The Mystery Couple
The Victims
When authorities arrived, they found the bodies of a young woman and slightly older man. They had been shot several times. An autopsy would later reveal both had been shot at close range in the back, chest and throat. The report also indicated the couple had been dead for less than 24 hours.
Neither had any identification, but officials were hopeful they would be able to quickly locate their families by circulating composite drawings and descriptions of the two across the country.
She had medium-length brown hair and blue-green or blue-gray eyes. She was about 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighed 105 pounds. She had two small beauty marks on her left cheek and another on the right side of her face. Authorities believe she was between the ages of 18 and 20.
She was wearing cut-off blue jeans, a pink halter top that tied in the front and an unbleached muslin blouse. She also wore a pair of wedge-heeled sandals with lavender, pink and purple straps.
By all accounts, she was an attractive young woman.
''I have never seen anyone with such extra long eyelashes,'' Moore recalled. ''They were beautiful.''
He had brown eyes and brown hair, stood just over 6 feet tall and weighed 150 pounds. Authorities initially estimated his age to be about the same as the young woman's but later in the investigation, there was speculation he might have been in his late 20s.
The man, who had two 2-inch scars on his right shoulder area, was wearing a pair of faded Levi blue-jeans, a red T-shirt with ''Coor's America's light beer'' scrawled across the front and ''Camel Challenger G T Sebring 75'' across the back.
Inside his pants pockets were a box of Grants Truck Stop matches.
They had no money on them, but there were several clues that led investigators to believe that the couple might have been well-to-do or perhaps even from another country.
Investigators wondered if they had been hitchhiking cross country, or if they had been victims of a carjacking.
They were a clean-cut-looking pair. Authorities speculated they might even be brother and sister.
No drugs or alcohol were found on their bodies. And neither had on underwear.
Both wore expensive-looking jewelry, though. She was wearing three silver rings that resemble American Indian or Mexican jewelry. One piece had red, white and blue stones. Another ring had a black setting. The third was a feather ring with a jade inset.
He wore a Bulova Accutron watch and a 14 karat gold ring with a gray star stone that had the initials ''JPF'' engraved on the inside.
Investigators would later learn that he had also undergone extensive and what appeared to be expensive dental work.
And although both the woman and man were white, investigators described their skin as smooth, with olive undertones.
The girl, authorities also noted, had unshaven legs.
''Most American girls back then did shave,'' said retired Sumter County Chief Deputy Bobby McGehee, who was working as a uniform patrolman near the scene the night the slayings occurred. In fact, the area where the couple was found was his beat.
"I was working that night, and I believe I got off at midnight. People believe the crime occurred after midnight,'' recalled McGehee, who had only been on the job a month.
Prior to that night, he had never been on Locklair Road.
''After that, I went down there quite a bit,'' he said.
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