Sumter County Does

Crime scene where the two bodies were found.

The Sumter County Does, also known as Jock (or more likely as Jacques) and Jane Doe,[1] were two unidentified homicide victims found in Sumter County, South Carolina on August 9, 1976.[2] They had apparently traveled through various places in the United States before dying in South Carolina, which was inferred by the evidence of some of their belongings.[3] Authorities made the decision to halt the investigation of finding the pair's killers until their identities were found.[4]

The male victim's nickname originated after a man who claimed to have met the couple stated that he was told by the male victim that he had left his Canadian family with his girlfriend; his father being a well known doctor, which supported the theory that he was from a wealthy background.[1][2][3]

Each victim was shot three times; once each in the throat, chest, and back.[5][6] Sumter County Coroner Verna Moore continues to work on the case, which as of 2014, is still unsolved. Neither of their identities have been found, despite that their descriptions, sketches of their recognizable faces, dental information and fingerprints were distributed across the United States.[6][7][8] The weapon that was used to murder the pair is believed to have been a .357 caliber revolver.[9]

Deaths and discovery

In the early morning hours of August 9, 1976, the young man and woman were said to be witnessed, from a distance by a hermit, to have been dropped off on Locklair Road, a secluded dirt road between I-95 and S.C. 341 (Lynches River Road) in Sumter County, South Carolina.[7][10][11] It is possible that the victims had their vehicle hijacked, possibly by hitchhikers.[3][12] Upon exiting the vehicle, someone shot them both in the back.[2][11] In order to guarantee that both were dead, the assailant then rolled them over onto their backs and fired a bullet from a .357 caliber gun under each of their chins before leaving the scene.[2] At 6:20 am, a man named Martin Durant found the bodies and contacted Charles Graham, an employee at a nearby store. Graham, in turn, contacted the authorities.[11]

Male victim

"Jock Doe"

Mortuary photograph of male victim
Born 1949–1956 (approximate)
Status Unidentified for 38 years, 8 months and 18 days
Died 9 August 1976 (aged 20–27+)
Sumter County, South Carolina, United States
Cause of death
 Homicide by firearm
Known for Unidentified victim of homicide
Height 6 ft 1.25 in (1.86 m)
Weight 150 lb (68 kg) (approximate)

The male victim was between 18 to 22 years of age, although his dentition suggested that he may have been over the age of about 27.[5][2][13] The forensic dentist who performed an examination on the man's teeth expressed that he believed that the victim had been over 27, saying that he had appeared younger due to his clothing and build. A unique type of root canal had taken place during the man's life, which would also serve as an important role in discovering who he was.[14] He was white with an olive complexion, had brown, shoulder-length hair, brown eyes, and very distinctive bushy eyebrows.[2][10] He stood over six feet tall, weighed about 150 pounds, and had extensive, elaborate dental work that may have been performed outside the United States, which would have been indicative of higher socioeconomic status.[6][10][13] It appeared as if he had been midway through a complete dental restoration.[3][15] The man had a four-inch appendectomy scar and various scars on his back and shoulders that indicated frequent participation in contact sports.[2][6][11]

He was wearing faded Levi brand blue jeans and a red T-shirt. The shirt read "Coors: America's Light Beer" on the front and "Camel Challenger G-T Sebring '75" on the back along with a Snoopy design.[2][3][5] The item is thought to have been a promotional item from the Sebring Races held in Sebring, Florida in 1975 which were sponsored by Coors. The man wore no underwear and carried a pack of Grant's Truck Stop matches in one pants pocket.[10] The matches are believed to have come from a Grant's Truck Stop in the Midwest.

On one wrist, the man wore a yellow gold Bulova Accutron watch bearing the serial number H918803 with a Twist-o-Flex band.[4][6][8] Using this number, investigators were able to determine that Bulova had made the piece in 1968. But when the Bulova company downsized in the early seventies, they destroyed all of their records, meaning that there is no way to ascertain where the victim's watch was distributed or purchased. The man also wore a fourteen-karat gold ring with a gray star sapphire or linde star stone with the initials "JPF" engraved on the inner portion of the band, which had a Florentine finish.[3][4] Both the ring and watch were rather expensive and like the man's elaborate dental work, suggested that he came from an affluent background.[7][13]

Female victim

For the unidentified victim from Sumter County, Florida, see Little Miss Lake Panasoffkee.
Sumter County Jane Doe

Mortuary photograph of female victim
Born 1956–1958 (approximate)
Status Unidentified for 38 years, 8 months and 18 days
Died 9 August 1976 (aged 18-20)
Sumter County, South Carolina, United States
Cause of death
 Homicide by firearm
Known for Unidentified victim of homicide
Height 5 ft 5 in (1.65 m)
Weight Between 100 lb (45 kg) and 110 lb (50 kg) (approximate)

The man's female companion was slightly younger than he was; she was estimated to be between 18 and 20 years old.[5] She stood 5'5" tall, weighed 100 to 105 pounds and had the same slim-build and a similar olive complexion to him, leading some to speculate that they could have been siblings.[1][4] She had reddish-brown, shoulder-length hair, bluish-gray eyes, and two distinctive moles on the left side of her face near her mouth.[6][8][10] The coroner noted that the young woman had unusually long, natural eyelashes and that both victims were extremely clean and well-groomed.[15] The young woman had fillings in all of her back teeth, and her front teeth would have appeared straight and even if she were to smile. She had no surgical scars, had never been pregnant and her legs had not been shaved.[5] Unlike her male companion, no scars were found on her body.[11]

She was found wearing an unbleached white muslin blouse over a pink, front-tying halter top, and blue cutoff denim shorts with a floral print scarf tied around her waist as a belt.[5][7] On her feet, she wore Stride-Rite brand wedge-heeled sandals that were lavender and hot pink in color.[3][16] She wore three very distinctive rings: the first ring was a black, oblong stone with what appeared to be small turquoise chips embedded in the stone.[6] The second had an ornate scrolling feather shape with coral and turquoise stones.[7][13] The third was a simple metal band with red, white, and blue stones. The rings appeared to be authentically handmade Native American or Mexican costume jewelry and were all made from sterling silver.[2][5][13] The rings appeared to have originated in the South West United States, where the book of matches found with the man may have come from.[3] In an article by The Index Journal, however, stated that two of the three rings had jade settings.[7] Like the man beside her, the female victim wore no underwear.[2][5]

Leads and theories

Investigators traveled to the state of Georgia, in the city of Brunswick. They met with a mother and father who were thought to have been possible victims of the Jane Doe, after a missing woman's ex boyfriend reported a similarity in the victim and his ex girlfriend.[8] After showing the parents of the missing person photographs of the victim, they, along with friends of the missing person could not verify that she was the victim. After a dental comparison, it was learned that the two did not match.[17]

Some speculate that Henry Lee Lucas, a serial killer, could be involved in the Sumter County Does' murders. Lucas himself told police that he had been in South Carolina the day that the victims died, but was never charged. He died in 2001 due to heart failure.[18][19] Lucas had confessed to two murders that also happened in Sumter County, that of an elderly woman in 1975 and of a young man in 1983. Like most other leads, this revealed no additional clues to the pair's names or their actual murderer.[9]

The initials engraved in the man's class ring strongly supported that his name may have been Jacques and that he did indeed meet with one of the witnesses, who claimed to have met a man and women matching the victim's descriptions. However, like his companion, he still remains without his identity. The book of matches were found in the man's pocket also provided some clues. They belonged to a truck stop or a hotel chain, its locations were in Idaho, Nebraska or Arizona.[3] After information was released to the public, a man from Nebraska stated that he may have performed repairs on a car with Oregon or Washington license plates, whose owners matched the descriptions of the victims, but uncovered no additional leads.[3][15]

The theory that the pair were siblings was disproved, as it was reported that DNA testing indicated that they were not biologically related, despite the fact that they resembled one another. However, it is still possible that the could have been step siblings or friends.[10]

A man was arrested in Latta, North Carolina in 1977 after driving while intoxicated. He owned a gun of the same caliber of the murder weapon, which was found in his vehicle. The gun was proven to be the one used during the murders after it as test fired by investigators and those fired during the exercise were compared to the bullets at the scene.[20] The man was located in Wadesdburo, New York, but never charged him with the murders, as there was reportedly not a reasonable amount of evidence to support the belief that he was guilty.[9]

Burial

The couple's bodies were kept at a local funeral parlor in caskets with airtight, see through lids in the hopes that someone would identify them. People from all over the country called to inquire about the victims. One man looking for his missing girlfriend viewed the bodies, as did several distraught parents of young runaways, but none could identify the bodies.[3]

The bodies stayed on display at the parlor until they began to deteriorate. On August 14, 1977, one year and five days after the corpses were found on Locklair Road, the young man and woman were interred at Bethel United Methodist Church Cemetery in Oswago, South Carolina.[10][21][22][23] Hundreds attended the funeral service of the victims, which lasted fifteen minutes long. The law enforcement agency raised several hundred dollars to pay the funeral home.[24] Their graves, bronze markers, read, "Male Unknown" and "Female Unknown," respectively.[25]

Gallery

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Warder, Robin (14 June 2013). "10 Mysterious Cases Involving Unidentified People". Retrieved 8 April 2014.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9 "Case File 198UMSC". The Doe Network. Retrieved 2012-10-14.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 3.10 "Bodies Remain Unidentified". The Daily Times-News. 19 September 1976. p. 10. Retrieved 7 August 2014 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 "Identity of Two Victims Sought". The Daily Times-News. 13 August 1976. p. 2. Retrieved 11 August 2014 – via newspapers.com.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 "Case File 189UFSC". The Doe Network. Retrieved 2012-10-14.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 "Cold Case Mystery: Unidentified Sumter Co. murder victims - wistv.com - Columbia, South Carolina |". wistv.com. 2012-10-10. Retrieved 2012-10-14.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 "Search begins for identity of slain youths". The Index Journal. 13 August 1976. p. 13. Retrieved 7 August 2014 – via newspapers.com.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 "Two bodies still not identified". The High Point Enterprise. 13 August 1976. p. 3. Retrieved 7 August 2014 – via newspapers.com.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 "Authorities question mass murderer about slayings". Greenwood, South Carolina. The Index-Journal. 26 July 1984. p. 8. Retrieved 19 August 2014 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.6 Hogg, Sandra Marie (3 February 2014). "Mystery of the Sumter County Does". Retrieved 30 May 2014.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 "Two Youths Found Slain Near I-95". The Sumter Daily. 9 August 1976. Retrieved 18 November 2012.
  12. ↑ "Dead couple still unidentified: officer's investigation stalled in Sumter murders". Greenwood, South Carolina. The Index-Journal. p. 13. Retrieved 19 August 2014 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 Edwards, Kathy (28 June 1977). "Dentist Provides Clues To Slain Man's Identity". The Sumter Daily. Retrieved 18 November 2012.
  14. ↑ "Forensic Dentist Finds Two Important Clues to Identity of Body". Florence Morning News. p. 9. Retrieved 8 August 2014 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 Adams, Jerry (19 September 1976). "May Be From Wealthy Families: Slain Couple in N.C. Still Unidentified". The High Point Enterprise. p. 55. Retrieved 11 August 2014 – via newspapers.com.
  16. ↑ "Victims still unidentified". Florence, South Carolina. Florence Morning News. 13 August 1976. p. 2. Retrieved 19 August 2014 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ↑ "Investigators Stalled". Greenwood, South Carolina. The Index-Journal. 18 August 1976. p. 9. Retrieved 19 August 2014.
  18. ↑ "Serial Killer Suspected in New York Murder". The Index Journal. 31 July 1984. p. 3. Retrieved 8 August 2014 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. ↑ "Eternity's gate slowly closing at Peckerwood Hill." Houston Chronicle. August 3, 2012. Retrieved on 7 August 2014.
  20. ↑ "Sumter Sheriff May Have Break in Two Deaths". Greenwood, South Carolina. The Index-Journal. 28 January 1977. p. 2. Retrieved 19 August 2014 – via Newspapers.com.
  21. ↑ "Nameless teens will be buried". Aiken, South Carolina. Aiken Standard. p. 10. Retrieved 19 August 2014.
  22. ↑ "Unidentified Youths to be Buried on Sunday". Florence Morning News. 11 August 1977. p. 3. Retrieved 8 August 2014 – via Newspapers.com.
  23. ↑ Lucas-Parker, Sharyn (12 August 2001). "The Mystery Couple". Crime Library. Retrieved 5 April 2014.
  24. ↑ "Sumter County murder victims laid to rest". Greenwood, South Carolina. The Index Journal. 15 August 1977. p. 1. Retrieved 19 August 2014 – via Newspapers.com.
  25. ↑ "Couple's burial finally coming after a year". The Index-Journal. 11 August 1977. Retrieved 19 August 2014 – via Newspapers.com.

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