Crime Junkie - UPDATE: Sumter County Does - IDENTIFIED!!!

Episode Date: January 21, 2021

As of 2pm ET on January 21, 2021 The Sumter County Sheriff's office has identified the Sumter County Does as 25-year-old Pamela Buckley of Colorado Springs, CO and 30-year-old James Freund of Lancaster, PA.  To continue to support the DNA Doe project go here: https://dnadoeproject.org/Source material for this episode:https://www.facebook.com/Sumter-County-Sheriffs-Office-Sumter-SC-178743352170569/?ref=page_internalhttps://abcnews4.com/news/local/identities-to-be-released-in-nearly-45-year-old-cold-case For current Fan Club membership options and policies, please visit https://crimejunkieapp.com/library/. 

So Ashley, can I tell you a little secret? I guess all of our listeners too. Yes. I got a little bottle of champagne in one of my Christmas stockings this year and I've been saving it for like a time I just need a little bit of champagne and I just busted it open. Pop the champagne! Hold the theme music, hold the intros.

We are dropping in your feed for a quick couple of minutes to pop the champagne and give you guys wonderful, great, great news. I have all of the full body chills. I'm about to cry. Today at 2 p.m. Eastern time, the Sumter County Sheriff's Office have officially identified and named the Sumter County Dose. And you guys, I want to hug all of you. I want to cry.

This is something you should be so proud of because part of it is because of you. If you guys remember, you know, many moons ago in 2019, we did a fundraiser to fund the DNA Dough Project's testing of the Sumter County Dose and I know that feels like a long time. No one heard anything. These tests take a long time and it probably felt like there was no movement but you guys made a real difference in the true crime community. A huge, huge difference.

And obviously like the Sumter County Sheriff's Office never stopped working it. There's a PI who was working it. There are so many wonderful people to give credit to for giving these two their names back. But also pat yourself on the back, you guys. I am, again, so proud of you to every one of you who bought those shirts during that fundraiser. 100% of the proceeds went to DNA Dough Project and you're doing wonderful things.

And I don't know if you guys knew this. We actually raised enough money that they were able to do these cases and some additional. So I hope I'm able to come back with some even more great news. I hope we can keep doing stuff like this. And we're going to give you the quick lowdown. Again, this came out within the last hour. So there's still a lot we don't know. And what we do know though are their names.

Our Jane Doe is named Pamela Buckley. And she was from Colorado Springs, Colorado, right? She was 25 at the time of her disappearance and she actually was reported missing back in 1975. And if you remember, they were found in 76, so she had been reporting missing a year before her body was found. Jock Doe was named as James Frunnd. We got the spelling of his name from ABC4.

If you watch the press conference from the sheriff's office like we did, you know, everyone's wearing masks. It was really hard to see. So if there's an update on his last name, we'll put that in the show notes, but we believe based on ABC4's reporting that it's spelled F-R-E-U-N-D. And he was from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, correct? Yeah. So this is the wild part, right?

So there was a while where they thought maybe they were from Canada, a while where they thought maybe they were related. We knew early on their DNA was different enough that they weren't related. But they weren't even from the same place and they were from the US. The two of them were from completely different parts of the country. Both were reported missing by their families in 1975 and then somehow ended up together in Sumter County in 1976. And James was like 30 when he was found, correct?

Correct. Now, one of the people at the press conference asked, do they know each other? Was there any kind of connection between the two of them? And that's something that the sheriff's office says that they're trying to figure out. You know, were they planning to meet up? Did they run into each other? Where would that have happened? One other question, Brett, I don't know if you saw this that I found really interesting

that was asked at the press conference is, do you know where they were going? And yeah, there was this like pause and I saw his head kind of wobble. What do I say? What do I don't say? And you know, we got the kind of standard press conference answer. You know, this is ongoing. We're not going to talk about that right now. The investigation is ongoing.

Yes. But the pause, man, like it was like one of those pregnant pauses that you know. They have something. I don't know. There was something else. There's something there. So, again, we don't have much beyond this. You know, we did.

We tried to do a little bit of digging. I was going on newspapers.com. There isn't a lot about Pamela out there. She does have a NamUs profile. I believe there's one page on WebSlooth, but like nothing really there to talk about it. Just like the bare bones of when she was last seen. What I found so interesting. I don't know how true this is because I haven't gotten deep into WebSlooth and certainly not

in this case. You know, we work mostly off of newspaper articles, but what I kept seeing people comment in the live video of the Sheriff's Office press conference, which was on their Facebook page with so many people were saying that in WebSlooth, they've been saying Pamela Buckley could be our Jane Doe for a while. Wow, really? Yeah. And what I'm reading is so there's actually two missing Pamela Buckleys from what I'm

putting together. Two years ago, they came forward and told Sumter County Sheriff's it could be this one. And I guess it wasn't. It's not that one, but there's another one, the one who it actually is. And they said, you know, per these comments, take that what you will, that they kind of got dismissed, but it really ended up being her. Now, I have not been able to find anything for James. I mean, again, this is 75.

He was 30 years old. Potentially, that's why there aren't a lot of articles. These were two adults that went missing. They're a lot older than I think we initially anticipated. I think a lot of people are looking at like teens, early twenties, but yeah, kind of like that college age, like 18 to 22 range was definitely like what I had in my mind. Yeah. You know, the only thing else that came out of the press conference I thought was interesting

is they did have the coroner come on and talk and said that there was something that kept getting misreported. There was actually no gunshot wounds to the throat. I don't think that changes the case at all. They each did suffer three gunshot wounds. They said it was with the same weapon from the press conference, think they know what the weapon is, but they don't want to say again, because this is an ongoing investigation. So Pamela Buckley, she would have been 69 years old today.

They made mention of that in the press conference. James Fruin would have been 74. This is wonderful. Again, pop the champagne. I am excited, but this is the first step to a long road. They are officially reopening the homicide investigation into their cases. There is a private investigator who's been working on this case for eight long years. And so I hope that not only now do the families have some answers, but I hope that this gives

them one step in the right direction, getting closer to finally figuring out who did this and holding that person responsible. And again, I want to encourage everyone out there who's listening, who again, who participated in this fundraiser. I'm so proud of you. And I want this to show you that we can make a difference. No, we're not the investigators. No, we're not the ones doing the legwork.

And those people are wonderful at what they do, but also are caring about these cases. It's important. Can make a difference does matter and has made a difference already. Yes. We will continue to figure out ways that you can get involved in this true crime community that we all are a part of. We will continue to put forward nonprofits. And if you want to donate to the DNA DOE project, who is doing incredible, important work, we

are going to link to them in the show notes. We will also link to the press conference if you want to watch the entire thing. But it's a good day, crime junkies. And I'm proud of you. And if there's more information, we will update you. Make sure you're following us on social for those smaller updates. We're on Instagram at Crime Junkie podcast.