Elderly women's deaths baffle N.C. police

2/6/04 | Paul Nowell

[CFW]

Elderly women's deaths baffle N.C. police By Paul Nowell, Associated Press Writer, 2/6/2004

SHELBY, N.C. -- Police Chief Charlie VanHoy isn't quite sure what he has on his hands, but he's worried.

From August to November last year, three elderly women were found dead in their beds, dressed in their nightclothes, with no sign of forced entry into their homes. Phone lines were severed, yet medical examiners found no foul play.

Further confusing matters, jewelry, pocket books -- even loaded guns -- were not taken.

"This is just baffling and very frustrating," VanHoy said Thursday.

Lottie Mae Ledford, 85, was found dead in August. The body of Margaret Tessneer, 79, was discovered about a month later. And Lillian Mullinix, 87, was found dead in November.

Their community, Shelby, is a working-class town of 21,000 people that once was home to a thriving textile industry. The town, located about 50 miles west of Charlotte, averages between five and seven homicides each year, so VanHoy is alarmed by the possibility there could be a killer on the loose in what he describes as "older, established neighborhoods."

The first death was discovered Aug. 23, when Ledford's niece tried to check on her aunt after she was unable to reach her on the phone for several days. According to a police report, she found the front door unlocked and no sign of forced entry, then went next door to a neighbor's house and called police.

Before officers arrived, the neighbor entered the small, one-story home and found Ledford lying on the bed, wearing a nightgown. VanHoy said the neighbor had seen Ledford on her back porch earlier that day.

"She had two loaded guns in her bedroom," the police chief said. "We learned it was normal for her to have them. In all the cases, pocketbooks were located with cash in them. We also found jewelry on their bodies that was undisturbed."

Bobby Fisher, Ledford's nephew, does not believe his aunt would have left her front door unlocked.

"Any time I went to see her, she had to unlock the door to let me in," he said. "And she had two guns and she wasn't afraid to use them."

His wife, Barbara Fisher, described Ledford as a "very independent woman" who never married and lived in the same house for 57 years until her death. She said she thinks Ledford was surprised by an attacker who had been staking out her house.

Investigators found the severed phone line after they searched the exterior of Ledford's one-story home. VanHoy said "red flags went up" when the discovery was made, and the concerns resurfaced when another severed line was found about a month later.

On the morning of Sept. 20, Tessneer's daughter and son-in-law went to her house. When there was no answer, they tried the front door, which was unlocked. Tessneer was found dead in her bed, with jewelry on top of the bedroom dresser and no signs of robbery.

An autopsy listed the cause of death "undetermined," VanHoy said. A second autopsy, performed by the state medical examiner's office, ruled out foul play, he said.

Just a few miles away, Lillian Mullinix, 87, lived in two-story brick house with a front porch shaded by large holly trees.

A neighbor called police when he noticed newspapers piling up in front of her house on Nov. 10. Like the others, Mullinix was found dead on her bed, dressed in a nightgown. There were no signs of forced entry and the phone line was cut.

Mullinix's body was sent to Chapel Hill for an autopsy. Again, VanHoy said, a forensic pathologist told him there was there was no foul play.

"To me, she was a lovely lady," said neighbor Teresa Vercher, as she watched her young daughter and her nephew play in her front yard this week. "She always stayed by herself and she would sit on her front porch every evening with her cats."

Police continue to check for connections between the three women, who were not known to be acquainted, although all worked in the textile industry.

Investigators have had no luck so far, after reviewing phone records and trying to determine if the women hired the same person for chores, such as yard work or home repairs. But VanHoy hopes that pending toxicology reports on Tessneer and Mullinix will offer some clues.

"You hope if you get that old, one day you can just lay down and die," Barbara Fisher said. "It's not fair to die in such a terrible way."

[Protagoras]

I know the cases as well. The darkest side of humanity always has a strange facination.

BTW, the whole thread is talking about "he" as if "he" actually exists. It's unclear thus far if these deaths are anything but suspicious on some levels.

[cajungirl]

Maybe a nurses aide or helper of some kind. Works in a hospital, mopps floors or something menial, occasionally grabs something like a med. Most autopsies do not routinely do toxicology. It is surprising to people how cursory most are especiallly on old people.

[cajungirl]

I don't know but the cut phone lines works for me as a good indicator this isn't just happenstance. Wonder if these women had much in common,,small town.

[diamondjoe]

Makes me think of date-rape drugs, like GHB, which leave the body relatively soon after being ingested, and thus cannot be found as evidence of rape. Perhaps a similar drug, administered in a lethal dosage?

[Protagoras]

I don't know but the cut phone lines works for me as a good indicator this isn't just happenstance.

That's one of the suspicious things which call for further investigation. But it starts with forensic examination. If there is no murder, the mystery is why the phone lines were cut, which would be an interesting start to another novel,,,:-)

[cajungirl]

Maybe there is some sort of really creepy kid around town who is going around cutting phone lines because he hates gossip, or she hates gossip and has been the victim of telephone gossip or pranks. And by coincedence three of the ladies with cut lines died. Wonder if there were other cut lines.

[Protagoras]

Wonder if there were other cut lines.

Good question.

Perhaps some were cut after the first one became public, as a prelude to a future crime. The possibilities are endless if you have the imagination we seem to have.

[radiohead]

who would know who was a lone old lady better than a mailman. And who would they trust at the door

Ah, the mailman! Of course. :) Actually, someone that they'd open the door to makes sense. I wouldn't hesitate to let the UPS man or the mailman step in for a minute and I'm a traumatized fromer citizen of Philly.

I'm not offended. People tend to think of librarians as little nothings, and I just try to put that myth to rest.

[radiohead]

he keeps his shoes under the bed in a neat row

Nice to know my son isn't a serial killer...

[Lion in Winter]

ADT security services offers a service.... which if your phone lines are tampered with their operators will call the police immediately and then call people you want notified in case of an emergency.

[cynicom]

Are there signs outside of some towns that say, "Working Class Town"???

[LauraJean]

Yes, but not everyone who works in a library is a librarian. What about someone had the circulation desk. Or perhaps someone who works getting the books ready for circulation. Although knowing how lefty the ALA is I could go with the ''not so bright'' for many of officers of the American Library Association.

[radiohead]

I hear you. I just don't like librarians being dissed. People tend to lump everyone in the library together, most don't know about paraprofessionals, they just think everyone is a 'librarian' of some sort.

I do agree with their efforts re online freedoms, promoting literacy, and providing information to diverse populations (which can be rural, elderly, foreign language, disabled, not just racial). For many people, the library is still 'the' information source. Americans often don't realize what a benefit the library system is - most people around the world have a hard time getting the information that we get easily and for free at our libraries.

I strongly agree w/your assessment of the ALA as a mostly leftist org (I've known 2 of the presidents). I think the ALA has gone crazy w/their rants against the Patriot Act - which hasn't even been used re a patron's records as far as I know. However, it's a big organization, with a lot of people who don't always agree with the leadership. Not every ALA member is a communist.

Finally, as a small 'l' libertarian (and it's getting smaller everyday), as much as I support them, I have problems with public funding of libraries. Let those who want them pay for them, or provide the wherewithall for those without funds to use them. </rant>

[cajungirl]

My fondest childhood mems are the Friday nite trek to the library downtown for me and my five sibs. We could all get 7 books for the week and we all got the max. It was a family thing. I love libraries, always have. It is no accident that all of us are pprofessional women,,three college profs. We were all bookworms. I hate these new branch libraries with no books. Ours just has empty shelves, you request a book. You can do it online which is nice. I like the old fashioned libraries with librarians who glare at you and say shhhh.

[AppyPappy]

I adore libraries. I'm like the Twilight Zone character about them. I love to read.

[cajungirl]

Me too,,,I used to have fantasies of being one of those sickly victorian women who would lie about in bed all day just reading. I might like that except my eyes aren't so good anymore.

[AppyPappy]

It was one of the great draws to come to work for a university. Good library.

[TASMANIANRED]

I vote for carbon monoxide. Yes it is detectable but probably wouldn't be routinely checked for unless there was something in the house that indicated it as a source. If the concentrations are high enough you just pass out and sleep to death. Simple ventilation of the bedroom would eliminate all environmental traces.

Deaths would be peaceful. No fractured hyloid bones as with strangulation, no tell tale scleral hemorrhage as with suffocation.

They need to look at comonalities with these women. Same church, same clubs, same clinics. Even though they don't know each other there may be some other nexus.

[cajungirl]

Don't people who die from CO have cherry red coloring? Of course the perp could have stopped up their exhausts of furnaces.

[TASMANIANRED]

The Cherry Red coloration is possible but it is more notible by it's absence than it's presence.


Aside from the production of carbonmonoxide as a by product of burning, a common ingredient in paint strippers, Methylene chloride, is metabolized in part to carbon monoxide in the body. Can raise cohb ( carboxyhemoblobin) levels as high as 50%.