I first talked about the disappearance of Jeffrey Mays and Ted Wallin Episode 120. On November 13, 1980, 21-year-old Harold Jeffrey Mays, who went by Jeffrey, boarded his boat, the Sea Ox, with a friend, 21-year-old Ted Wall, off Cape Hatteras in North Carolina. Jeffrey had grown up in Pennsylvania, the son of a father who ran a successful photocopy business in the 1970s. Eventually, the family sold the business, and they reinvested that money...
Episode 151 pulls stories from the following episodes: Ep. 42: Missing, Murdered, and Mistaken Identity in the Carolinas Ep. 97: Chapel Hill/Carrboro Crimes from the 1980s Ep. 63: Hania Aguilar, Victoria Paredes, Maria Diaz, and Scott Johnson Ep. 29: Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in N.C., Part 1 Ep. 16: Ghostly Tales from the Carolinas
In late 2010, two people went missing from Durham, North Carolina. Both were connected to one man, a 27-year-old who exerted a powerful influence over his friends and the women he brought into his life. While it didn’t take investigators long to figure out what had happened to the missing woman and young boy, they were shocked to learn exactly what the women in this man’s circle were willing to do for him. In February 2011, family members...
North Carolina native and actor Andy Griffith got his start in The Lost Colony twenty years before 19-year-old Brenda Holland went missing, first playing a soldier, and then later the character of Sir Walter Raleigh. After the nightly performances he would perfect his comedic routines at a local club, before eventually finding success in Hollywood and The Andy Griffith Show. Now in its 88th season, the outdoor drama The Lost Colony tells the...
In 1986, 28-year-old Mary Kathryn Ennis and her husband were separated, and she was living alone with her 7-year-old son, Andy in Hillsborough. Many of her neighbors described her as being a devoted and caring mother. Her neighbor two doors down, James W. Jones, said that he had “never seen a woman more devoted to her son” than Mary. Her landlord described her as “a nice, sweet person with a pleasant attitude” and said that he loved...
According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, 1 in 5 people experience mental illness each year. Their website states: A mental health condition isn’t the result of one event. Research suggests multiple, linking causes. Genetics, environment, and lifestyle influence whether someone develops a mental health condition. A stressful job or home life makes some people more susceptible, as do traumatic life events. Biochemical processes and...
In Episode 73, I compiled several different stories that featured missing persons from the Carolinas that involved Alzheimer’s disease or dementia. This included 68-year-old Young Chang, who went missing from the Mount Pisgah Care Home in Candler, North Carolina in 2004. He had only just moved into the home from Atlanta, Georgia when he left the facility on foot, and he has never been found. Heddie Dawkins was an 81-year-old woman who left...
My family recently returned from a vacation in the High Country area of North Carolina. The High Country includes a wide array of places such as Beech Mountain, Boone, Blowing Rock, Linville Falls, West Jefferson, Sparta, Wilkesboro. We had a fantastic time and made sure to fill our days with outdoor activities. We did a relaxing trip down the New River on inner tubes, visited Grandfather Mountain, and hiked several different local trails. My...
Last month, the trial of 62-year-old Christopher Palmiter, the stepfather of missing Cornelius girl Madalina Cojocari, began. He was charged with failing to report eleven-year-old Madalina missing. Madalina’s mother, 39-year-old Diana Cojocari, pleaded guilty of the same charge last month and has already been released for time served. I’ve discussed this case in Episode 52 and a few weeks ago in Episode 99. Palmiter chose to have a jury...
Twenty-three-year-old Andy Sigmon was last seen on April 5, 2016, and while his family knows he is probably not still alive, they remain determined to bring their son home. Here is what we know about the circumstances surrounding Andy’s disappearance. He left his place of work at Renwood Mills in Newton, North Carolina on April 4, 2016 on or around 11 p.m., when his shift was supposed to end. Between 5 to 5:30 a.m., an officer with the Davie...