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The Murder of Dr. Joe Smith in Lancaster, S.C.
It was almost Halloween in October of 1979 when a Lancaster, South Carolina physician who also worked as an assistant county coroner failed to show up for work. His colleagues heard conflicting stories about where he was, and one business owner felt the need to alert the police. When the doctor was discovered murdered, the community hoped his killer would soon be caught. But it would take more than a year before an arrest was made, and it highlighted the dangers of mixing business with pleasure and just how deadly a love affair can turn. Fifty-one-year-old Dr. Joe Smith was a fixture around the Lancaster, South Carolina community for many years. He had…
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Was Doris Duke a Murderer?
Doris Duke’s life would envy any script Hollywood could produce—in fact, she’s been the subject of many magazine articles, books, and made-for-tv movies. She grew up sheltered and overprotected by her parents, inheriting a vast fortune before she was a teenager and finally breaking free in her 20s to explore the world. Along the way, she met many friends and some who would eventually become enemies. She curated gorgeous homes all over the United States and was proud of her dedication to the performing arts and curated collection of artwork. Oh, and she may have committed murder and possibly been murdered herself as those around her fought over her estate. Doris Duke was…
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The Murder of Sandra Coulthard
On July 9, 1988, 30-year-old High Point, North Carolina resident Sandra Coulthard passed away at Duke University Medical Center. She’d been sick for about six months with vomiting, diarrhea, vomiting, and numbness of her feet and fingers. Doctors had diagnosed her with Guillain-Barre syndrome and had been treating her for it, but her symptoms never improved. Guillain-Barre syndrome is a rare neurological disorder that causes a person’s immune system to attack their nervous system. It often begins suddenly and as symptoms increase, can cause weakness and paralysis. While there is no cure for Guillain-Barre, treatments such as plasma exchange and intravenous immunoglobulin therapy can be administered for relief of symptoms. Sandy, a married…
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The Disappearance of Tyler Doyle from South Carolina
On January 26 of 2023, 22-year-old South Carolina resident Tyler Doyle went duck hunting off the coast of North Myrtle Beach with a friend in a 16-foot jon boat and has been missing ever since. It was a rough day on the water and there was a small craft advisory out that afternoon. He dropped his friend off at the north jetty on the Intracoastal Waterway and traveled further out in the boat to put out some duck decoys, staying in contact by phone. The friend lost sight of Doyle as he went around the south jetty. Not long after, Doyle called the friend to say the boat was having mechanical issues and…
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Celebrating Five Years of Podcasting!
When I started my true crime podcast Missing in the Carolinas five years ago, I thought I would be focusing solely on missing persons cases in North and South Carolina. My creative muse had other ideas. Little did my muse know that scanning old newspaper archives would lead me to intriguing crimes from the past (many with no digital footprints) and inspire me to broaden the context of my storytelling. I’m not going to lie–it’s been a labor of love. I don’t have a team, other than a few family members (you know who you are!) and I don’t make a profit off the podcast. I believe that I could make money off…
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Who Murdered Wesley and Bonnie Mahaffey in Asheville, N.C.?
In 1986, a free vacation getaway turned into a nightmare for an Ohio couple visiting Asheville, North Carolina. Wesley and Bonnie Mahaffey, ages 33 and 29, respectively, had traveled to the area from Hanover Township, Ohio, after winning a three-day trip to Asheville through Wesley’s job. The couple had been staying at a nearby hotel, the Great Smokies Hilton, and a member of the maid service saw them come out of their room as they left for a day of sightseeing on May 18, 1986. Their bodies were found early the next morning by a group of teenage boys. They had both been shot multiple times with a .38-caliber handgun. Buzzard Rock is…
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Who Murdered Pamela Mitchell Hoy?
On July 25, 1990, 41-year-old Pamela Mitchell Hoy had dinner with her husband Fred Hoy at a Burlington restaurant, and then went home and packed her gray Dodge van with her clothes and grooming tables, exercise runs, and crates. Pam raised and showed Italian greyhounds and was preparing for a trip that would take her to South Carolina the next day to a competition. She had plans to take her 11-year-old daughter on that trip. She went back inside the house to give her oldest daughter a magazine before leaving. She was expected at her parents’ home later that evening around 10:30 p.m., but never arrived. Pam Hoy grew up in the Greensboro…
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The Unsolved Murders of Pamela Murray and Beverly Sherman
Thirty-eight years ago, a young woman baked cookies with her aunt and then headed off to a local mall, probably to pick up a gift for her fiancé for Valentine’s Day. The two had plans to celebrate with a dinner out later that evening. But that young woman never made it inside the mall. Instead, she was forced back inside her car by an unknown assailant and found murdered a few miles away just a short time later. Investigators eventually linked her murder with another homicide of a local 17-year-old girl who had a prostitution arrest on her record. While the two victims came from very different backgrounds, it appears only one man…
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Book Review: The Devil at His Elbow
I recently read the true crime book “The Devil at His Elbow: Alex Murdaugh and the Fall of a Southern Dynasty” by Valerie Bauerlein. I shared my thoughts in the video below.
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The Abduction and Murder of Hubbard Harris, Jr. in South Carolina
On December 23, 1933, a 15-year-old young man named Hubbard H. Harris, Jr. went missing from the Columbia, South Carolina area on his birthday The boy was the son of Hubbard Harris, Sr., vice president of Home Stores, Inc., a grocery chain. Forty-eight hours after he went missing, three residents of the Olympia mill village discovered a body in a deserted home about 11 miles outside of Columbia, underneath a dilapidated mattress. He had been beaten to death, and the murder weapon, a blood-spattered iron bar, was found nearby. Hubbard Jr.’s mother told officers a man had called their home several times to offer her son an employment opportunity. The last time he…