Police identify killers of family found dead in a bathtub 50 years ago

The sheriff’s office learned that the killers were hired to murder the family

An oppressive blizzard tore through Boone, North Carolina on the night of 3 February, 1972, covering the landscape in a layer of treacherous white.

It was not the most cold thing to occur that night.

On the west side of Boone, Virginia Durham was making a phone call. She and her family had only been in Boone for about a year, moving the previous year from Mount Airy, the inspiration for The Andy Griffith Show's idyllic town Mayberry.

Her call that night was to her son-in-law, Troy Hall. Ms Durham's message was direct.

“Help.”

Twenty minutes later, he found Ms Durham, her husband Bryce, and their 18-year-old son Bobby, dead inside of a bathtub. The men had been drowned. Ms Durham had been suffocated.

As the Charlotte Observer reports, the unsolved case of the Durham family murder has fueled speculation in the public for nearly half a century.

Without solid leads, the case went cold. Some people theorised that the family got caught up in a car dealership scam gone bad. Others speculated that Green Berets – in town for a ski demonstration – unleashed their pent-up bloodlust on the innocent family.

After decades of guesswork, investigators are now confident they know who killed the Durhams thanks to a single conversation that happened 200 miles away.

According to the WCSD, the culprits were members of the “Dixie Mafia”, which the FBI describes as a “loose confederation of thugs and crooks” operating out of the Southeastern US.

While the group has no formal connection to La Cosa Nostra – the Italian Mafia in the US – it has similarities in tactics and aims.

Four men – all believed to be Dixie Mafia members – allegedly carried out the killings. Law enforcement believes the four men were hired killers. It is still unclear who ordered the murders.

One of the four suspects is still living. Billy Wayne Davis, 81, is believed to have been involved in the triple murder. He is currently serving out a life sentence for murder in Augusta State Medical Prison in Georgia.

The break in the case began in 2019, when Shane Birt, the son of one of the four accused Dixie Mafia member, Billy Sunday Birt, visited his father at a Georgia prison. His father was considered one of the leaders of the Dixie Mafia in Georgia, and had a long history of criminal activity.

The younger Mr Birt was working on a book about crime in Georgia at the time, and often visited his father. During one visit, the elder Mr Birt described “killing three people in the North Carolina mountains during a heavy snowstorm, remembering that they almost got caught”, according to the White County Sheriff's Office.

After the younger Mr Birt told them the story, White County realised the information could be “very important to the Durham case” and contacted Watauga County.

“We immediately began to investigate the new leads, and conducted in-person interviews with Billy Wayne Davis in September 2019, October 2020, and August 2021,” Watauga County Sheriff Len Hagaman said.

“It was these interviews that ultimately helped us determine who was responsible through the corroboration of evidence. We are confident that we now know who committed these crimes.”

Mr Davis, the only living member of the group as of 2022, corroborated the story with the sheriff's office. He said they were paid to kill the family on a night when a blizzard was raging. He also agreed that they had almost been caught. He claimed he was the getaway driver while the elder Mr Birt, and two others carried out the murders.

It is still unclear why the family was targeted and who ordered the hit.

Law enforcement informed the remaining living members of the Durham family in November of the discovery. Ginny Sue Hall – the wife of Mr Hall, the pair who discovered the bodies – was among the remaining family.

“I would like to thank all of the people who worked for decades on my family’s case,” she said in the news release. “I know that they sacrificed many days and weekends in order to work on solving this case since 1972.”