NC Cora Lee Hamby, 10, Statesville, May 25th, 1989

[AbandonedNC]

10 year old Cora Lee Hamby lived at 1303 Caldwell St in Statesville in 1989, just behind the Shelton Ave Food Lion grocery store. That store is no longer in business but the shopping center is still there. Today it houses a Family Dollar and a charitable thrift store called Yokefellows.

On May 25th, at 8pm, Cora, as she was in the habit of doing, walked to the Food Lion grocery store to buy some candy and while there she called her sister to ask about what kind of candy to buy. It was the last time she was heard from. When she wasn't home by 10pm, her parents contacted the police.
Statesville Police immediately searched the small area of woods between Cora's house and the Food Lion but found nothing. Further expanding the search also did not turn up the child's whereabouts.
At some point a witnesses came forward and said that they believed they had seen Cora getting into a vehicle but no one could give a good description. In some accounts in the newspapers it's described as a small white vehicle, possibly a Chevette or a blue/grey Volkswagen Rabbit. One witness at least thought there might have been several people in the vehicle. Another witness thought they had saw two long haired white males and a heavy set white female with short blond hair. It seems Cora got in the vehicle willingly.

It wouldn't be until May 28th that Cora would be found. A fisherman came across her body in a rocky cove on Lake Norman near East Monbo road. The area is just shy of ten miles south of the Food Lion where she was abducted.

An autopsy would determine she had scratches all over her face, bruising to external genitalia around the right labia, and her immediate cause of death was asphyxiation by unknown means. Her shirt had also been pulled up either before or after she died. Dr. John Butts, the state's chief medical examiner carried out the autopsy and noted that there were no vaginal smears or foreign spermatozoa to indicate sexual assault, but the bruising might indicate such an act was attempted. He also noted there was no damage to any neck tissue or structures such as the hyoid bone. He also noted that strangulation didn't seem likely but some form of suffocation could be. There was no mention released to the public about whether water was found in the lungs.

Even though it's basically forgotten today, this abduction and murder was a big deal in '89. There was a task forced assembled with city, county, and SBI officials to investigate, and lots of boots on the ground and chasing down leads was undertaken. They followed lots of angles and generated a lot of press.

Then in June, police served a search warrant at the home of Roger Lee Brooks, a 34 year old man who had very recently moved to Gaston county from the Statesville area.
His live-in girlfriend Gloria Fowler Anderson had two children, a 12 (or 9, depending on which newspaper account is correct) year old son and a 5 year old daughter. Those children had no only implicated Brooks in Hamby's murder, but also accused him of sexually abusing the 5 year old girl as well.
In all, I believe at least two and maybe three searches were conducted of Brooks' and Anderson's properties, and an amount of possible evidence was taken. Brooks lived with Anderson just blocks from Hamby's home when she went missing. They moved to Gaston county not long after Hamby's murder and got married.
The children would also claim to have been in the car when Brooks and Anderson drove Hamby's body to Lake Norman, and in a sealed warrant, the detail about Hamby's shirt being pulled up was included as something they witnessed.

Brooks would eventually be convicted of taking indecent liberties with a minor in regards to his contact with Anderson's daughter. He served a whopping two year term from 1993 until 1995.
The children were taken by foster services for a time, but I think they eventually made it back to their mother and Brooks.

Brooks, for whatever reason, was never charged in Hamby's murder. He died in 2000.

Hamby's case remains unsolved to this day, though you wont find any mention of it on the Iredell County Sheriff's website, nor any real mentions of it online. The last time her name appeared in the local newspaper was 2007. It's like everyone has forgotten about the poor 10 year old girl who disappeared going to buy candy.

I'll leave the speculation to you guys.
I will say that it might not have been as bad in 1989, but that side of town is not somewhere you would want your child walking around unsupervised these days. I don't like driving through there as an adult, and I wouldn't be caught over there after dark either.

 

[NorthCarolinaMom]

Cora was my best friend when she died. I still have her photos in a photo album that sits in my living room. Today I decided to search her name on Google and to my surprise this website popped up. I have tried in the past to find out information about her case, but there's just not a lot out there. I really appreciate you posting this.
I still live in Statesville and I still think about Cora all the time. I have NEVER stepped one foot back in that parking lot where she went missing. In fact, since her death I have avoided that area my whole life. Even now in 2025, I won't go near that parking lot. When I see Lake Norman, it's Cora that I always think about. It sends a wave of emotion over me - anger, sadness, and feelings I can't even put into words. I'm glad the dirt bag died in 2000, but it sickens me to my core that he (or anyone else) was never formally charged with her death. From my understanding and from the little bit of research I've done over the years, I heard he died of a heart attack and bc he was their only suspect, they closed her case when he died. Cora will never be forgotten - not by those who loved her. I really wish she and her family could have received justice.