The Trail Went Cold - Episode 494 - The Be-Lo Murders

June 6, 1993. Windsor, North Carolina. After a Be-Lo supermarket closes for the night, a gunman emerges from a hiding spot and forces the two employees - 47-year old manager Grover “Bud” Cecil and 36-year old casher Joyce Coburn Reason - to hand over $3,000 from the safe. The gunman then orders the employees and four members of an after-hours cleaning crew - 48-year old Johnnie Rankins, 40-year old Sylvester “Tony” Welch”, 48-year old Thomas Hardy and his 50-year old brother Jasper Hardy - to the back of the store, where they are bound and stacked on top of each other before they are shot. While Bud, Joyce and Johnnie are killed, the other three victims survive and provide a description of the perpetrator, but he is never tracked down or identified. On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we explore an horrific and baffling crime known as the “Be-Lo Murders”, which has gone unsolved for over 30 years.

If you have information about this case, please contact the Windsor Police Department at (252) 794-3111 of the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation at 1-800-334-3000. 

Additional Reading:

https://www.ncsbi.gov/Divisions/Cold-Case-Investigation-Team/Unsolved-Homicides/Be-Lo-Murders-(1)

"Closing Time: The 1993 Be-Lo Murders" by Jeb Bohn

https://www.wavy.com/news/cold-case-files-tuesday-is-30-years-since-gruesome-windsor-be-lo-murders/

https://wcti12.com/archive/be-lo-killer-remains-unidentified

https://www.roanoke-chowannewsherald.com/news/rumors-spread-of-arrest-of-windsor-be-lo-murderer-b0f9453d

https://www.dailyadvance.com/bertie/news/local/windsor-police-respond-to-rumors-of-be-lo-suspect-arrest/article_0990b5ad-c075-40ba-9524-294b0d80fcbb.html

https://www.wral.com/archive/2004435/

https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/VA-news/VA-Pilot/issues/1994/940607/06070332.htm

https://www.newspapers.com/image/656191012/

https://www.newspapers.com/image/1007689848/

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The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.

All music is composed by Vince Nitro.