The Trail Went Cold - Episode 234 - The Durham Family Murders

The Trail Went Cold

Robin Warder

True Crime, Tv & Film

4.5 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 14 July 2021

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

February 3, 1972. Boone, North Carolina. 51-year old Bryce Durham, his 44-year old wife Virginia, and their 18-year old son Bobby Joe are found strangled to death and drowned inside their bathroom after an apparent home invasion. Months later, four suspects with a history of burglary are arrested for their alleged roles in the murders, but the charges against them are eventually dropped due to lack of evidence. Suspicion falls upon the Durhams’ son-in-law, Troy Hall, who claims that he received a frantic phone call from Virginia while the murders were taking place, but some investigators do not believe his story. Was Troy responsible for the crime? If not, then who was and what could their motive have been? On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we explore the puzzling story of the Durham family murders. Additional Reading: https://www.wataugademocrat.com/news/investigation-of-durham-family-s-slaying-continues/article_e16a2616-a983-11e4-9e07-bbfdbdd91c44.html https://journalnow.com/40-year-old-unsolved-triple-murder-still-haunts-law-enforcement/article_3f04e50f-a3a2-5aed-9dfb-c0118871ac34.html “North Carolina Murder & Mayhem” by Rick Jackson “Haunted Watauga, North Carolina” by Tim Bullard “The Murder Room” by Michael Capuzzo “Detective Magazine” (October 1972) http://www.kenrahn.com/JFK/The_critics/Whitmey/Small.html https://horrorhistory.net/2020/02/03/unsolved-family-of-three-killed-in-home-their-heads-submerged-in-their-bathtub/ “The Trail Went Cold” is on Patreon! Visit www.patreon.com/thetrailwentcold to become a patron and gain access to our exclusive bonus content. “The Trail Went Cold” is going to be appearing on podcast row at “Crimecon UK” at the Leonardo Royal Hotel & Spa in London on September 25-26, 2021. To get a 10 % discount on the purchase of tickets to the event, please use our specialized promo code, “COLD21”, by visiting https://www.crimecon.co.uk. “The Trail Went Cold” is now doing a weekly livestream show on GetVokl every Thursday from 7:00-8:00 PM ET as part of their “True Crime Thursday” line-up. For more information, please visit their website. The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote. All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

Transcript

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0:00.0	February 3rd, 1972, Boone, North Carolina.
0:06.0	51 year old Bryce Durham, his 44 year old wife Virginia,
0:10.0	and their 18 year old son Bobby Joe are found strangled and drowned inside their bathroom after an apparent home invasion.
0:17.0	Months later, four suspects with the history of burglary are arrested for their alleged roles in the murders, but the charges against them are eventually dropped due to lack of evidence.
0:27.0	Suspicion falls upon the Durham son-in-law, Troy Hall, who claimed to have received a phone call from Virginia while the murders were taking place,
0:35.0	but there are no conclusive answers about what happened.
0:38.0	After that, the trail went cold. I'm going to Oh, uh, yeah. Oh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh,
1:05.0	uh, okay.
1:07.0	Oh, uh,
1:08.0	uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, Hello everyone and welcome to our latest episode of the Trail went cold.
1:20.0	I'm your host Robin Warner and we've got an odd cold case to cover today the
1:25.0	1972 murders of the Durham family. This is the story of a married couple, Bryce
1:30.3	and Virginia Durham, and their 18-year-old son Bobby Joe, who were all brutally
1:34.7	killed inside their home by intruders.
1:37.6	At the outset, the evidence seemed to suggest that the family were victims of a burglary
1:41.9	gone wrong, but some investigators began to suspect
1:45.5	that the scene may have been staged.
1:48.0	The crime seemed to resemble a professional hit, but since the germs did not have any known
1:52.4	enemies, no one can figure out what the motive might have been.
1:56.0	Over the years, there would be some potential suspects, including four professional burglars who were arrested for this crime before the charges were dropped,
2:04.7	and Troy Hall, the husband of the Durham's surviving daughter.
2:08.9	Troy was the one who discovered the victim's bodies after claiming he received an odd phone call from his mother-in-law,
	...

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