North Carolina Child Murder

This child killing goes back to July 1966 in North Carolina, but Police never had anybody charged with it until 2007.  Yet, was the right man charged?  There are some points that even amateur armchair detectives cannot overlook.  The victim was 11 year old Brenda Sue Brown who was asked by her mother to take her five year old sister to her school, in the town of Shelby.  She did not return and so the mother started a search of the neighbourhood.  Later on that morning, she called the authorities.  The local Rescue Squad took up the search, and at early evening, the young girl was found dead in woods, not far from the family home.  She was naked and her body covered in branches and leaves.  Her dress was found near her body, neatly folded.  The murder weapon was found by her also.  A rock that was blood stained.  An autopsy showed that she had not been sexually assaulted in any way, despite how she was found.

    Police developed two good suspects.  One was a flasher, the other a black mentally impaired teenager named Robert Roseboro.  They could not find enough evidence to charge either of them, so the case remained unsolved.  Then two years later, in June 1968, some people found a local store still closed near lunchtime, which was very unusual.  The closed sign was still being displayed.  Then, to their horror, lying in view as they looked through the windows, they saw a woman naked and blood spattered.  They quickly summoned Police, and then none other than Robert Roseboro walked out of the store, surrendering.  He was charged with murdering the store owner, Mary Williams.  She had been stabbed and beaten.  There was no sexual assault.  He was convicted and given the Death Penalty, though this was commuted to life imprisonment, as he was still a juvenile.  Nothing else was heard until the local newspaper ran a series of articles on the murder of Brenda Brown, in 2006.

    Now, a young woman came forward, stating that her grandfather had confessed just before his death, that he, Earl Parker, and another man, Thurman Price, were responsible for the murder of young Brenda.  Police arrested Price and charged him with the murder, which he vehemently denied.  Price was 78 at this point in time and died in 2012 before his trial.  But were they guilty?  Both had a conviction for raping a minor.  A huge red flag.  But Brenda had not been molested in any way, and paedophiles with a taste for young girls would not have passed up the opportunity of having a naked girl in their power.  The neat folding of her dress is something I believe a pervert would not bother with.  He would be focused on violating the victim.  But somebody thinking that he has done no wrong, might decide he would leave her dress nice and neat.  Especially if he has mental problems.  Robert Roseboro claimed to know nothing of the murder of Mary Williams whilst in the locked store, yet there are similarities in both cases.  Both were naked, yet not sexually assaulted.  When you strip a female victim, that is for only one reason.  For two female victims to be stripped, murdered, yet not violated, indicates somebody that is possibly not fully sexually aware.  The real question is what was behind the stripping of the victims?  Could it be the beginnings of sexual curiosity?


    Another question is why did the grand daughter of Parker leave it four years before she informed Police?  People giving virtual deathbed confessions might just say something to cause a little bother for authorities.  False confessions are a common nuisance to Law Enforcement.  One theory that did the rounds during the first murder, was that Roseboro was being protected by a crime syndicate.  Personally, I regard this as rubbish for simple logic.  Why would a crime syndicate want to protect a 13 year old?  He had mental problems, and if you meet people who are impaired in anyway, mentally, they can tend to be extremely truthful.  Such a person would be a danger to a syndicate.  It could be dismissed as ravings from a lunatic, but would serious criminals want anybody saying anything about them, especially to cops?  My personal belief is that Robert Roseboro committed both crimes, but that is only my opinion.  He has been convicted for the second murder.