Post by Anja Nieser on Sept 25, 2006 0:49:11 GMT -5
Authorities Reopen Case Of 20-Year-Old Fayetteville Murders
Cumberland County authorities have reopened their investigation into a
triple murder 20 years after a man was sentenced to die, then released
from death row after a second trial.
Cumberland County District Attorney Ed Grannis said he has reopened the
investigation into the 1985 murders of Kathryn Eastburn, wife of an Air
Force captain and 3 of their 3 children.
In 1986, Timothy B. Hennis was convicted and sentenced to die. He spent 2
years on death row, then won a new trial. A jury found him not guilty in
1989.
"The matter to which you refer is a pending investigation, and it is a
pending matter in my office which I cannot ethically discuss," Grannis
said earlier this week.
He wouldn't name any suspects or say why the investigation has been
revived. Cumberland County Sheriff Moose Butler referred questions to
Grannis.
Butler told a county commissioners committee this week that a case from
the 1980s had recently been solved with DNA evidence, but he wouldn't
identify the case.
Kathryn Eastburn's husband, Gary, could not be reached for comment, The
Fayetteville Observer reported. Hennis, 48, who lives in Washington state,
did not respond to a message left Tuesday at his home. Gerald Beaver, one
of Hennis' lawyers from the murder trials, said Hennis asked him to tell
reporters to stop calling.
In May 1985, an intruder raped Kathryn Eastburn, 32, at the family's home
near Fort Bragg, then stabbed her and cut her throat. He also cut the
throats of Kara, 5, and Erin, 3. The youngest child, 22-month-old Jana,
was found unharmed in her crib.
Air Force Capt. Gary Eastburn was at squadron officers training school in
Alabama at the time.
Hennis, who was an Army sergeant, was arrested May 16, 1985, 4 days after
the bodies were found. A witness who reported seeing someone in the
Eastburn driveway about 3:30 a.m. May 10 picked Hennis out of a photo
lineup.
Hennis had adopted the Eastburns' dog several days before the murder.
In 1986, 1987 and 1988, someone claiming to have committed the crime
taunted Hennis, the police and a lawyer with 2 letters and a telephone
call.
"I did the crime, I murdered the Eastburns. Sorry you're doin' the time.
I'll be safely out of North Carolina when you read this. Thanks, Mr. X,"
one of the letters says. It was postmarked July 8, 1986, in Fayetteville
and sent to Hennis while he was on death row at Central Prison in Raleigh.
A book about the case, "Innocent Victims," was published in 1993, followed
by an ABC miniseries that aired in January 1996.
(source: The Associated Press)
Cumberland County authorities have reopened their investigation into a
triple murder 20 years after a man was sentenced to die, then released
from death row after a second trial.
Cumberland County District Attorney Ed Grannis said he has reopened the
investigation into the 1985 murders of Kathryn Eastburn, wife of an Air
Force captain and 3 of their 3 children.
In 1986, Timothy B. Hennis was convicted and sentenced to die. He spent 2
years on death row, then won a new trial. A jury found him not guilty in
1989.
"The matter to which you refer is a pending investigation, and it is a
pending matter in my office which I cannot ethically discuss," Grannis
said earlier this week.
He wouldn't name any suspects or say why the investigation has been
revived. Cumberland County Sheriff Moose Butler referred questions to
Grannis.
Butler told a county commissioners committee this week that a case from
the 1980s had recently been solved with DNA evidence, but he wouldn't
identify the case.
Kathryn Eastburn's husband, Gary, could not be reached for comment, The
Fayetteville Observer reported. Hennis, 48, who lives in Washington state,
did not respond to a message left Tuesday at his home. Gerald Beaver, one
of Hennis' lawyers from the murder trials, said Hennis asked him to tell
reporters to stop calling.
In May 1985, an intruder raped Kathryn Eastburn, 32, at the family's home
near Fort Bragg, then stabbed her and cut her throat. He also cut the
throats of Kara, 5, and Erin, 3. The youngest child, 22-month-old Jana,
was found unharmed in her crib.
Air Force Capt. Gary Eastburn was at squadron officers training school in
Alabama at the time.
Hennis, who was an Army sergeant, was arrested May 16, 1985, 4 days after
the bodies were found. A witness who reported seeing someone in the
Eastburn driveway about 3:30 a.m. May 10 picked Hennis out of a photo
lineup.
Hennis had adopted the Eastburns' dog several days before the murder.
In 1986, 1987 and 1988, someone claiming to have committed the crime
taunted Hennis, the police and a lawyer with 2 letters and a telephone
call.
"I did the crime, I murdered the Eastburns. Sorry you're doin' the time.
I'll be safely out of North Carolina when you read this. Thanks, Mr. X,"
one of the letters says. It was postmarked July 8, 1986, in Fayetteville
and sent to Hennis while he was on death row at Central Prison in Raleigh.
A book about the case, "Innocent Victims," was published in 1993, followed
by an ABC miniseries that aired in January 1996.
(source: The Associated Press)