By LARRY J. GRIFFIN
Special Investigative Reporter
The Wilkes Record
…I requested about his reminiscence of the pink snake. He couldn’t recall the joke about it or how they obtained it in Myrtle Beach; however, he did acknowledge it stayed on his dresser at home.” From the case file notes of James Pruett, December 23, 1997.
Greg McDowell has just lately celebrated his 61st birthday. Born on Thursday, February 7, 1963, he’s the younger of the 2 youngsters belonging to the Reverend Mr. Charles and Betty McDowell. In December 1981, Greg was the boyfriend of the late Rhonda Hinson, who was murdered throughout the first hour of December twenty third that yr.
Across “years and miles and tears and smiles” it’s not in any respect uncommon for, “colors to dull and the candle of memory to dim.” However, it appears unlikely that McDowell might ever overlook the ebullient and, at occasions, insouciant woman with the radiant smile that he dated for about two years, earlier than a bullet from a high-powered rifle brought on smiles to stop altogether.
And then there may be the matter of a pink snake and a letter jacket—maybe Greg’s reminiscence remembers these two objects identified to be in his possession however had been found within the 1981 Datsun 210 belonging to Rhonda Hinson and inventoried at 3:00 PM by legislation enforcement some 14 hours after the official time of her loss of life. Neither merchandise was in her automobile when she departed home to attend a December twenty second night Christmas social gathering sponsored by the corporate at which she was employed.
Before leaving for work, on what could be her final day of life, Rhonda informed her mom, Judy, that she had no jacket to put on that morning as a result of Mark Turner had her gray-hooded sweat jacket, and Greg was in possession of her East Burke letter jacket. And, as beforehand reported, each clothes objects had been present in her automobile—the letter jacket atop different clothes objects within the backseat and to the proper of the driving force; the gray-hooded sweat jacket on the sundeck and visual from the surface by way of the again glass.
There isn’t any extant document which signifies that legislation enforcement ever questioned McDowell concerning the letter jacket, purportedly in his possession, and the way it made its approach into his girlfriend’s Datsun 210. However, on Tuesday December 23, 1997—16 years subsequent to the killing of Rhonda Hinson—Detective James “Flash” Pruett queried 34-year-old Greg McDowell about one other merchandise situated on the automobile’s floorboard, behind the passenger’s seat—a pink stuffed snake.
Jill Turner-Mull, Rhonda’s finest buddy, was visiting the Hinson home for the expressed goal of analyzing objects found within the Datsun 210 that Miss Hinson was driving the early morning of December 23, 1981. And then she noticed it—the stuffed pink snake that Greg McDowell received for Rhonda on the Pavilion in downtown Myrtle Beach—and particulars of a Summer 1981 seashore journey had been retrieved from reminiscence. Detective Pruett recorded Jill’s impressions in his copious case notes, dated Friday December 29, 1995.
“…Jill said there was some joke behind the snake, but could not remember, it may have been some sexual connotation. The most important fact is she stated Greg McDowell had the snake in his possession.” Then “Flash” posed a rhetorical query, “How did it get into Rhonda’s car six months later?”
About 5 days after his dialog with Ms. Turner-Mull— on Thursday January 4, 1996—Detective Pruett requested Mark Turner concerning the stuffed serpent as properly. It comes as no shock that Turner informed the investigator that he had, “…no memory of the pink snake either at the beach or at Greg’s home,” and didn’t, “…remember a joke about a snake.”
Fast ahead to Tuesday December 23, 1997 and walk into the workplace {of electrical} engineer, Greg McDowell, situated within the Brittain Engineering suite, 56 Third Street, NW in Downtown Hickory. It was there that Detective Pruett questioned McDowell about his relationship with the deceased 19-year-old, particularly throughout December, 1981. The late investigator characterised that moderately awkward interview throughout a Messenger dialog with this author on Sunday August 18, 2019. His spouse, Rhonda, recorded what he mentioned and forwarded his recollections:
“‘Flash’ said there were two car-loads of people on that escapade. Besides [Sheriff] Richard [Epley], he thinks it was his majors, Robert Lane, Pat Messick (dead), Paul Mayfield (dead), Greg Calloway… [and] Richard’s preacher who we think was at Hopewell Baptist Church. ‘Flash’ said Richard caught [him] off-guard and said he knew he could look at Greg and tell if he killed Rhonda…This is the interview [that] Greg laid his head on the desk crying and said he didn’t kill Rhonda…”
During the course of the December twenty third dialog, the detective famous that as he elevated strain on him, Greg seemingly turned extra nervous. In reality, at one juncture, “Flash” estimated McDowell’s coronary heart fee to be 120 beats a minute, predicated upon a 15-second scale. And then got here the query concerning the stuffed pink snake—Greg’s revealing response was recorded in case notes:
“…I asked about his memory of the pink snake. He [Greg] couldn’t recall the joke about it or how they got it in Myrtle Beach, but he acknowledged it stayed on his dresser at home.”
“…But he acknowledged it stayed on his dresser at home.”
It defies clarification and motive as to why McDowell was not aggressively pursued as a suspect within the killing of Rhonda Hinson within the wake of that gorgeous revelation—”it stayed on his dresser at home.” The very presence of the Myrtle Beach ‘trophy’ within the decedent’s automobile ought to have catalyzed centered, enhanced investigative efforts upon her former boyfriend—ostensibly, that didn’t occur.
And now it has been in extra of 26 years since Detective Pruett interviewed the person whom he believed to be the chief suspect within the deadly taking pictures of his 19-year-old girlfriend. In reality, Burke County Sheriff’s Department (BCSD) investigators—previous and current—who’ve labored “the most investigated case in the county’s history” have averred that they’ve identified for years that Greg McDowell was the shooter who fired the deadly shot however haven’t been in a position to refute a singular alibi proffered by his mother and father.
In July 2021, proof was delivered to present BCSD investigators that has the potential for negating that alibi—inside data first revealed to Bobby and Judy Hinson, who had been assured that this new discovering might lastly result in an arrest and justice long-denied for his or her slain daughter. Former Sheriff Steve Whisenant first alluded to a big improvement on Friday October 22, 2021 and referenced in a press launch on Wednesday December twenty second that very same yr upfront of the fortieth anniversary of the killing of Rhonda Hinson.
And then nothing—nothing aside from a litany of causes and excuses for the inactivity that has characterised the investigation of this case throughout 42 years now. And all of the whereas these implicated proceed to reside their lives with seeming impunity.
This December 13, previous, Rhonda Hinson would have been 61 years old—the age milestone that each Mark Turner and Greg McDowell have now achieved and that her finest buddy, Jill Turner-Mull, will rejoice this yr on April 14. Of that trio, Ms. Turner-Mull is the one one who remembers, with razor-sharp reminiscence, the small print surrounding the tragedy.
Of all of the issues that have a tendency to enhance with age, maybe long-term reminiscence, relative to a letter jacket and a Myrtle Beach commemorative does too—not less than the household and their appreciable assist base, comprised of pals and anxious residents, hope so.
