they found a head hair in ms. eastburn s bed. and they found a pubic hair at the scene of the rape. they found fingerprints a all over the house. they had bloody footprints. they had a semen sample. they were certain that physical evidence would lead them to whoever killed this family. after walking through the house, gary eastburn also provided a tantalizing lead. they were going to move to england when he finished training in alabama. the family had decided to sell the dog, so they put an ad out in the local fort bragg and katy eastburn wrote a letter to her husband saying that a nice man came out to get the dog. we didn t know who it was, but anybody who had been out to that house, we wanted to talk
whether you like it or not, tim is our client and if he dies, we will live with it. in the years that follow, the hennis case was the textbook case of wrongful prosecution. scott whisnant spoke about the case, and it was adapted into a tv movie. not everybody sitting in prison is guilty. north carolina now has a commission that actually has released a number of innocent people. despite all of the attention to hennis acquittal, the eastburn s murders would go unsolved for another 16 years until 20005 when scott whisnant spoke about the case at a criminology seminar, and he spoke at a seminar with larry spoke at a seminar with larry was in the audience. there were potentially other evidence out there. well, if he is innocent, who did it? the state of north carolina did
witanywhere on any device.you can manage your account anytime, just sign into my account to pay bills, manage service appointments and find answers to your questions. you can even check your connection status on your phone. now it s easier than ever to manage your account. get started at xfinity.com/myaccount defense attorney billy richardson had always wondered, if it wasn t tim hennis who did eyewitness pat cone see at the eastburn home on the night of the murders? billy was going door to door interviewing every neighbor and they found one couple who said, why don t you talk to that kid
not pursue it for 17 years, and so why didn t they try to find out who it was. somebody was stalking that woman for weeks. mrs. eastburn was writing her husband saying somebody is stalking me, and why isn t that being looked at? who does it lead to? after he discussed the evidence, detective trauder approached him privately. he said, just want you to know that the way they investigate the case 20 years ago, we re not like that anymore and somebody should reinvestigate this case. technology has improved, and that is how we left it. in fact, trotter had been assigned by the sheriff s case to review cold cases. we had over 100 unsolved cases, and as i went through the docket, i realized that there was a vaginal swab that never had been sent off for testing, and when the murder happened, dna was in the infancy, and the obvious thing was to send it off for testing.
after the murder, she saw the killer using katy eastburn s stolen bank card. all of a sudden, the state introduced lucille cook, little old lady. who saw the killer use the bank card. and she said, i did not tell the truth the first time, because it was a tall white man with a mustache, a blond headed guy, and he got into the tiny white car. that is the guy who used it before i did. and pointed right to tim hennis, and that is who was sitting right there. after she testified, i went into the bathroom and just threw-up. the jury deliberated for three the days. it was a quarter of 5:00 on a friday afternoon when the jury knocked. he was guilty on three counts. he would get the death penalty times three. tim hennis could hear his father