In the summer of 1967, a 19-year-old young woman named Brenda Holland was excited to take a job with the Lost Colony outdoor drama on the Outer Banks. But only a month after the Western Carolina native arrived, she went missing late one night after a date with a fellow cast member. When her body was discovered in the sound six days later, investigators thought they had an open and shut case. But to this day, the murder remains unsolved. Today we’ll discuss the main suspects and why they came under scrutiny.
Suspect: Danny Barber
In last week’s episode we talked about the most obvious suspect in Brenda’s murder, a young man named Danny Barber. He was The Lost Colony cast member who’d last seen Brenda. When people on the cast and crew first noticed she was missing, Danny said he had dropped Brenda off at her boarding house. This was quickly proven to be a lie, and he backtracked and said he fell asleep at his house and woke up with Brenda gone that morning. He assumed she’d walked home in the early morning hours of July 1. But as the summer months wore on with no arrests in Brenda’s murder, the sheriff began hearing about other possible suspects.
Suspect: David Whaley
One was a 19-year-old man named David Whaley, whose grandfather, Ken Whitney, lived in the coveted Mother Vineyard neighborhood on the north end of Roanoke Island. Ken Whitney also served as the rector of St. Andrew’s by the Sea in Nags Head, the local Episcopal church. In the late 1950s, developers had subdivided larger homesites for the neighborhood, many of the homes provided picturesque views of both the sunset and sunrise. Mother Vineyard is where actor Andy Griffith and his family eventually took up residence.
David Whaley, his mother, and brother had recently moved from Durham and into his grandfather’s Mother Vineyard home after a divorce. He was a six-foot-tall young man with brown hair and blue eyes. He had a juvenile record back in Durham for minor crimes. He’d dropped out of East Carolina University and had a reputation for being volatile when drunk. Since arriving on the Outer Banks, he’d worked at both the Carolinian as a waiter and at a local bank as a cashier. He’d been fired from both of those jobs. People had begun talking about how David Whaley had allegedly been riding around downtown Manteo and the road near where Danny lived on the night Brenda would have been walking home.
What the Night Watchman Said
The main source of this rumor about David was a man named Dennis “Den” Midgett from Manteo. Again, as I mentioned in the last episode, a lot of people involved in this case had the last name Midgett. It is a common surname in that part of the state, and any Midgett’s discussed could be indirectly related through their bloodlines.
At the time Brenda Holland was murdered, Dennis Midgett was 27 years old and known for being mentally disabled. He’d dropped out of high school when he was unable to receive any special education that would have been beneficial to him. He did odd jobs around the island and was known as Manteo’s unofficial “night watchman,” where he would check the doors of local businesses late at night to make sure they were locked. Due to his unofficial security guard role, Dennis kept in close contact with the members of the local law enforcement. Because he was so friendly and easygoing, people liked hanging out with him, and this included David Whaley, because both men were night owls.
According to John Railey’s research, on the night Brenda went missing, Dennis Midgett told police he’d been riding around with David in his 1964 two-door Valiant. They’d been near Brenda’s neighborhood and David had told Dennis he “had to have a woman before he went to bed.” David’s Valiant had been giving him engine trouble and on July 6, he took it to a garage for repairs. When investigators began looking into what the car would have sounded like before it broke down, they discovered it would have been making a lot of noise, not unlike what Robert Midgett said he heard outside his house when he also heard a woman’s scream when Brenda would have been walking home. When SBI agents went to the garage where David Whaley’s car was being repaired, they found and preserved strands of blond hair from the vehicle.
The FBI determined the blonde hairs found in his vehicle “compared favorably” with hairs from Brenda Holland. They interviewed David on August 1, 1967. He said he’d ridden around with Dennis Midgette on the night of July 1 and had consumed 12 to 15 beers over the course of the evening. He denied saying he was looking for a girl to pick up. He did drive by the area where Danny Barber lived because he was restless and didn’t want to go home. As for the hairs, he said there had been multiple people in his car that summer and a few of them had blonde hair, including one young woman he’d dated.
Suspect: Dr. Linus Edwards
Another suspect that investigators zeroed in on was a local dentist named Dr. Linus Edwards. He lived in the Mother Vineyard neighborhood not far from where David Whaley was living with his family. Linus was also from Durham originally and was known to have a drinking problem. He and his first wife, Ida, moved to Manteo in 1962 after he’d served eighteen years in the U.S. Army as a dentist. They’d had an on and off-again relationship, divorcing and then remarrying again. Linus opened his own dental practice off U.S. 64 and was the only dentist in Manteo. Not long after arriving in Manteo though, Linus and Ida had divorced once again. He began dating a woman named Dotty Fry in 1964. Dotty’s family had strong ties to Roanoke Island, and her mother Cora had played a character in The Lost Colony for many years. Dotty, born Dorris Alford, had been in the cast during her younger years. At five feet, eleven inches tall, with blue eyes, she was a striking young woman and a favorite model of local photographer Aycock Brown.
When Dotty Met Linus
Dotty met a man named Wayland Hannon Fry when he was teaching at her high school. Wayland was also working as a basketball coach and had graduated from Wake Forest College and was a decorated Army veteran. In this time period, it was not unusual for students to date teachers and other faculty at their high schools. Dotty attended East Carolina University for a short time but ended up moving back home to be with Wayland. They married in July of 1952, a seven-year age difference between the two of them. Dotty worked as a secretary for Westvaco and Wayland continued teaching. They built a cottage together on the west side of Beach Road and were known to entertain their friends, including Andy Griffith and his first wife, in their home.
They had a son in March of 1958, and a year later, Wayland Fry died unexpectedly of a heart attack. After his death, Dotty learned she was expecting again. She named their daughter Claudia. In 1964, she began dating Dr. Linus Edwards and they married later that August. She was 32 and the dentist was 48. They moved into the Mother Vineyard home Linus had purchased. But the relationship was toxic. He was moody, especially when he drank, and brazenly carried on an affair with a local woman.
Despite his infidelity, Linus demanded complete loyalty from Dotty and tried to isolate her from her friends, including Earl Mirus, whom she worked with at Westvaco. If you’ll remember from last week’s episode, Earl was one of Danny Barber’s housemates. When Dr. Edwards drank, he became more verbally and physically abusive, landing her in the hospital at least once. Several times, Dotty asked for neighbors Bill and Emma Lee Crumpacker to let her hide out in their home, or she would stay at her mother’s house. She drove a van with the words “The Wayward Bus” painted on the side, which was the title of a John Steinbeck novel.
Dotty never reported her husband to the police, and unfortunately, I can see why. They lived on a small island, her husband was a respected member of the community, and he threatened her often. Plus, we know that law enforcement was often wary of getting involved in domestic disputes during the 1950s and 1960s.
The sheriff had received the tip about Dr. Linus Edwards, and he knew the couple personally. He heard the dentist had been looking for Dotty after an argument on the night of June 30. He passed the information along to the SBI agents involved in Brenda’s murder investigation.
A local optometrist, Ray Stoutenberg, called Sheriff Cahoon about Dr. Edwards. He lived in the same neighborhood as the dentist and Dotty. He said on July 1, around 2:15 a.m., he was awakened by a man’s voice he assumed was Linus Edwards. The man was yelling and cursing at a woman, likely Dotty. Not long after that, he heard a car leave, and Linus left to follow it. Ray Stoutenberg said when he got up around 8 a.m. on Saturday to go to work, the car belonging to Linus’s mistress was parked in the driveway. It was there all weekend. The mistress told the optometrist that Dr. Edwards that weekend that the dentist was upset, nervous, and talking about having to leave Manteo.
Linus Edwards Continues to Act Suspiciously
In mid-August, an SBI agent conducted a series of polygraph examinations on the main suspects. The agent noted “deception was detected on the test on relevant questions” for Danny Barber. His roommates, Rodney Brett and Earl Mirus, passed their tests with no issues.
Although Dr. Linus Edwards showed up to the sheriff’s office in the middle of August 1967, drunk and rambling about how he had nothing to do with Brenda Holland’s murder, it doesn’t appear they ever asked him about his alibi or asked him to take a polygraph test at the time.
A Case of Mistaken Identity?
Investigators began to discuss a theory where Linus might be involved. He’d been fighting with his wife Dotty the night Brenda left Danny Barber’s house. Dotty’s children from her first marriage weren’t at the home—they were staying five hours away with family members. Dotty was a tall and slender blonde. Brenda was also a blonde. Linus was jealous of Dotty’s friendship with Earl Mirus, who lived with Danny. Had Linus driven by Danny’s house, seen Brenda walking home, and mistaken her for his wife in his drunken state? Had he strangled Brenda with her the rope handles of her purse without realizing who she really was? Another neighbor of Dotty and Linus’s noted the dentist had sustained a back injury, had surgery, and was on Demerol. He said he’d discovered Dotty had left a note at the Barber house the night Brenda was missing. Earl hadn’t been there, but Dotty had apparently stopped by looking for him. The note said:
Rodney, I won’t be gone late, am at the hill house. Be back around 2 a.m. Relax and sleep tight, Earl. Thanks for the beer, Rodney. -Dotty
The note didn’t have a date on it. But Dotty’s best friend later told investigators Dotty had picked her up on the night she was fighting with her husband, the night Brenda disappeared. They had made a pit stop at the house where Danny Barber lived. Earl was asleep. Dotty took a beer and left the note behind. Dr. Edwards had been in a body cast in the weeks after Brenda was murdered. People wondered, had the dentist thrown Brenda’s body off the bridge to Manns Harbor after he mistakenly killed her? Did he hurt his back then?
SBI agents interviewed Dr. Linus Edwards on September 28 of 1967. He said he had been arguing with his wife on the night of July 1 and had gone to a local tavern for a few drinks. When he got home, Dotty left after they had another argument. He said both cars were in the driveway when he woke up, so he assumed Dotty had left on foot. The next morning, he got up and went to the sheriff’s department to report his wife was missing. He said he asked them to check and see if she was at her mother’s house. He denied knowing Brenda Holland, Danny Barber, Earl Mirus, or Rodney Brett. He also took a lie detector test, and the agents said afterwards that they believed he had no knowledge of who killed Brenda Holland, nor did he participate in the wrongful death in any manner. They also wrote in their file that Linus had been cleared as a suspect. They did not do that for anyone else.
Now, if you’re like me, you’ve noticed a lot of holes in the statement Linus provided. His story contradicts with the observations of his neighbors, and from what I could tell, Dotty had left in her van, not on foot. The agents didn’t ask him about his back injury or why he’d needed a prescription for Demerol. Nor did they ask him if he’d ever physically abused his wife.
The agents also went back later that fall and interviewed Danny Barber again. His story mostly stayed the same, except he admitted he’d taken Brenda’s blouse off that night at his house. This piqued their curiosity because Brenda had been found without a blouse, only wearing her teddy and a skirt. What had happened to that blouse?
A False Confession
The Dr. Linus Edwards theory aside, I want to take a moment and discuss what I believe was a false confession in this case. It occurred a year after Brenda’s murder. The 29-year-old Manteo police chief, Ken Whittington, Senior, shared jurisdiction on Brenda’s case with Sheriff Cahoon. But it seemed like he was determined to make progress on the case and began pursuing the David Whaley lead again. In mid-July of 1968, Chief Whittington called Sheriff Cahoon to a meeting that also included the Manteo mayor and members of the town commission. There, he announced he’d secured a confession in the Brenda Holland murder. A clerk present at the meeting read a confession.
Dennis Midgett, the mentally-disabled resident who worked as the unofficial night watchman, had allegedly made this statement. He claimed he had been riding around with David Whaley on the night Brenda was murdered when they came across the young woman walking toward Manteo. David offered her a ride, and she refused. He threatened her, then grabbed Brenda and put her in the backseat. This confession was very detailed, and discussed Dennis asking repeatedly to be let out of the car with David refusing. He saw David throw Brenda’s purse out the window on Scarborough Road. He said David exposed himself in the car to Brenda. He fought with Dennis. He stopped on the bridge above Manns Harbor and threw Brenda, alive, overboard.
Chief Whittington and the other people in the meeting expected Sheriff Cahoon to be elated by this confession but he was immediately skeptical. The language used in the statement didn’t sound like it came from a mentally-disabled man. Many of the details in the confession had been publicized in the media, such as where Brenda’s purse was discovered. He also knew the medical examiner said Brenda had died of strangulation, not of drowning. She had likely been dead when her body went into the water.
The sheriff said he wanted to contact the SBI first, and stated he didn’t understand why Dennis Midgett was making a confession when he’d been questioned multiple times. He double checked the cause of death with the medical examiner, and set out to reinterview David Whaley, who was living back in Greenville, North Carolina by that time. David couldn’t understand why he was being interrogated again. He said yes, he had been riding around with Dennis Midgett that night, but they had never come across Brenda walking. When the sheriff told him Dennis had made an official statement, David said, “Well then, let Dennis Midgett face me with this statement.”
As soon as the sheriff had deputies bring Dennis to Greenville, he said he had finally confessed in the hopes of getting Police Chief Whittington to stop hounding him about Brenda’s murder. He said the chief had picked him up multiple times, driven him around in the police cruiser, and interrogated him about David Whaley and Brenda Holland. He said that even though he repeatedly told the chief he knew nothing about Brenda’s murder, the law enforcement officer wouldn’t give up until Dennis made the false confession.
He said, “The statement I gave earlier was not true. I am sorry I caused all the embarrassment and extra work. Maybe Chief Whittington will now leave me alone. He told me he would get a lot of publicity and maybe a reward for solving the case.”
The SBI agent on the case wrote in the file that he believed Dennis Midgett had been pressured into making the confession.
On June 29, 1970, The News and Observer ran an article titled “1967 Manteo Slaying Still Unsolved.” In it, the director of the State Bureau of Investigation said, “We have a prime suspect and we’re still trying to work in that direction. We’re looking for the missing pieces.”
The article mentioned the initial theory of rape as a motive but quoted Sheriff Cahoon as saying, “Nobody who raped her would bother to dress her again.” It also said:
The sheriff, as he has from early in the case, still thinks jealousy caused the crime. Brenda Holland was a popular girl with several boyfriends, Cahoon has said.
Linus Edwards Grows Despondent
By 1971 Dotty Fry had divorced Dr. Linus Edwards. Still struggling with alcohol addiction, the 54-year-old dentist spent some time in early February of that year at a hospital in Columbia, North Carolina trying to get sober. He asked his attorney, a man named Dwight Wheless to pick him up at the hospital on Valentine’s Day, 1971, which was a Sunday. After he got home, the dentist dropped off a set of dentures this his friend, town doctor W.W. Harvey, had ordered. The Harveys weren’t at home when he stopped by but their door was unlocked. Dr. Edwards placed the dentures on the Harveys’ dining room table and left.
Linus called his attorney a few times after he got home that evening, and David Wheless reported that his client sounded fine. But when he called him a third time around 6 p.m., Dr. Edwards sounded different. He asked his attorney to come over. David said he would get over there as soon as he could—he had to help put his children to bed first.
Linus called W.W. Harvey, the man he’d delivered the dentures to, and Sheriff Cahoon. Both missed the calls when they came in. When David Wheless got to the dentist’s house around 7 p.m., he found his client lying on the floor, bleeding from a head wound. He’d shot himself with a small .22-caliber pistol. He was transported by ambulance to the Naval Hospital in Portsmouth, Virginia. Dr. Linus Edwards died two days later, on February 16, 1971.
His death left many questions. It appeared he had resumed drinking when he got home that afternoon. Why had he called wanting the three men, his attorney, his friend, and the sheriff to come to his home that evening? Why was there a notepad on the kitchen table? Rumors swirled around town that the dentist had left a suicide note finally confessing to the murder of Brenda Holland, but David Wheless said there wasn’t one. Even after the dentist’s suicide, Sheriff Cahoon continued to insist the man was innocent.
What Happened to the Other Suspects?
One of the suspects in Brenda’s murder, David Whaley, had left Manteo to resume his studies at East Carolina University. He married a special education teacher in June of 1971 at the age of 23. Within just a few months, he had passed away from what his family called a “critical illness” in his obituary.
Throughout the years following Brenda’s murder, Sheriff Cahoon continued to believe that Danny Barber was responsible for her death, despite skepticism from other locals. The main SBI agent in charge of Brenda’s case, Lenny Wise, echoed the sentiment of Danny being responsible. Danny went on to marry in 1975, have two daughters, and rose through the corporate ranks at Sara Lee Hosiery in Winston-Salem. When he became engaged to his wife, she told John Railey he had discussed Brenda’s murder with her and said he had been under suspicion for many years. His wife didn’t believe he could have been involved in something like that. Danny passed away in January of 2011.
Dotty Fry Speaks
For many years, there was no new official news on the status of Brenda’s case. But in Manteo, Dotty Fry told people close to her that Linus Edwards had repeatedly confessed to her that he’d killed Brenda in a case of mistaken identity. He’d believed she was Dotty walking along the side of the road not far from Danny Barber’s house. She said he was shocked when she’d returned home a few days after their argument because he believed he’d killed her.
Dotty even told police chief Whittington, according to his wife, but for some reason he didn’t share those details with Agent Lenny Wise or Sheriff Cahoon. Later on, in the mid-1980s, Dotty shared her belief again that her ex-husband was responsible with a reporter from Norfolk, Virginia. Sheriff Cahoon never backed down from his belief that Danny Barber was the murderer. Why? Did the sheriff’s relationship with the dentist keep him protected? Was this another case of law enforcement officials protecting someone who had money and affluence in a small community? It’s not unheard of, especially here in the Carolinas.
On April 30, 2018, The News and Observer published an article titled “’Lost Colony Murder’ case could be reopened, SBI says. It cited the work of journalist John Railey, and how he had been encouraging the State Bureau of Investigation to take another look at Brenda’s case. A retired SBI homicide detective named Tony Cummings, who had been working on cold cases thanks to a grant from the Governor’s Crime on Commission, said he would begin working with the agencies involved to see if any physical evidence in the case remained. The article went on to say Brenda Holland’s murder would be the oldest cold case in Cummings’ file. It also shared the speculation that Dr. Linus Edwards had killed Brenda in a drunken rage after his late-night argument with his wife.
If you’ll remember, a lot of the evidence in Brenda’s case was tainted.
The sheriff had collected Brenda’s clothing from the pathologist and planned to send them to the FBI for testing. But before that, Sheriff Cahoon handed the clothing over to Manteo Police chief C.C. Duvall. The police chief asked a teenage friend of his to take them to the laundromat and wash them first. Why he did that, no one knows. The sheriff may have asked him to. But in any case, any physical evidence that would have been on those clothes was washed away. The photographer taking photos of Brenda’s deceased body took her necklace off and then gave it to her family.
I’ll admit when I first heard about this case I assumed Danny Barber was the person responsible for Brenda’s death. But now I’m not so sure. Nothing in the years following Brenda’s death I think there are too many unanswered questions when it comes to Dr. Linus Edwards’s involvement. Why would he confess to his wife he’d killed Brenda in a case of mistaken identity? Was he capable of murder? Why would she then relay that story to others? Did he take his own life out of guilt just a few years later? Was Brenda Holland really just in the wrong place at the wrong time? Was the only mistake Danny Barber made that night falling asleep and letting Brenda walk home on her own? seem to point to Danny Barber being a cold-blooded killer.
I’m curious who you think murdered Brenda Holland. Hopefully, one day, a more definitive answer will come to light. In the meantime, I have to commend the investigative work of John Railey in pointing to the alternative theory in her murder.
Show Sources:
Check out John Railey’s book, “The Lost Colony Murder on the Outer Banks: Seeking Justice for Brenda Joyce Holland.”
The News and Observer
April 30, 2018
‘Lost Colony Murder’ case could be reopened, SBI says
https://www.newspapers.com/image/653557923/?match=1&terms=Brenda%20Holland
