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grabbed Brenda Sue and dragged her from the road to where "There was a little black boy playing in a field and Price screamed after him to get home." Supposedly, this was Robert
Roseboro. According to Lail's grandfather's account, Brenda Sue fought hard and scratched Price, which made him angry and he picked up a rock and hit her in the face and told Parker that they had to kill her because, ″They would go away and do real time this time″.
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After four days of searching through files in storage, the files were found in an unmarked box along with the files of the Mary Helen
Williams murder case. However, much evidence was missing, including Brenda Sue's dress, underwear, shoes, her powder-puff compact, the rock that was used to kill her,
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The daughter looked in the window and saw a woman lying on the floor covered in blood. Shelby police were called to the business, where Robert
Roseboro walked out with his hands in the air. Mary Helen Williams was found nude, with her body beaten and stabbed by a pair of scissors. The county coroner
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On
February 12, 2007, the Shelby police arrested Thurman Price, 79, on a first-degree murder charge. Price's home is located close to where Brenda Sue's body was found. It is unclear whether Price lived there in July 1966. According to county records, Price did not purchase the house until 1973. He
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hearing to determine if enough evidence existed in the Brenda Sue Brown murder case to bring a new suspect, Thurman Price, to trial. During his testimony, which lasted less than ten minutes, Roseboro denied killing Brenda Sue. He said he did not know who did it, and had no memory of the day she was
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At 6:45 p.m. Brenda Sue's nude body was found in a wooded area 150 feet from South
Lafayette Street and not far from her home. Her body was covered with freshly cut tree limbs, leaves, and brush. The red and white dress she had been wearing was folded neatly and placed atop the brush. A bloody
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He walked to a local bootlegger's house the night before, where he met Price and drank for several hours. While walking home the next morning they saw Brenda Sue near South
Lafayette Street and they sneaked up behind her with the intention of rape. Lail described how Parker told her that Price had
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The indictment indicated that Earl Mickey Parker had described in detail how Brenda Sue was killed and, according to authorities, his confession to his granddaughter is consistent with evidence found at the crime scene in July 1966. According to court records, Lori Lail called the family of Brenda
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During the two-day murder trial, a pathologist testified that blood found on
Roseboro's clothes was type "A," which matched Mrs. Williams's blood type. Roseboro denied killing Mrs. Williams, saying that police lied about the investigation and that he would have had no motive for the murder because
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Roseboro was found guilty in May 1969 of murdering Mary Helen
Williams and sentenced to death. However, his sentence was reduced to life in prison. Because of the similarities between this case and the Brenda Sue Brown murder, it became a common local belief that Roseboro had killed both of them.
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Robert
Roseboro was briefly questioned by police. When officer Harold Smith questioned him, Roseboro remained silent. "He wouldn't answer. He just sat there. Roseboro´s silence made him more suspicious," Smith said. According to Smith, the fact that Roseboro lived a few hundred yards from where
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According to Lail, she was alone with her grandfather in his hospital room at
Cleveland Regional Medical Center in Shelby when he told her, "I've done some bad things with my life and before I can move on I need to get them off my chest". Lail recalled the story her grandfather told her:
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On May 10, 2007, Earl Mickey Parker's body was exhumed from Sunset Cemetery in Shelby to see if his palm print matched the bloody palm print found on Brenda Sue's shoe. The results of this test were inconclusive because the hands of the body were too deteriorated to get a print.
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At 10:15 a.m. Brenda Sue's mother, Gladys Brown, began a door-to-door search. Brown drove through her neighborhood, asking neighbors and passing motorists if they had seen the girl. An hour later, a search team was formed by members of the Shelby Rescue Squad.
318:, and examined for any available evidence. The wooden casket in which she was buried had disintegrated, and only a few bones remained. On May 21, 2006, a public memorial service was held, and Brenda Sue's remains were laid to rest in Sunset Cemetery in
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At 11:30 a.m. on June 22, 1968, a woman and her daughter arrived at Mary's Cannon Towel Outlet. This was Mary Helen Williams's business, located on Dixon Boulevard in Shelby. There they saw a "CLOSED" sign hanging in a window.
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Shortly thereafter, Lori Lail came forward to police and claimed that her grandfather, Earl Mickey Parker, had told her shortly before his death (on June 26, 2002) that he and a man named Thurman Price had killed Brenda Sue.
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The public was baffled as to why Roseboro, who was seen in the area on the morning of Brenda Sue's murder, was not interrogated further by police. People theorized that Roseboro may have been protected by a local
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Authorities determined that Brenda Sue had been beaten to death with the rock found nearby. Her skull had been fractured in twelve places. Police reported that, although the body was nude, she had not been raped.
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Police believed the killer was on foot because, due to heavy traffic on South Lafayette Street, he would not have been able to get out of a car and force the girl into the woods without being seen.
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In 2005, Brenda Sue Brown's sisters, Patricia Buff and Mary McSwain, spent months asking the Shelby Police Department to reopen her case. Officers told them that the case files were missing.
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at trial. Lori Lail testified at the hearing that in June 2002 her grandfather, Earl Mickey Parker, told her on his deathbed that he and Thurman Price killed Brenda Sue Brown in 1966.
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there had been no rape or robbery. He drew maps of where he was in the building when police arrived and explained how Mrs. Williams's blood had gotten onto his clothes.
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237:"We just didn't have enough evidence on him. We had to let him go," Smith said. He said that he and other investigators believed Roseboro had killed Brenda Sue.
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161:(May 15, 1955 – July 27, 1966) was an 11-year-old girl who was abducted and murdered. Her body was found by rescue workers in a wooded area near downtown
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later said that, though Mrs. Williams was found nude, she had not been raped. In the store's restroom, police found Mrs. Williams's dress and underwear.
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Sue Brown on April 3, 2006, and told Brenda Sue's sister that the killer was Thurman Price but did not mention her grandfather's involvement.
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366:. In January 1955, the men pleaded guilty to assault to commit rape. According to court records, Parker and Price were each given a 3-5 year
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threatening to harm Roseboro were taken so seriously that he was secretly transferred to a jail in a nearby county until his trial in 1969.
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When the case of Brenda Sue Brown was reopened in 2005, detectives visited Roseboro in prison, but he refused to talk about the case.
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The case remained cold until a series of newspaper articles 40 years later brought forth new evidence in the spring of 2006.
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In 1954, Parker, 26, and Price, 25, had been indicted together for the rape of Shirley Morrison, a 12-year-old girl, in
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was released from jail on February 16, 2007, on $ 50,000 bond and denies any involvement in the murder of Brenda Sue.
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murdered. He said, "You're talking about something forty years ago. How would I recall something that long ago?"
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with her younger sisters, Brenda Sue was asked to walk her 6-year-old sister, Patricia, two blocks to a
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Thurman Price maintained his innocence until his death on August 4, 2012, while still awaiting trial.
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890:"Will a deathbed confession make trial in 1966 murder? New information in the Brenda Sue Brown case"
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At the time, police had several suspects. These included an unidentified bald white man who had
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The Brenda Sue Brown murder mystery has been profiled on several crime shows, including the
758:"'Yes!' Family celebrates as judge rules 1966 Brenda Sue Brown murder case can go to trial"
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822:"High-profile murder trials planned in killings of Brenda Sue Brown, Jeremiah Swafford"
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856:"Did two men kill Brenda Sue Brown? PLUS: How close are their graves to one other?"
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165:. With no leads and insufficient evidence to make an arrest, the murder became a
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Brenda Sue's body was found and refused to answer questions made him a suspect.
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two vials of blood, fingernail scrapings, branches, and a hair sample.
951:"Shelby murder suspect dies before trial | CharlotteObserver.com"
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himself to Brenda Sue's sister a few days earlier, and a 13-year-old,
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The unidentified white man who exposed himself could not be found.
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797:. Freedom Communications, Inc. May 16, 2006. Archived from
370:, ordered to keep a job, not to drink alcohol, and to pay
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class. This was the last time Brenda Sue was seen alive.
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662:"Who killed Brenda Sue? Charge him with this one"
234:which dominated the town of Shelby in the 1960s.
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307:that was taken from Brenda Sue's shoe in 1966.
275:In February 2010, Roseboro was subpoenaed to a
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180:After a morning of arguing over a powder-puff
927:. Freedom Communications, Inc. Archived from
896:. Freedom Communications, Inc. Archived from
862:. Freedom Communications, Inc. Archived from
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828:. Freedom Communications, Inc. Archived from
764:. Freedom Communications, Inc. Archived from
730:. Freedom Communications, Inc. Archived from
699:. Freedom Communications, Inc. Archived from
668:. Freedom Communications, Inc. Archived from
632:. Freedom Communications, Inc. Archived from
601:. Freedom Communications, Inc. Archived from
567:. Freedom Communications, Inc. Archived from
536:. Freedom Communications, Inc. Archived from
314:from the Spring Hill Church Road Cemetery in
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1018:pertaining to the murder of Brenda Sue Brown
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595:"She must have put up a tremendous fight"
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390:and Lail's testimony would be admitted
310:On May 15, 2006, Brenda Sue's body was
1101:Missing person cases in North Carolina
1061:Deaths by beating in the United States
921:"Family still waiting on murder trial"
386:judge ruled that Earl Mickey Parker's
1086:July 1966 events in the United States
977:"Episode 6: P. Buff & M. McSwain"
257:was intense in Shelby. Rumors of the
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820:Neeley, Olivia (December 31, 2010).
419:'s "Captured" on November 11, 2007.
358:Criminal records of Parker and Price
1081:Incidents of violence against girls
450:List of solved missing person cases
219:, black boy named Robert Roseboro.
1066:Deaths by person in North Carolina
983:. Season 1. Oxygen. Archived from
445:List of murdered American children
253:At the time of Williams's murder,
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1106:People murdered in North Carolina
1056:Child murder in the United States
1051:1966 murders in the United States
919:Ward, Megan (February 17, 2008).
756:Ward, Megan (February 10, 2010).
559:Ward, Megan (February 12, 2007).
364:Patterson Springs, North Carolina
888:Ward, Megan (February 9, 2010).
854:Ward, Megan (January 15, 2008).
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102:Cleveland County, North Carolina
561:"Beaten to death July 27, 1966"
326:Arrest of Thurman Price in 2007
691:Ward, Megan (March 31, 2006).
593:Ward, Megan (March 28, 2006).
528:Ward, Megan (March 26, 2006).
284:Reopening of Brenda Sue's case
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722:Ward, Megan (April 2, 2006).
660:Ward, Megan (April 1, 2006).
297:State Bureau of Investigation
241:Murder of Mary Helen Williams
1091:Kidnapped American children
791:"Brenda Sue's body exhumed"
624:Ward, Megan (May 7, 2006).
330:In the spring of 2006, the
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1096:Killings in North Carolina
1041:1960s missing person cases
316:Lillington, North Carolina
16:Murder of an American girl
693:"The search for a killer"
368:suspended prison sentence
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724:"Who killed Brenda Sue?"
530:"Who Killed Brenda Sue?"
1076:Formerly missing people
435:Crime in North Carolina
382:On February 9, 2010, a
378:The Deathbed Confession
301:Raleigh, North Carolina
196:rock was found nearby.
176:Events of July 27, 1966
52:Sanford, North Carolina
1046:1966 in North Carolina
981:Captured: Case Studies
626:"'Promising' new lead"
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332:Shelby, North Carolina
320:Shelby, North Carolina
163:Shelby, North Carolina
75:Shelby, North Carolina
1071:Female murder victims
987:on September 28, 2011
768:on February 19, 2010
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957:on January 19, 2013
440:List of kidnappings
388:deathbed confession
124:35.2594°N 81.5466°W
120: /
83:Cause of death
636:on October 3, 2011
255:racial segregation
931:on March 18, 2012
217:mentally disabled
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129:35.2594; -81.5466
100:Sunset Cemetery,
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63:July 27, 1966
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1026:Find a Grave
1015:news article
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91:blunt trauma
48:May 15, 1955
925:Shelby Star
894:Shelby Star
860:Shelby Star
826:Shelby Star
795:Shelby Star
762:Shelby Star
728:Shelby Star
697:Shelby Star
666:Shelby Star
630:Shelby Star
599:Shelby Star
565:Shelby Star
534:Shelby Star
372:court costs
127: /
1035:Categories
515:References
374:of $ 240.
305:palm print
186:Head Start
141:Occupation
115:81°32′48″W
112:35°15′34″N
67:1966-07-28
44:1955-05-15
935:March 20,
904:March 20,
870:March 20,
836:March 20,
805:March 20,
772:March 20,
738:March 20,
707:March 20,
676:March 20,
640:March 20,
609:March 20,
575:March 20,
544:March 20,
484:Biography
430:Cold case
167:cold case
423:See also
392:evidence
87:Homicide
991:May 18,
458:Portals
312:exhumed
213:exposed
182:compact
144:Student
65: (
104:, U.S.
54:, U.S.
1009:2010
472:1960s
1011:WBTV
993:2011
963:2012
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60:Died
38:Born
1024:at
496:Law
299:in
89:by
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