Brenda Sue Brown was just 11 years old at the time of her abduction and murder on July 27, 1966, in Shelby, North Carolina. The case remained cold for more than 40 years, until new evidence was brought forth from a deathbed confession.
This case had more twists and turns than a mountain highway, especially when another woman was found murdered in the same manner as Brown. At the time, police had several suspects in the death of Brown, including an unidentified bald white man and a 13-year-old African-American child, who was reported to have been mentally disabled.
The white man was nowhere to be found when local authorities began searching for him, but the young black man, named Robert Roseboro, was found and brought in. It was stated during the initial questioning phase that Roseboro “wouldn’t answer. He just sat there. Roseboro´s silence made him more suspicious,” Smith said. According to Smith, the fact that Roseboro lived a few hundred yards from where Brenda Sue’s body was found and refused to answer questions made him a suspect.”
People were baffled when Roseboro was let go, who was seen in the same area as Brown on the morning of her murder, wasn’t interrogated further. Some even thought the young man was being protected by a local crime syndicate, which had dominated Shelby during the 1960s.
The reason why Roseboro wasn’t pushed further was, “We just didn’t have enough evidence on him. We had to let him go.”
The question remained whether a 13-year-old during the height of the Civil Rights Movement was being framed, or if he did indeed murder the young girl. However, the death of Mary Helen Williams on June 22, 1968, would put Roseboro behind bars. Around 11:30 a.m., a woman with her daughter arrived at Mary’s Cannon Towel Outlet and saw a closed sign in the window. It was strange for a business owner to be closed during regular operating hours.
The daughter peered inside and saw a woman lying on the floor covered in blood. Police were called, and Robert Roseboro emerged with his hands in the air from the building. Mary Helen Williams was found nude, with her body beaten, and was reportedly stabbed with a pair of scissors.
It was later identified that Mrs. William’s body was found nude, but she was never sexually assaulted, which was highly similar in nature to Brenda Brown’s body. Roseboro secretly transferred to a jail in a nearby county until his trial in 1969, over rumors that the Ku Klux Klan was threatening harm to Roseboro.
Roseboro was found guilty of the death of Mary Helen Williams in May 1969 and sentenced to death, which was later reduced to life in prison.
Roseboro was still considered the leading suspect in the Brown death, but was never convicted. Finally, after 40 years, a break came in the case when it was reopened in 2005. But, of course, some key evidence was missing.
Sometime in 2007, Lori Lail came forward and claimed that her grandfather told her what happened to Brown shortly before his death on June 26, 2002. He and a man named Thurman Price had killed Brenda. Price was arrested because the description matched how Brenda Brown was murdered.
“The indictment indicated that Earl Mickey Parker had described in detail how Brenda Sue was killed and, according to authorities, his confession to his granddaughter is consistent with evidence found at the crime scene in July 1966. According to court records, Lori Lail called the family of Brenda Sue Brown on April 3, 2006, and told Brenda Sue’s sister that the killer was Thurman Price but did not mention her grandfather’s involvement.”
“On May 10, 2007, Earl Mickey Parker’s body was exhumed from Sunset Cemetery in Shelby to see if his palm print matched the bloody palm print found on Brenda Sue’s shoe. The results of this test were inconclusive because the hands of the body were too deteriorated to get a print.”
In 1954, the pair had been indicted for the rape of a 12-year-old.
The confession letter reportedly stated, “He walked to a local bootlegger’s house the night before, where he met Price and drank for several hours. While walking home the next morning, they saw Brenda Sue near South Lafayette Street, and they sneaked up behind her with the intention of rape. Lail described how Parker told her that Price had grabbed Brenda Sue and dragged her from the road to where “There was a little black boy playing in a field and Price screamed after him to get home.” Supposedly, this was Robert Roseboro. According to Lail’s grandfather’s account, Brenda Sue fought hard and scratched Price, which made him angry and he picked up a rock and hit her in the face and told Parker that they had to kill her because, “They would go away and do real time this time.”
Thurmond Price died on August 4, 2012, while awaiting trial. He maintained his innocence in the case until his death.
Roseboro finally stated in 2010 that he didn’t have anything to do with the death of Brenda Sue Brown.
Written By: John G. Clark Jr.
