When I first decided I was going to write a true-crime blog, I knew that I wanted to focus on crimes that were unsolved and don't get what I like to call the "Jon-Benet treatment." In other words, I wanted to highlight victims of crime who don't have the Dateline specials, Reddit pages, and infinite novels written about them. The first case I came across that I felt like needed that attention was the unsolved murder of Suellen Evans, the first UNC student murdered.
Let me set the scene for y'all. It's 1965 on the campus of University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and unfortunately for this NC State alumni, they have already won two national championships in basketball and Dean Smith was still early in his career there. It's July 30th and it's probably hot as hell and because it was 1965 people wore actual clothes during the summer and not basketball shorts and XXL T-shirts. Suellen Evans is a 21 year old home economics major (it's the 60s, remember?) taking summer classes on campus. She had finished her classes at 12:30 pm and was walking back to her dorm. She was going to be traveling back to her home in Mooresville, NC later that afternoon.
According to reports, she took her normal shortcut through Coker Arboretum. When she reached the Raleigh Street exit, across from McIver Hall, a man jumped out of the bushes. The man (also known as worst person ever) attempted to rape her, however, Suellen fought her attacker because she was a badass. According to the police chief, W. D. Blake, the man stabbed her in the neck and chest with a knife similar to a switchblade. Nobody saw this man's face and there were no witnesses to this crime despite it being in broad daylight.
There are varying reports as to who found Suellen. In one article I read, it reported she was found by a nun and in another it said she was found by two women. Regardless, all parties agree that Suellen's last words were "He tried to rape me...I believe I'm going to faint."
I do hope that in every case I cover I get the chance to make it about me, so here's that time. I went to North Carolina State University, the superior school to the east of Chapel Hill from 2010 until I graduated in 2014. I think back to all of my walks across campus, ear-buds blasting Wiz Khalifa and avoiding eye contact with everyone while I chugged down as much caffeine as possible in between classes. The only time I felt somewhat unsafe were times when I would leave the D. H. Hill library at night alone and had parked my car across the street on Hillsborough Street. In reality, I was probably safe, but for this murderino there's a weirdo waiting to kill me behind every tree. But that's the crazy thing, I think we have a tendency to be on high alert at night but shit goes down during the day too and that's what happened with this murder.
So the investigation began with the University police, Chapel Hill police, and the State Bureau of Investigation working together to find the guy. 200 men gathered together shoulder to shoulder to scan the crime scene for the murder weapon but it was never found. A reward of $1,285 was set for anyone who had information about the crime. One suspect the police seemed to like was a groundskeeper who worked nearby the campus and matched the description of the suspect. According to police when they brought the groundskeeper in for questioning and was asked about the murder, he fainted. 30 years later they actually questioned him again but no arrests were made. In the end, 97 suspects were investigated and 211 leads were followed but Suellen's murder remained unsolved.
And here's the part where I pretend to be an experienced homicide detective. If Suellen fought this man off during the rape attempt, there is the possibility that DNA from the suspect is under her fingernails. If so, 1. Was it collected? and 2. Is there enough of a sample to enter into genealogy databases? I know a lot of people are wary of it but I have loved seeing the cold cases that have been solved using these genealogy databases as a forensic tool.
Sources:
https://www.dailytarheel.com/article/2001/04/unsolved_mysteries
I bet the killer was one of the 200 men searching for the murder weapon! And why did they suspect the weapon would be at the scene of the crime? We’re they just hopeful? BTW, this blog is going to be fantastic!
You rock! Since they didn't know about DNA back then, odds are they didn't take fingernail clippings but who knows?