“It is something that is never completely out of your mind,” says Elliot, who still lives in the Ashley Heights community on the Moore/Hoke county line. “It will always be that way. I think that is the way it is for anyone who has been through something like this. Something happens about every day that brings it up.”
Jack Elliot’s death is one of at least seven unsolved murders in Moore County, according to law-enforcement officers. The others include a Southern Pines day-care center owner beaten to death in April 1989. Later that same year, an elderly woman was found stabbed to death in her Pinehurst No. 6 home. Two elderly sisters in Taylortown were stabbed to death in their home in 1994.
As time passes, it becomes more unlikely that the cases will ever be solved. But there is always hope that someone will come forward who knows something, Southern Pines Police Gerald Galloway says.
Galloway was a lieutenant with the Southern Pines Police Department in 1989, when 48-year-old Mary Grant Dutton was found beaten to death with a tire iron on April 21 at her Tiny Tot Day-Care Center on South Page Street. A parent dropping off a child discovered her body about 6 a.m.
Police charged her husband, David Mitchell McRae, 47, with murder in June 1990. A District Court judge dismissed the case a month later, ruling that there was not enough evidence to charge McRae.
The only evidence police had at the time were several bite marks on Dutton’s body. Two forensic experts testified that the marks were made by McRae.
“Apparently, that was not enough,” Galloway says.
Police got what they thought was a major break in the case in April 1994 when a man found a pocket book with several of Dutton’s credit cards, a pair of her blue jeans and a tire iron in woods off Lake Bay Road off Youngs Road between Southern Pines and Vass. The tire iron was believed to be the murder weapon, Galloway says.
The evidence had been there too long, Galloway says. Weather had taken its toll.
“The new evidence did not prove anything,” Galloway says. “The main evidence was the bite marks. We haven’t been able to generate any new evidence. That has made us a little gunshy to go for an indictment. We need a breakthrough. Someone will need to tell us something to corroborate what we already know. Rewards are still available.”
David McRae, who is living somewhere in Georgia, is still considered a suspect, Galloway says. His family members say he is innocent. Dutton’s mother also said in 1994 that she did not believe McRae killed her daughter. The Pilot was unable to reach David McRae for comment.
Larry McRae, who owns a small engine repair shop in Southern Pines, believes his brother is innocent.
“They were still friends,” Larry McRae says. “They were talking and getting along. He was done wrong.”
David McRae and Dutton had two sons, who live elsewhere in North Carolina, Larry McRae says. David McRae later remarried and has a young son, according to his brother. He says David McRae visits the area from time to time.
Dutton had remarried and was divorced from her third husband at the time of her murder.
Over the years, Galloway says, police have not kept track of McRae. He says the case will remain open until it is solved.
“If anybody knows something that can help, we need to hear from them,” he says.
Evelyn Williams
Evelyn Williams was found stabbed to death in the garage of her home on Butte Court in Pinehurst No. 6 golf course on June 30, 1989. Her throat had been slashed, according to Moore County Sheriff Lane Carter, who was then a captain in the Sheriff’s Department. Pinehurst No. 6 had not yet been annexed into the village.
Williams, who was 71, lived alone. Her husband had died a few years earlier, Carter says.
Deputies were at a big disadvantage from the start because of the time element. Investigators believe Williams was killed on a Friday. The crime was not discovered until following Monday, when a neighbor noticed the car door inside the garage was open. Williams had not been seen all weekend.
“The amount of time that passed was very detrimental to us,” Carter says. “The physical evidence deteriorates, and the suspect has time to get rid of the evidence.
“Ninety percent of the time, if you don’t solve it in four or five days, it won’t get solved. That is why you see law enforcement make such an all-out effort in the hours after a murder is discovered. You have to act fast.”
In this case, there were no witnesses, Carter says.
Deputies had a suspect, but they were never able to produce the physical evidence needed to charge the person, Carter says. He believes the same person committed another murder later and was arrested, convicted and sentenced to prison.
“There was a lot of circumstantial evidence,” Carter says. “But we didn’t have any physical evidence to link him to this crime.”
Even though deputies believed they knew who committed the crime, the case remains open.
Jack Elliot
Jack Elliot liked to go to the Convenient Food Mart on U.S. 1 in Aberdeen early on most Sunday mornings to get his newspaper.
On the morning of Aug. 26, 1990, someone stabbed Elliot multiple times. He bled to death. Police found his body about 4 :30 a.m. lying next to his car in the parking lot on the side of the building that faces N.C. 5.
Police never really determined a motive, though robbery was suspected since Elliot’s wallet was missing, Aberdeen Police Chief Charles Campbell says.
Glenn Sides, chief photographer for The Pilot, later found Elliot’s wallet in Aberdeen Creek at the bridge on Pinebluff Lake Road. Sides is no stranger to helping police. He spotted a suspect wanted in a Carthage bank robbery several months ago and helped police nab him.
“I always like to look over the side of bridges to see what people throw out,” Sides says. “I got out and saw the wallet. There was a Sam’s Club ID card with Jack Elliot’s name on it.”
Sides called Aberdeen police. A diver searched the creek looking for any other evidence, such as a murder weapon. Police never found the knife.
Police officers talked to a transient man who had come through the area the night before Elliot was murdered, Campbell says. Officers also talked with at least two people who had given the man a ride. But officers had no evidence to hold him, Carter says. The man’s last known whereabouts was near Columbia, S.C..
Ralph Harris was the plant manager of what was then the J.P. Stevens carpet plant in Aberdeen where Elliot worked.
“Jack was a real fine fellow,” Harris says. “He was solid as a rock. He was strong as an ox. Whoever did this must have been strong.”
Elliot drove a forklift for a number of years and later drove a shuttle truck that took carpet from the Aberdeen plant to the Wagram plant where it was dyed, Harris says.
“It really disappointed me that no one was ever arrested,” Harris says. “I would give a reward right out of my own pocket if it would help.”
What is needed, Campbell says, is for someone who may have seen or heard something that night or early that morning to come forward. He says rewards are still offered for information that leads to an arrest.
Spencer/McKinnon Sisters
The murders of two elderly sisters in Taylortown on Feb. 12, 1994, shocked most residents of the small, close-knit town on the outskirts of Pinehurst. Nothing like this had ever happened there.
Besse Spencer McKinnon was 86. Her sister, Shula Mae Spencer, was 83. Both were retired housemaids. They lived in a small brick house on the corner of Main and Walker streets. The house sits vacant now.
Neighbors didn’t see much of the two sisters. They were reclusive and bothered no one, according to several neighbors. It was three days before the bodies were discovered.
Carter, who was a captain in the Sheriff’s Department, investigated the case. Taylortown had a one-man police force at the time.
The murders appeared to be the work of one person, Carter says. He thinks robbery was the likely motive. The sisters had been to the bank earlier in the week. Investigators found some empty bank envelopes in front of the church near the sisters’ home. He says the murder probably happened at night.
“They apparently knew the person who did it,” Carter says. “There was no sign of forced entry. One room, a bedroom where they were found, had been ransacked. The rest of the house was in good shape.
“When you’re three or four days behind the suspect, it makes it more difficult to solve the case.”
Police checked the entire house for fingerprints and collected other evidence. The evidence, things such as clothes and other items from the home, are stored in boxes at the Sheriff’s Department. Deputies never found a murder weapon.
The double murder was disturbing to residents.
“People were scared,” says Althea Gaddy, a friend of the two sisters. “I still remember it vividly. It was scary. You were almost afraid to walk to church at night alone.
“Every time I pass by there [the house], I think about them. Most people around here still do.”
Carter remains hopeful that someone who knows something may come forward. There are rewards of about $10,000 to $15,000 still available, he says.
Unidentified Man
The Sheriff’s Department has two other unsolved murders, including a John Doe case, a name used when investigators cannot positively identify a victim.
Deputies found the body of a Hispanic man believed to be a 28-year-old migrant worker in a cabin in Eagle Springs on Sept. 24, 1994. A dead pig was found in another room. Carter says a group of people were having a pig picking and an argument or fight probably occurred. The house was used as a hunting cabin, he says.
The victim’s body was not discovered until at least a week after the murder occurred, Carter says.
“Again, the time that passed made it difficult to investigate,” he says. “Working that kind of case is very difficult, too, because of the language barrier.”
Someone who had gone to check out the cabin discovered the bodies. Carter says deputies were able to develop few leads. The victim was tentatively identified as Pedro Hernandez. There were no dental records to make a positive identification and no family members were located.
Scott Rovnak
The remaining unsolved murder happened in December 2002. Scott Michael Rovnak, 46, was found shot to death in his home on Roseland Road near Aberdeen on Dec. 29, by his wife, Melissa, and two of their children after they had returned from a trip. His 15-year-old stepdaughter found the body. The wife and children had left on Dec. 26, Carter says.
Scott Rovnak had been shot once in the back of the head. It was initially reported as a suicide. But no weapon was found.
“The house was the same the day she left as it was when she came back,” Carter says.
Carter says deputies have a suspect but have not been able to get the district attorney to push the case in court at this point, mainly because there is no murder weapon and no eyewitnesses.
“You only get one bite at the apple,” Carter says. “If you get an indictment and then the person is found not guilty, that’s it. You don’t get another shot at it.”
As with all cold cases, Carter says investigators review the files from time to time to see if there is something they might have missed. They sometimes even go back and talk with witnesses.
“You hope something will surface,” he says. “Maybe someone will remember seeing something that they forgot about. We won’t give up on it until it is solved.”
Carter says it is always possible to apply new technology to help solve cold cases, such as a new crime scene imager the department recently purchased. It can detect fingerprints and blood missed by other methods, such as dusting for prints.
“There is a lot more technology now than there was in 1989,” Carter says.
DNA is another form of evidence that could help, Carter says. He is hopeful that the state will someday create a DNA database that could help solve a number of murder cases.
“That will be a tremendous help,” he says.
Law-enforcement officers say they never give up hope of solving these cold cases.
“That is the bit of hope we have,” Galloway says, “that someone who knows something will come forward.”
