Mystery couple murdered in South Carolina, 1976 - #3

[Reannan]

the years are off but this female bears a striking resemblance to Mary Francis Gregory another possible match Maria Anjiras

Matknee, do you have links or states those two women were reported missing? Thanks!

 

[Teresa Larson]

The matches came from the Grants Truck Stop in New Mexico, Nebraska or Idaho. In the United States

 

[Teresa Larson]

I thought about their car/van being towed awhile back too. I think we should find out if any cars or vans were towed to the impound within a few months of this happening that nobody ever claimed.

 

[EmilyE]

Thanks Reannan for bringing me up to speed on Henry.

"Also the girl had on wedge heeled sandals which would make walking and hitching very difficult, IMO."
Good point rmf - us girls never took to walking or long distance hitchhiking in heels.

I just want to say too, since I am new and recently read all the stuff up front for new members. (not to start the issue up again! but people should know!) That marking your pictures, keeps them yours, otherwise they become web sleuths by copyright. There is a difference between credit and copyright. And WS will take it if you don't. So the next time someone credit bashes, mention it is your picture and you intend to keep it yours. Otherwise, you have to ask WS to use it etc. Read the copyright info.

Let me see if I can find that site with the picture now.

 

[EmilyE]

Here it is, I must have been thinking of another picture because this isn't exactly the way I remembered it. But this must be the one I saw for them.

(Scroll down)
http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/classics/mystery_couple/index.html

 

[kline]

I think in this pic you can see the black dots that appear under her chin, around the chin lower cheek areas. I had thought this was from the gun shot sort of a peppered look.

Someone on another board brought up an interesting point. Regarding Lonnie George Henry and the "murder weapon". They asked if Henry was ever charged for removing the serial number from the gun, since it is a felony to do so.

So I looked it up and based on the Gun Control Act of 1968 it is a federal crime and a FELONY.... to alter the serial number from a gun. Lonnie Henry ADMITTED to removing the serial number himself. The law indicates its a crime to just be in possesion of an altered gun. Here he is in possesion of the gun, he admits to being the one to alter the gun and he was pulled over for DUI, which is how they found the gun, but they just let him go because he couldnt have done it because he was at the hospital with his wife that night.

It seems like they could have used this as leverage to get him to tell who did it if NOT HIM.

If he were sitting in jail facing a couple of felony charges he might have decided to talk rather than take the fall for somebody else. Whoever did it must have been someone close to Lonnie Henry.

The only good that does us, is if the person who did it remembered anything about the victims.

[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica][SIZE=-1](g) to obliterate, remove, change, or alter the serial number or other identification of a firearm required by this chapter;or[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica][SIZE=-1](h) to receive or possess a firearm having the serial number or other identification required by this chapter obliterated, removed, changed, or altered;or[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica][SIZE=-1](i) to receive or possess a firearm which is not identified by a serial number as required by this chapter;or[/SIZE][/FONT]

This is where this story and the 'explanation'about how Lonnie Henry was
'handled' by LE strays into the Twighlight Zone for me.
Your in possesion of a firearm with serial numbers altered (Which yes is indeed a felony) its determined its a murder weapon in a pair of unsolved homicides...and LE lets him go after a half assed explanation????
And apparently does very little or no follow up??
In what alternate dimension of reality does something like that happen?
One thing about this case is certainly not a mystery:Why it remained unsolved for thirty odd years.
Another thing...this is a pretty common caliber of gun.
What prompted them to consider that this might be the murder weapon in this particular case?

 

[MaryLiz]

the years are off but this female bears a striking resemblance to Mary Francis Gregory another possible match Maria Anjiras

Mary Frances Gregory has already been considered, but you're right, the years are off as she disappeared in February 1978 from Ontario, Canada.

 

[MaryLiz]

The matches came from the Grants Truck Stop in New Mexico, Nebraska or Idaho. In the United States

Right, there were Grant's Truck Stops in those states, but it was also discovered there was one in York, New Brunswick, Canada, which could lend credence to the possibility that one or both of them was from Canada. I always suspected though, that they got the matches out west if they were traveling across the USA in 1976.

 

[shadetreePI]

I want to say thank you to EmilyE. Very well said. :clap:

"I just want to say too, since I am new and recently read all the stuff up front for new members. (not to start the issue up again! but people should know!) That marking your pictures, keeps them yours, otherwise they become web sleuths by copyright. There is a difference between credit and copyright. And WS will take it if you don't. So the next time someone credit bashes, mention it is your picture and you intend to keep it yours. Otherwise, you have to ask WS to use it etc. Read the copyright info."

And, I want to add that I am very impressed with Mark Frazeo's comments and thoughts. Hope to see more postings from him.

To Reannan: Where in SC do you live? You know I live here too, right?

 

[Reannan]

To Reannan: Where in SC do you live? You know I live here too, right?

Hey Shadetree! No, I guess I didn't know you lived here too. I live on the SC side of the Savannah River near Augusta, GA. What about you??

 

[shadowangel]

]<snip>[/I] Another thing...this is a pretty common caliber of gun.
What prompted them to consider that this might be the murder weapon in this particular case?

I could only venture a guess...There was a lot of press on this case at the time, it most likely was on the mind of every police officer in the area. And apparently Henry was no stranger to LE (according to the posted reports, he had been stopped for drunk driving when the gun was found, his son had just died, and he had killed a co-worker by backing over him).

 

[shadetreePI]

Shadow:

There was a lot of press on this case at the time, it most likely was on the mind of every police officer in the area. And apparently Henry was no stranger to LE (according to the posted reports, he had been stopped for drunk driving when the gun was found, his son had just died, and he had killed a co-worker by backing over him).

This is the first time I can remember hearing of this. Where did you find this information?

Reannan:
I live in Kershaw County (the next county over from Sumter) in Lugoff. I just moved here about 3 years ago. Before that I was living near you - in Aiken County.

 

[Reannan]

Small world, isn't it Shadetree?? I am thinking that if this couple was camping, perhaps we should try and find out if other camp sites in the area have records from the summer of 1976. I just might have to go and do some digging this weekend. :waitasec:

 

[shadetreePI]

Reannan,

I think that's a good idea. I haven't thought of doing that. It's a needle in the haystack, but WTH. So is everything else. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?

 

[EmilyE]

"its a murder weapon in a pair of unsolved homicides...and LE lets him go after a half assed explanation????
And apparently does very little or no follow up??
In what alternate dimension of reality does something like that happen?
One thing about this case is certainly not a mystery:Why it remained unsolved for thirty odd years.
Another thing...this is a pretty common caliber of gun.
What prompted them to consider that this might be the murder weapon in this particular case?"

Hey you guys... I wonder, since this is such a well executed thing... What if the people were mafia like in that area and had cops paid off or something. Not to start some big rumor story but we all know for a fact, some cops are crooked and those crooked cops don't seem to have too hard of a time finding buddy cops who are also crooked. If I were an investigator nowadays, I'd want to find who pulled over and took Henry in, then find out if the guys over his head let Henry go. How many other bodies showed up in Sumter around that same period?

To shade- thanks and as for your plan I think we MUST be out on the streets doing things to have any hope of helping. Otherwise we are just here entertaining ourselves. Go for it and good luck!

 

[shadowangel]

Shadow:



This is the first time I can remember hearing of this. Where did you find this information?

It's in one of the news articles posted near the beginning of either this thread or the original thread (see the first post of this thread for the link).

 

[MaryLiz]

Shadow:



This is the first time I can remember hearing of this. Where did you find this information?

shadetree...I posted this back on post #72...phenolred had posted the article on an earlier Mystery Couple thread sometime last year and I happened to find it when someone asked about Lonnie Henry:

Sole suspect
About four months after the murders, police in the Darlington County town of Latta arrested Lonnie George Henry for drunk driving. Under the seat of his car they found a .38-caliber Smith & Wesson with the serial number filed off.
Police sent the gun to the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division's forensic lab for tests and later concluded that Henry's revolver had killed the mystery couple. Bullets taken from the bodies matched with the weapon.
When officers asked Henry point blank if he was the killer, his polygraph said he was telling the truth. No, he hadn't pulled the trigger. But several other lie detector tests implied he was lying about something, at least, maybe covering up for somebody. Investigators wondered if someone had stolen his gun and whether a relative or friend of Henry's had killed the couple in Sumter.
But case files say Henry did lie about how he'd obtained the gun, first telling officers that he'd bought it from a truck driver. Days after the purchase, Henry told investigators, he discovered the serial number had been filed off. By then, it was too late to return the item for a refund.
SLED recovered the serial number and investigators tracked the gun from its manufacturer to Henry's brother, who said he gave it to Henry as a Christmas present four or five years earlier.
The gun had been bought, stolen and resold several times before falling into the hands of Henry's brother. But he said the serial number was still there on Christmas Eve.
When confronted with the new information, Henry confessed to filing the serial numbers off himself.
It remains unclear why Henry lied if he was innocent. And it also remains unclear if he really was. Case files say Henry was a recovering alcoholic and had also gotten in trouble with the law for a slew of minor offenses.
At the time, his son had recently drowned in the Pee Dee River. He'd also accidentally killed one of his co-workers, by backing a dump truck over him.
Investigative psychologists even wondered if he'd killed the Sumter couple and simply couldn't remember doing it.

 

[EmilyE]

"Investigative psychologists even wondered if he'd killed the Sumter couple and simply couldn't remember doing it"

Sleep killing? Yea right...

 

[shadowangel]

I have the son's obit somewhere in my notes (Lonnie George Henry Jr). His wife passed away in 2002.

 

[MaryLiz]

I have the son's obit somewhere in my notes (Lonnie George Henry Jr). His wife passed away in 2002.

shadowangel...if you find the son's obit will you post it on here? Thanks.