A look into UNC’s unsolved on-campus murder
To this day, no one knows who killed Suellen Evans
This story contains a vivid description of a homicide and police investigation.
Suellen Evans was your average Tar Heel. The junior home economics major was in Chapel Hill for the summer to take some classes. On July 30, 1965, Evans had just finished one of those classes around 12:30 in the afternoon and was walking back to her room in Cobb. Later that day, she was planning to leave for her home in Mooresville, NC.
Evans took her normal shortcut through the Arboretum, and when she was walking next to the Raleigh Street exit across from McIver Hall, a man jumped out from behind the bushes. He tried to rape her, but she resisted and tried to get away. According to W.D. Blake, the police chief at the time, the man then stabbed her with “a knife of the switchblade variety” in the neck and once more in the chest through her heart.
Her attacker ran from the scene. No one saw his face and despite it being broad daylight, there were no witnesses to the crime.
Photo: Charly Mann / chapelhillmemories.com
Reports as to who actually found Suellen Evans seem to differ. Some say a nun found her. Others say two women walking by found her. Another group says a student overheard Evans’ cries for help. However, all reports agree that her last words were: “He tried to rape me…I believe I’m going to faint.”
If that doesn’t give you chills, maybe this will: To this day, police have not found the killer.
Heavy investigations immediately followed the murder. The University Police, State Bureau of Investigation and Chapel Hill Police all joined forces. The FBI was believed to offer their assistance at one point, but nothing ever came of it. Students were shaken. The Dean of Women at the time instructed all girls to walk in pairs or with escorts when cutting through the Arboretum, while the boys gathered to scan the scene for evidence. Almost 200 men gathered together, shoulder to shoulder, sweeping the entire Arboretum. No weapon or trace of the killer could be found.
Students began a reward fund for anyone with information. In the end, they raised $1,285, which is close to $10,000 if you measure by today’s standards.
But the suspect list seemed to grow longer each day. The first person questioned was a black janitor who worked in Phillips Hall. He was said to have come out of the Arboretum at around the time of the murder. Police knew Evans’ murderer would have multiple defensive wounds – evidence she fought back. But when no cuts or bruises were found on the janitor and police questioning didn’t uncover the answers they were looking for, the police released him.
The second suspect was a nearly 50-year-old redheaded white man seen emerging from the Arboretum around the same time as the murder. He allegedly had bloodstains on his clothes and drove off from the parking lot of the planetarium in a ’61 or ’62 Rambler. But no one could better identify this man and he was never found.
Over the next year, 97 suspects were investigated and 211 leads were followed. No one and nothing ever produced solid evidence and the case went cold. Since then, no new evidence has been found. The case remains unsolved.
All information courtesy of Chapel Hill Memories, ABC 11, Spartanburg Herald-Journal article 1, Spartanburg Herald-Journal article 2 and Spartanburg Herald-Journal article 3.