 6:52 am, 08/13/2010

Wow - so Small himself and Troy Hall discovered the bodies? Let me go back and read the portion about Troy getting the call and going to the house. Small just happened to have this first person account of one of the most famous killers (Oswald) in US history on the VERY day of the event?

Hmm - again.

countyline

Posted 6:40 am, 08/13/2010

This Cecil Small character is very interesting. I had never heard this story about him.

http://www.kenrahn.com/jfk/...Small.html

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