1980 San Bernardino County cold case homicides: Victims’ families grapple with the shock of learning their fates
In 2018
, Chrissy Salley was ready to figure out what happened to her estranged mother. In 1980, the Virginia resident was taken from her mother’s custody at 2 months old, and even after being adopted by her half-uncle and knowing much of her nuclear family, her mother’s story remained a mystery to them all.
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The DNA hit led to the revelation that Salley’s mother and her boyfriend were, in 1980, two young people who became murder victims in a cross-country hitchhiking effort gone awry. Having finally learned the fate of the pair they hadn’t heard from for more than 40 years, some of their family members today are dealing with shock, pain and even self-blame from the revelations.
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Duffey and Lane were known to relatives as living transient lifestyles with occasional run-ins with the law, though neither neither were ever officially reported as missing persons, Sheriff’s Investigator Gerrit Tesselaar said. Some family members never even seriously considered until the past few years that either were possibly dead.
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William “Billy” Everette Lane
Lane’s mother Sandra Blair, 76, explained in an interview that she and the rest of his family just assumed “Billy” was off “doing his own thing.”
A native of Swainsboro, Georgia, Blair moved to Florida as a child and wound up raising her eight children in Jacksonville, with Billy being the oldest after having him at age 14 in 1960. Blair now lives about an hour west of Jacksonville in Lake City.
At the time of Billy’s hitchhiking effort, neither he nor Blair were in each other’s lives much. In 1972, Blair and her husband had divorced, which resulted in him having primary custody over the children, she said.
As the single mother struggled to provide for her children, Blair found herself in legal troubles after she was arrested for “writing bad checks” for groceries and clothes for her family, she said. Her ex-husband’s wife ended up adopting seven of the eight children, however, Billy was the only one who refused, she said.
As a child, Billy did well in school, stayed out of trouble and helped raise his seven siblings, Blair said. However, the period after the divorce was not easy for her oldest child, who began running away at age 14.
“Things were just real rough for (Billy) at home,” Blair said. “He started running away from home and started to get in trouble.”
The last time she saw Billy, she said the two were legally not even supposed to be together since they were both on probation. He had visited her in Jacksonville in early 1979 in search of money to help support him and his girlfriend, who Blair believes was possibly Pamela Duffey with him at the time.
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Pamela “Pam” Dianne Duffey
Duffey’s daughter knows that her mother played the flute in high school, earned her GED and began going by her middle name in her late teens. However, Salley’s knowledge of her mother’s life remains limited.
Salley was taken into protective custody by the Northampton County Sheriff’s Department after Duffey’s car reportedly broke down in Virginia while with Billy.
Duffey later traveled to Mobile, Alabama, as she awaited Billy’s release from prison after he was caught trying to steal baby formula and diapers for Salley, Salley said. While in Alabama, Salley informed her mother of her plans to hitchhike across the country with Billy.
On June 8, 1980, she formally signed her maternal rights to Salley away, her daughter said.
Salley said in the years following their departure, her half-uncle and grandparents made attempts to locate Duffey. She said a relative of hers in the FBI even unsuccessfully ran Duffey’s Social Security number in search of any activity.
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In an August 2017 jailhouse interview, Neal admitted to Tesselaar and San Bernardino County’s District Attorney’s Office Investigator Steve Shumway to picking up two young hitchhikers in 1980 and taking them to his home in Ludlow.
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Unbeknownst to Blair, her youngest son also sought out a trail on Billy’s Social Security number on the internet years before. She only learned five years ago he discovered Billy’s Social Security activity stopped in early 1980.
“Without actually admitting it, (my youngest son) knew once that (Billy’s Social Security) activity stopped, he knew that something had happened to him,” Blair said. “Billy wasn’t trying to hide from anybody; he was working as he was hitchhiking around.”
When Salley first learned of her mother’s fate, she said she was in “shock” for the first week. While most of her relatives who would have known Duffey had long since died, she said her remaining family shares her sentiments.
Tesselaar said when he first got into contact with Billy’s family, his step-mother picked up the phone.
“He’s dead, isn’t he?” Tesselaar said was the first question she asked once she learned who the call was about.
When the investigator got in touch with Blair and broke the news, Tesselaar said she was pretty emotional. The pain remains fresh for Blair, who has regrets for what she described as having “ran off” after losing guardianship of a majority of her children.
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Blair looks forward to Billy’s ashes being released and returned to Jacksonville in the next two weeks. On May 23, Billy would have turned 61 years old.
In addition to Blair, Billy is survived by five brothers, a sister and and a half-sister.
Tesselaar said the Sheriff’s Department’s victim advocate group will help both families with costs related to cremation and burial.
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Duffey is survived by Salley, two grandchildren and a half-sister.
In addition to learning her mother’s fate, Salley also learned the man listed as her father on her birth certificate was not a DNA match, putting her back to “square one” on that search, she said.
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Although Blair has found some relief in finally knowing what became of her son, she still does not rest easy knowing the man who allegedly killed him was not being “legally punished” for it, Blair said.
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The San Bernardino County case remains under review by the District Attorney’s Office as to whether new charges will be filed against Neal.
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“I can’t help but think how scared she had to have been to see her boyfriend killed in front of her, and then be raped and — you just don’t even want to think about it,” Salley said.
Salley and Blair have contacted one another to offer condolences over the situation. Blair said speaking about the tragedy has helped relieve the “mental pressure” she has been dealing with.
Blair also wants to appeal to families going through difficult situations, especially a divorce. She urges parents to listen to their children when they say something is wrong and to “not walk away.”
Families in shock after homicide victims identified in 1980 San Bernardino County cold case – San Bernardino Sun
