SC SC - Myrtle Styles Everette, 11, Una, 23 July 1947

Ken Fortenberry

New Member
Joined
Jan 11, 2005
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
11 YEAR OLD MURDERED IN 1957
Myrtle Styles Hembree, an 11 year old girl, was raped and brutally murdered in July 1947 in the small community of Una near Spartanburg, SC.

She had been picking blackberries with her parents, went to a nearby store, and was later found beaten to a pulp in a closet of an abandoned house.

Despite an intensive search including bloodhounds and nearly 100 officers, no one was ever charged with the crime.

Would love to have contact with anyone who is familiar with this case.

Ken Fortenberry
publisher@charter.net
 
we worked together at a grocery store. She would be 48 or 49 now. I wonder if they were related. I don't recall her ever saying anything about a relative being murdered though, but it isn't something you talk about I don't suppose.
 
Corrections to the Above:

Myrtle Styles Everette - not Hembree.
She was killed in 1947.
I have done additional research on this case, although evidentiary files are no longer available with law enforcement.
Anyone with any knowledge of the case is urged to contact me, please.
I am working two angles - a story on the unsolved murder and pursuing a possible suspect.

Thank you.
 
Ken Fortenberry said:
Corrections to the Above:

Myrtle Styles Everette - not Hembree.
She was killed in 1947.
I have done additional research on this case, although evidentiary files are no longer available with law enforcement.
Anyone with any knowledge of the case is urged to contact me, please.
I am working two angles - a story on the unsolved murder and pursuing a possible suspect. Thank you.
Any more information on this case? I wonder if it might in any way be linked to another case, that of Georgia Jean Weckler , 8, Missing since May 1, 1947 from Fort Atkinson, Jefferson County, Wisconsin ?
 
Nine years after the murder, a letter was written to the Spartanburg Herald-Journal dated June 11,1956,
by a candidate for county sheriff named I.L. Cooksey.

Cooksey claimed at that time to know who committed this crime and would bring the murderer to justice within 90 days of his election:


http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1876&dat=19560611&id=jWcsAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ZMsEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2602,1410882


Spartanburg County Sheriff B.B. Brockman was re-elected and served until 1961. If Cooksey really did have information on this case, it was never brought to light...
 



Myrtle Styles Everett
BIRTH 1936
South Carolina, USA
DEATH 23 Jul 1947 (aged 10–11)
Spartanburg, Spartanburg County, South Carolina, USA
BURIAL
Startex Cemetery
Startex, Spartanburg County, South Carolina, USA Show Map
PLOT Startex Cemetery

Headstone Inscription
Myrtle Styles
(Everett)
11 years old
murdered July 23, 1947
daughter of Frankie Styles
step-daughter of Henry Everett
case unsolved "taken but no longer broken"

LINK:
Myrtle S Styles Everett (1936-1947) - Find A...
 
I. L. Cooksey claimed to have knowledge of the murder of Myrtle Styles Everette when he was running for Sheriff of Spartanburg, SC in 1956. He lost the election and the case remains unsolved to this day.

Isaac Lecel Cooksey was born 30 July 1899, to Jesse Burkhead Cooksey and Nancy Carrie Cooksey in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
He had 7 siblings.
Isaac married Annie Corrine Elizabeth Cooksey (born Goldsmith).
Isaac passed away 15 March 1967, at age 67 in Tryon, Gaston, North Carolina.

LINKS:
https://www.myheritage.com/names/isaac_cooksey
Isaac Lecel Cooksey (1899-1967) • FamilySearch
 

Members online

Online statistics

Members online
87
Guests online
2,449
Total visitors
2,536

Forum statistics

Threads
590,084
Messages
17,929,986
Members
228,062
Latest member
Countrygirlwv
Back
Top