A man and woman found shot dead near Interstate 95 in South Carolina have been identified by DNA after more than 44 years
COLOMBIA, SC – A man and a woman found shot dead near a South Carolina highway were identified by DNA after more than 44 years, a sheriff said on Thursday.
James Paul Freund was 30 and Pamela Mae Buckley was 25 when a trucker found their bodies in August 1976 on a narrow paved road near Interstate 95 near Lynchburg, said Sumter County Sheriff Anthony Dennis.
Both were not seen for about eight months before they died, and investigators are still trying to find out their relationship, Dennis said.
Freund and Buckley were shot several times with the same weapon and the fatal wound was in the back of the head, said Sumter County coroner Robbie Baker.
Whoever shot them has not been found and the authorities hope that naming the victims and releasing their photos will refresh a memory or reach a troubled soul.
“I hope there is someone in the United States who comes with a heavy conscience or who has some kind of memory of these victims,” Baker said at a news conference.
Freund was from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and Buckley was from Colorado Springs, Colorado, Dennis said. Their families were notified and requested for privacy.
Buckley was reported missing in 1975. A missing person report was never filed with Freund, investigators said.
The deaths shook the community. The sheriff at the time, Ira Parnell, secured cemeteries in his church for the victims after their families could not be found, Dennis said.
Former coroner Verna Moore had the bodies exhumed in 2007 to see if they could be identified by DNA. It took 12 years for the DNA databases to accumulate enough for the match, officials said.
The sheriff said his investigators had always had one or two people interested in the murders and that they plan to reopen the case and press for an arrest.
“The investigation into the murders remains open and the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office will continue to follow all the reliable leads,” said Dennis.
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