There is a recent article about a South Carolina woman named Verna Moore, who retired from her job as the Sumter County coroner on January 5 (2009). The article mentions a particular case that she remembers, and it's one that Unsolved Mysteries profiled in 1995: The August 1976 murders of a man and woman who were found shot to death on a dirt road, about 25 miles east of Sumter.

Here's the article:

http://www.theitem.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081228/ITNEWS01/712289928/-1/itnews

Many of you are already familiar with the case, but here is the Doe Network profile anyway.

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/189ufsc.html

I have always thought them to be brother and sister. It's harder to imagine two families missing someone and nobody coming forward.

It is a real riddle.

Thanks for the links, Kane!

Apparently they exhumed the remains in 2007 in order to collect DNA samples:

http://www.wltx.com/news/story.aspx?storyid=50572

It's probably been mentioned on here before, but they had a suspect. He was in possession of the gun believed to have been used in the murders, but he had the alibi of visiting his wife at the hospital. The suspect is deceased so they'll probably never know why the couple was killed.

I always wondered what happened to their belongings -- from experience I can't believe they didn't have any backpack or supplies if they were traveling and camping around the U.S.

It's harder to imagine two families missing someone and nobody coming forward.

Possibly the families had no idea when or where they went; they may have assumed they were traveling around Canada or Europe or that they were totally breaking away from everyone. Perhaps the man's father (if he disowned him) simply didn't worry about what happened to his son. I wonder if they ever checked medical schools in Quebec for his enrollment prior to 1976.

Thanks for the links, Kane!

Apparently they exhumed the remains in 2007 in order to collect DNA samples:

http://www.wltx.com/news/story.aspx?storyid=50572

It's probably been mentioned on here before, but they had a suspect. He was in possession of the gun believed to have been used in the murders, but he had the alibi of visiting his wife at the hospital. The suspect is deceased so they'll probably never know why the couple was killed.

I always wondered what happened to their belongings -- from experience I can't believe they didn't have any backpack or supplies if they were traveling and camping around the U.S.



Possibly the families had no idea when or where they went; they may have assumed they were traveling around Canada or Europe or that they were totally breaking away from everyone. Perhaps the man's father (if he disowned him) simply didn't worry about what happened to his son. I wonder if they ever checked medical schools in Quebec for his enrollment prior to 1976.

I figure if they were from two families, you would have at least one family looking. If the man's father didn't care, the girl's family might. Even if family assumes someone is breaking away, they may look for them later. It is just such a puzzling case.

There were likely only two or three med schools in Quebec then. I think they are more likely from Europe or South America. If they were North American, someone would have twigged by now - classmate, cousin, somebody.

Yu can read a lot more about them here
http://z10.invisionfree.com/usedtobedoe/index.php?showtopic=16853