On February 12, 1971 19-year-old Jesse McBane headed out to surprise his fiance, 20-year-old Patricia Mann. He was taking her to a Valentine’s Dance in Durham, North Carolina. The two lovebirds had to be back at Patricia's dormitory by 1:00 AM curfew. Only …she never returned. Durham police officers found Jesse’s Ford Cortina the next evening parked in a cul-de-sac. 12 days later, a land surveyor came upon what he thought was a mannequin’s leg sticking out from a pile of leaves. When he poked the extremity with a stick …he saw skin move. It was the missing students. Details from the crime scene suggested the couple had been tortured and murdered by hanging. Word of the heinous crime shocked the Tarheel State. The next day’s page 1 headline in the Durham Sun read: ‘Strangulation by Rope Killed Couple.” Over 50 years later, the double homicide remains North Carolina’s most notorious unsolved murder. Tough, the case isn’t without suspects. 

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Research and writing by: K. Brant

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