Cold Case Cracked After 50 Years: ‘Dixie Mafia’ Behind Hit on North Carolina Family Found Stuffed in Bathtub, Police Say
A Georgia inmate fondly reminiscing to his son about “killing three people in the North Carolina mountains” during his glory days has led to police cracking one of that state’s most brutal cold cases.
The triple killings of Virginia Durham, Bryce Durham, and their 18-year-old son, Bobby, shocked the entire community of Boone, North Carolina, in February 1972. Their bodies were found by family members stuffed into an overflowing bathtub in their own home, and the evidence at the scene left a baffling puzzle: A money bag was found filled with hundreds of dollars; the phone cord had been ripped out of the wall.
A half-eaten chicken dinner left in the kitchen suggested the family had been enjoying a meal together when they were interrupted by their killers. They apparently suffered some form of torture, with rope burns discovered on their necks, according to The Charlotte Observer. Bryce and Bobby Durham had both been drowned, while Virginia was strangled to death, autopsies showed.