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a facial reconstruction of the Jane Doe, dated 2018, made by Madison Jameswood Discovered July 4th, 2017
SOLVED
The Belews Lake Jane Doe, also sometimes known as Lake Doe, is a formerly unidentified body.
On July 4th, 2017, Sheldon Lorris, who was vacationing with his wife in the small town, Belews Creek, North Carolina, found the body of a young African American woman at the edge of the lake. This wasn't uncommon, as people often got drunk and drowned in this lake, but what made this woman so different was the fact that she'd been dead for nearly fifty years, having determined to have died some time in the early seventies, before the lake, which was a man made reservoir, had even been built.
She had been beaten badly, her skull bashed in. Her left arm was missing; though originally believed to have decomposed, there were distinct blade marks on the bone. All that was left of her clothes was a green fabric.
Though unidentified bodies and people going missing is a common occurrence in Belews Creek, this case attracted significant media attention in the town, due to the brutality of the crime and the length of time she'd apparently been dead. Most of this was on social media, with the youth of the town. She was called Lake Doe by a few, due to the similarities to the case of River Doe, now known to be Carmen Luisa Tolentino Aquino, who had also been discovered on a July 4th, but she was mostly referred to as the Belews Lake Jane Doe.
She was wearing a cross necklace when found, and as such, on December 1st, 2017, she was buried in Belews Creek Christian Church Cemetery. Around a hundred people attended the funeral. Her grave read;
BELEWS LAKE JANE DOE DISCOVERED AT BELEWS LAKE JULY 4, 2017 DIED IN THE 1970s
In late February of 2022, after a petition was signed, mostly by people twenty-three and under, in the town, Jane Doe's body was exhumed, and the coroners office decided to use genealogy tests in order to find her identity. On March 2nd, they got in contact with Elijah Harrison, who they believed to be the Jane Doe's younger brother, and still lived in Belews Creek. Elijah agreed to do a genealogy test and, coincidentally, on the fiftieth anniversary of her death, she was officially identified as Pamela Christine Harrison.
Pam, as she'd been often called, was the older of two siblings, having been born on January 25th, 1950. She had been born and raised in Belews Creek. Pam's mother, Catherine, died in 1965. On her twenty-second birthday, she married a white man, Samuel McBride. Then, on March 5th, 1972, Pam went missing. May 2022, Samuel came to police.
Samuel said that he'd found letters written by his father. Pam was murdered by his late father, Joseph McBride. He beat Pam to death with a blunt object, and then left her body in the basement of his home. Joseph's reasoning for this was that he did not approve of the marriage between Pam and Samuel, and this made complete sense, as he had been a known member of the KKK. Shortly before then, Pam had also discovered she was pregnant. It is unknown if Joseph knew this or not.
Shortly thereafter, the house would be demolish when Duke Energy bought the property, and needed a reservoir to cool their power plant. Pam's body wouldn't be discovered for another forty-five years.
Joseph McBride died in 2005.
Samuel McBride remarried in 1978 to Catherine McBride, and the couple have six children, one of which died in 2009.
On December 1st, 2022, she was finally reburied with a new headstone, reading;
PAMELA CHRISTINE HARRISON JANUARY 25, 1950 - MARCH 5, 1972 DAUGHTER, SISTER, WIFE, MOTHER CRADLED IN THE LORD'S ARMS
May Pamela Christine Harrison rest in peace.
a photo of Pam, taken by Samuel, three days before her death
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