To get to Roanoke from Lynchburg you need to be on 460. That's an easy ten miles from Boonsboro. If you came into Lynchburg on Rt. 29, say from Charlottesville, some miles to the north of 460, you would find yourself at the gorge above the James River at Madison Heights with the old city high up on the southwestern side. It is a steep city. Going down and crossing the bridge you would climb up to Rivermont Avenue, and if you were going to Boonsboro you would take a right and follow Rivermont Ave, past the Massie's (as I shall always note) near the hospital, through the suburban area to the point where it becomes Boonsboro Road, otherwise known as 501. That has to be some nine miles and though you don't see it, you are running along the river, though that river run deep somewhere a few miles to the east beyond nice neighborhoods, such as Peakland Place, where there are beautiful, champion dogwoods now growing at intervals along the old trolley line. The three Benedict kids must have taken that trolley to school sometimes. Their team was known as the Hilltoppers, which gives you an idea about Lynchburg. They were there with their mother during the war. Their father, a geologist, was an important figure in a federal agency that controlled certain vital war mineral resources and was stationed I forget where. I don't recall there being much at Boonsboro. There was a store called Mitchell's there, and to get to the Haysom's on Holcomb Rock Rd. you would turn right and go at least a mile and one half. Something like that. From the Haysom's the road drops down an incredibly long, steep slope through forests to the river. Off on the right going down there is a spring said to have the best water in the region. There is a blue-collar settlement at Holcomb Rock called Perch, with thirty chained snarling dogs, and a dam. There is another dam further up the river towards a place called Big Island. From 501 you can get up to the Blue Ridge Parkway, a lonely drive for me where I suddenly found myself keeping an eye on my system lights. Indeed, at Bedford, going down from the Parkway, like you were coming in for a landing, I actually smelled my brakes. The houses along the road to the Haysom's had land around them, there were some estates, and the whole area gives an impression to me of being on an escarpment --a long forested ridge that falls away to the north across fields and down to the river hidden behind woods. High up on the other side somewhere in the forest is a place called the Eagle's Eyrie, a Baptist conference center. It was believed by some that a giant black man who was a hermit lived down there, and maybe he did. From down in front of the Haysom's the river bends east maybe less than a mile or so to the dam at Perch and Holcomb Rock. There is a little beach down there which is a sex spot for the young. The James River here is surprising to someone from Tidewater. It is in a gorge, there are cliffs all along the eastern Amherst County side, and I would think that the bateau in the Eighteenth Century taking hogsheads of tobacco down to Richmond would have had to be careful navigating. During Hurricane Camille the river rose seventy or eighty feet at Holcomb Rock and would have been terrifying all the way down to the city and beyond. It is a pleasant enough county gentry neighborhood by day but I know that Nancy Haysom didn't like being alone there at night. They had spot- lights on every corner of that house that could be turned on with a switch over the Shaker bed. To me, strangely, they had no weapons. Not that in this instance, one would have helped.
There is no way that two random hitch-hikers could have found this place.
And both of these young men wore state brogans in large sizes, one, I recall, being twelve, and another, possibly size fifteen.
I can see them now staring in horror at the three LR's. "Hey, who's that!? There's somebody else here!"
Concerning the drifters. The unknown fingerprints that had been found at the crime scene didn't match the two drifters. That had been checked in '85!
Although Annie Massie said that the front door had been locked (which should demand for a key?!), the investigators had also investigated in direction of a local cult gang. So they must have thought that they had used a key which was inside the house to lock up the door!
As you are still impressed by Haysom drawing a knife..... Once again, poor drawing and wrong knife type (double edged). Both had been in a weapon shop to buy suitable knives. A butterfly is a cheap knife. For her drawing, she had to choose a knife type which will fit to Soering's confession version of a single killer. That knife has to fit in a trouser pocket. But the knives they had used had protected their hand and supported force efficiently. Soering tried to read about expert opinions in Soldiers of Fortune. At the end we have deep internal wounds about 5.5 inches which even went through the chest bone. So the knife had to be very sharp and firm, like a professional hunting knife. The forensic examiner had testified that 2 different knives and two perpetrators could be possible, from the stab and slash wounds he had examined on the Haysom corpse!!
That's an interesting question. I presume the door wouldn't lock automatically when closed, that would be hugely inconvenient. But purely theoretically, they might have found keys on the victims and used those keys to lock the door when leaving to delay discovery of the bodies. I don't recall offhand whether police found the "right" number of sets of keys inside the house, whatever the right number might be.
In any case, it's like arguing about the number of angels on the head of a pin. Why would they brutally murder two strangers and then leave thousands of dollars worth of swag behind -- swag which they could have loaded into a car (assuming they located the car keys) and then dropped off at a local fence, then driven the car to a no-questions asked chop shop. Boom, they've got $5,000 in their pockets, which will buy a lot of hookers and booze.
Ken Englade describes how the bridge playing ladies had to summon Annie Massie since she had a key. Apparently she found the door closed and locked. It‘s of course possible that Englade allowed himself a bit of „künstlerische Freiheit“ to heighten the drama of the discovery of the bodies. It‘s unlikely though that the bridge players wouldn’t have at least tried the front door if they were so worried that they summoned someone with a key.
I‘m also assuming that the Haysoms had one of those front doors that are common for single family homes in the US: It’s impossible to lock yourself out by simply pulling the door shut behind you.
As far as I know there was no forced entry. If there had been an unlocked patio or back door or other point of easy entrance and exit, the whole point of „no forced entry“ would have been mute. Which leaves the front door as entry and exit point.
Söring himself says in one of his confessions that he had concerns when he left the house for the first time, that the lights and the open front door would attract attention. He must then have turned the lights off - except for the porch light whose switch he couldn’t find - and shut and/or locked the door. I think it’s possible he had a key but refused to say so for the same reason he refused to discuss whether he brought a knife to the Haysoms’ house. It would go to show planning, intent and premeditation. You don’t plan on letting yourself into your girlfriend’s parents’ house or locking up behind you, if you simply want to discuss your relationship with them.
Annie Massie hat beim Prozess ausgesagt, dass die Türe abgeschlossen war. Zum Licht über der Türe. Es ist bemerkenswert, dass weder Emily Gunn noch Annie Massie noch der erste Polizist Thomas am Tatort das brennende Licht über der Vordertüre erwähnten, obwohl sie die runtergelassen Vorhänge bemerkten. Investigator Rust (kam später am Tatort an), war dann der erste, der im Kreuzverhör zum Thema brennendes Licht und Schalter von Updike befragt wurde. Merkwürdig ist sowieso, warum Söring und Haysom nicht einfach nach Verlassen die Vorder- und Hintertüre eingetreten haben und die Geldbörse von Nancy mitgenommen. Das hätte dann zur Voodooshow und zur Planung in den Briefen (burglary) perfekt gepasst, um besser von sich als Täter abzulenken!
Ich denke, jemand wollte das Haus von außen unauffällig aussehen lassen, um Zeit zu gewinnen. Den Lichtschalter für die Außenbeleuchtung hat er dann nicht gefunden, weil wirklich nur ein echter Insider wissen konnte, dass dieser sich ausgerechnet im Schlafzimmer befand.
Loose Chippings war in einer eher dünn besiedelten Gegend, aber keineswegs einsam und abgelegen. Spätestens einem Briefträger oder so wäre eine eingetretene Türe schon früher aufgefallen als eine eingeschaltete Außenbeleuchtung. Zumal es in den 80er Jahren auch schon Beleuchtung mit Bewegungsmeldern gab.
Ich halte es für gut möglich, dass Söring einen Schlüssel hatte. Vielleicht hatten er und Haysom sich erhofft, dass Derek und Nancy schon - mehr oder weniger alkoholisiert - schlafend im Bett liegen und kaum Gegenwehr leisten würden. Dann hätte Söring in aller Ruhe den „Einbruch“ inszenieren können. In Loose Chippings angekommen, musste er dann feststellen, dass die Haysoms - oder zumindest Derek - noch auf waren und er musste improvisieren, woraufhin er komplett die Nerven verlor und die Einbruchsinszenierung schließlich sausen ließ. Eine solche Story hätte er bei seinen Geständnissen aber unmöglich anbieten können, weil das auf beiden Seiten des Atlantiks nach vorsätzlichem Mord ausgesehen hätte. Damit wäre sein Totschlags-Hintertürchen sofort zu gewesen.
Unauffällig nach aussen bleiben wegen Zeitgewinn kann gut sein. Söring hat Haysoms Schlüssel nur für den schnellsten Zugriff zum Esszimmer benutzt. Sie benötigte zum Zugriff in die Küche wo die Mutter sich wahrscheinlich zum Getränkeholen aufhielt, keinen. Natürlich wussten die beiden genau, was die Eltern ungefähr zur Ankunftszeit (Ca. 19:00-20:00 Uhr) machen werden. Eigentlich waren beide von den Haysoms zu dem Samstag erwartet worden und man musste schliesslich absagen. Trotzdem musste das alleinige Antreffen der Eltern gewährleistet sein. Das hat man direkt mit in einem Telefonat aus dem Marriott erledigt. Schlafen wäre um die Zeit eher Unsinn. Haysom kannte die Trink- und Essgewohnheiten der Eltern sicherlich genau. Warum Licht angelassen, wenn Haysom dabei ist?Ich glaube man hat sich über das Licht was zur Ankunftszeit brannte eher keine Gedanken gemacht, sondern die Ausleuchtung im Eingangstürbereich zur Spurenverwischung mit benutzt. Die Blutflecken an der Screendoor hat man trotzdem übersehen. Beide waren halt keine Profis....🤷
Das Zeitfenster DC im Sinne eines bestehenden bzw. belegbaren Kinoalibis (Timeline) zu verlassen, lag vor nachdem man aufeinander folgende Doppeltickets für Winess (16:30 -19:00) und STP (22:00 - 24:00) erworben hatte. Das sollte so um 16:30-17:00 abgeschlossen sein. Um noch Tickets für die Vorstellung RHP zu erhalten, wollte man sicherlich vor Filmende zurück sein, um nach Möglichkeit zwei aufeinanderfolgende Karten abzufischen (Mülleimer). Vielleicht wurde daraus nichts und man kam etwas später zurück (nur eine Karte). Dann haben wir noch die Infos das Nancy Haysom Samstag Mittag im Garten gesehen wurde, angeblich das Licht angeschaltet war (also Dämmerung/Dunkelheit) und die Vorhänge unten. Nancy Haysom hatte sich schon umgezogen. Hausrock.
To get to Roanoke from Lynchburg you need to be on 460. That's an easy ten miles from Boonsboro. If you came into Lynchburg on Rt. 29, say from Charlottesville, some miles to the north of 460, you would find yourself at the gorge above the James River at Madison Heights with the old city high up on the southwestern side. It is a steep city. Going down and crossing the bridge you would climb up to Rivermont Avenue, and if you were going to Boonsboro you would take a right and follow Rivermont Ave, past the Massie's (as I shall always note) near the hospital, through the suburban area to the point where it becomes Boonsboro Road, otherwise known as 501. That has to be some nine miles and though you don't see it, you are running along the river, though that river run deep somewhere a few miles to the east beyond nice neighborhoods, such as Peakland Place, where there are beautiful, champion dogwoods now growing at intervals along the old trolley line. The three Benedict kids must have taken that trolley to school sometimes. Their team was known as the Hilltoppers, which gives you an idea about Lynchburg. They were there with their mother during the war. Their father, a geologist, was an important figure in a federal agency that controlled certain vital war mineral resources and was stationed I forget where. I don't recall there being much at Boonsboro. There was a store called Mitchell's there, and to get to the Haysom's on Holcomb Rock Rd. you would turn right and go at least a mile and one half. Something like that. From the Haysom's the road drops down an incredibly long, steep slope through forests to the river. Off on the right going down there is a spring said to have the best water in the region. There is a blue-collar settlement at Holcomb Rock called Perch, with thirty chained snarling dogs, and a dam. There is another dam further up the river towards a place called Big Island. From 501 you can get up to the Blue Ridge Parkway, a lonely drive for me where I suddenly found myself keeping an eye on my system lights. Indeed, at Bedford, going down from the Parkway, like you were coming in for a landing, I actually smelled my brakes. The houses along the road to the Haysom's had land around them, there were some estates, and the whole area gives an impression to me of being on an escarpment --a long forested ridge that falls away to the north across fields and down to the river hidden behind woods. High up on the other side somewhere in the forest is a place called the Eagle's Eyrie, a Baptist conference center. It was believed by some that a giant black man who was a hermit lived down there, and maybe he did. From down in front of the Haysom's the river bends east maybe less than a mile or so to the dam at Perch and Holcomb Rock. There is a little beach down there which is a sex spot for the young. The James River here is surprising to someone from Tidewater. It is in a gorge, there are cliffs all along the eastern Amherst County side, and I would think that the bateau in the Eighteenth Century taking hogsheads of tobacco down to Richmond would have had to be careful navigating. During Hurricane Camille the river rose seventy or eighty feet at Holcomb Rock and would have been terrifying all the way down to the city and beyond. It is a pleasant enough county gentry neighborhood by day but I know that Nancy Haysom didn't like being alone there at night. They had spot- lights on every corner of that house that could be turned on with a switch over the Shaker bed. To me, strangely, they had no weapons. Not that in this instance, one would have helped.
There is no way that two random hitch-hikers could have found this place.
And both of these young men wore state brogans in large sizes, one, I recall, being twelve, and another, possibly size fifteen.
I can see them now staring in horror at the three LR's. "Hey, who's that!? There's somebody else here!"
Concerning the drifters. The unknown fingerprints that had been found at the crime scene didn't match the two drifters. That had been checked in '85!
Although Annie Massie said that the front door had been locked (which should demand for a key?!), the investigators had also investigated in direction of a local cult gang. So they must have thought that they had used a key which was inside the house to lock up the door!
As you are still impressed by Haysom drawing a knife..... Once again, poor drawing and wrong knife type (double edged). Both had been in a weapon shop to buy suitable knives. A butterfly is a cheap knife. For her drawing, she had to choose a knife type which will fit to Soering's confession version of a single killer. That knife has to fit in a trouser pocket. But the knives they had used had protected their hand and supported force efficiently. Soering tried to read about expert opinions in Soldiers of Fortune. At the end we have deep internal wounds about 5.5 inches which even went through the chest bone. So the knife had to be very sharp and firm, like a professional hunting knife. The forensic examiner had testified that 2 different knives and two perpetrators could be possible, from the stab and slash wounds he had examined on the Haysom corpse!!
Also: Why and how would the “deadly drifters” have locked the front door when leaving after the murders?
That's an interesting question. I presume the door wouldn't lock automatically when closed, that would be hugely inconvenient. But purely theoretically, they might have found keys on the victims and used those keys to lock the door when leaving to delay discovery of the bodies. I don't recall offhand whether police found the "right" number of sets of keys inside the house, whatever the right number might be.
In any case, it's like arguing about the number of angels on the head of a pin. Why would they brutally murder two strangers and then leave thousands of dollars worth of swag behind -- swag which they could have loaded into a car (assuming they located the car keys) and then dropped off at a local fence, then driven the car to a no-questions asked chop shop. Boom, they've got $5,000 in their pockets, which will buy a lot of hookers and booze.
Ken Englade describes how the bridge playing ladies had to summon Annie Massie since she had a key. Apparently she found the door closed and locked. It‘s of course possible that Englade allowed himself a bit of „künstlerische Freiheit“ to heighten the drama of the discovery of the bodies. It‘s unlikely though that the bridge players wouldn’t have at least tried the front door if they were so worried that they summoned someone with a key.
I‘m also assuming that the Haysoms had one of those front doors that are common for single family homes in the US: It’s impossible to lock yourself out by simply pulling the door shut behind you.
As far as I know there was no forced entry. If there had been an unlocked patio or back door or other point of easy entrance and exit, the whole point of „no forced entry“ would have been mute. Which leaves the front door as entry and exit point.
Söring himself says in one of his confessions that he had concerns when he left the house for the first time, that the lights and the open front door would attract attention. He must then have turned the lights off - except for the porch light whose switch he couldn’t find - and shut and/or locked the door. I think it’s possible he had a key but refused to say so for the same reason he refused to discuss whether he brought a knife to the Haysoms’ house. It would go to show planning, intent and premeditation. You don’t plan on letting yourself into your girlfriend’s parents’ house or locking up behind you, if you simply want to discuss your relationship with them.
Annie Massie hat beim Prozess ausgesagt, dass die Türe abgeschlossen war. Zum Licht über der Türe. Es ist bemerkenswert, dass weder Emily Gunn noch Annie Massie noch der erste Polizist Thomas am Tatort das brennende Licht über der Vordertüre erwähnten, obwohl sie die runtergelassen Vorhänge bemerkten. Investigator Rust (kam später am Tatort an), war dann der erste, der im Kreuzverhör zum Thema brennendes Licht und Schalter von Updike befragt wurde. Merkwürdig ist sowieso, warum Söring und Haysom nicht einfach nach Verlassen die Vorder- und Hintertüre eingetreten haben und die Geldbörse von Nancy mitgenommen. Das hätte dann zur Voodooshow und zur Planung in den Briefen (burglary) perfekt gepasst, um besser von sich als Täter abzulenken!
Ich denke, jemand wollte das Haus von außen unauffällig aussehen lassen, um Zeit zu gewinnen. Den Lichtschalter für die Außenbeleuchtung hat er dann nicht gefunden, weil wirklich nur ein echter Insider wissen konnte, dass dieser sich ausgerechnet im Schlafzimmer befand.
Loose Chippings war in einer eher dünn besiedelten Gegend, aber keineswegs einsam und abgelegen. Spätestens einem Briefträger oder so wäre eine eingetretene Türe schon früher aufgefallen als eine eingeschaltete Außenbeleuchtung. Zumal es in den 80er Jahren auch schon Beleuchtung mit Bewegungsmeldern gab.
Ich halte es für gut möglich, dass Söring einen Schlüssel hatte. Vielleicht hatten er und Haysom sich erhofft, dass Derek und Nancy schon - mehr oder weniger alkoholisiert - schlafend im Bett liegen und kaum Gegenwehr leisten würden. Dann hätte Söring in aller Ruhe den „Einbruch“ inszenieren können. In Loose Chippings angekommen, musste er dann feststellen, dass die Haysoms - oder zumindest Derek - noch auf waren und er musste improvisieren, woraufhin er komplett die Nerven verlor und die Einbruchsinszenierung schließlich sausen ließ. Eine solche Story hätte er bei seinen Geständnissen aber unmöglich anbieten können, weil das auf beiden Seiten des Atlantiks nach vorsätzlichem Mord ausgesehen hätte. Damit wäre sein Totschlags-Hintertürchen sofort zu gewesen.
Unauffällig nach aussen bleiben wegen Zeitgewinn kann gut sein. Söring hat Haysoms Schlüssel nur für den schnellsten Zugriff zum Esszimmer benutzt. Sie benötigte zum Zugriff in die Küche wo die Mutter sich wahrscheinlich zum Getränkeholen aufhielt, keinen. Natürlich wussten die beiden genau, was die Eltern ungefähr zur Ankunftszeit (Ca. 19:00-20:00 Uhr) machen werden. Eigentlich waren beide von den Haysoms zu dem Samstag erwartet worden und man musste schliesslich absagen. Trotzdem musste das alleinige Antreffen der Eltern gewährleistet sein. Das hat man direkt mit in einem Telefonat aus dem Marriott erledigt. Schlafen wäre um die Zeit eher Unsinn. Haysom kannte die Trink- und Essgewohnheiten der Eltern sicherlich genau. Warum Licht angelassen, wenn Haysom dabei ist?Ich glaube man hat sich über das Licht was zur Ankunftszeit brannte eher keine Gedanken gemacht, sondern die Ausleuchtung im Eingangstürbereich zur Spurenverwischung mit benutzt. Die Blutflecken an der Screendoor hat man trotzdem übersehen. Beide waren halt keine Profis....🤷
Woraus lässt sich schließen, dass der/die Mörder zwischen 19 und 20 Uhr in Loose Chippings ankam/-en?
Das Zeitfenster DC im Sinne eines bestehenden bzw. belegbaren Kinoalibis (Timeline) zu verlassen, lag vor nachdem man aufeinander folgende Doppeltickets für Winess (16:30 -19:00) und STP (22:00 - 24:00) erworben hatte. Das sollte so um 16:30-17:00 abgeschlossen sein. Um noch Tickets für die Vorstellung RHP zu erhalten, wollte man sicherlich vor Filmende zurück sein, um nach Möglichkeit zwei aufeinanderfolgende Karten abzufischen (Mülleimer). Vielleicht wurde daraus nichts und man kam etwas später zurück (nur eine Karte). Dann haben wir noch die Infos das Nancy Haysom Samstag Mittag im Garten gesehen wurde, angeblich das Licht angeschaltet war (also Dämmerung/Dunkelheit) und die Vorhänge unten. Nancy Haysom hatte sich schon umgezogen. Hausrock.
Du bist ein unangenehmer Besserwisser. Ich halte von Dir nichts, Andre. Kuss auf die Eichel, dein Johannes