Post by Scumhunter on Nov 23, 2021 3:26:22 GMT -5
(Above photo credit: nbcnews.com)
From nbcnews.com:
Every Thanksgiving, as families gather for fellowship and a meal, Shirley Justen is once again reminded of the loss of her mother - and the tragic way she was killed more than a decade ago.
Shirley told Dateline Wanda Feltner Campbell had a caring heart.
The 79-year-old mother and grandmother was a nurse’s aide for more than 30 years. Caring for others was more than just a job - it was her nature.
“She was just so kind to people,” Shirley told Dateline. “She’d walk by and pat you on the arm, ask how you’re doing, offer a listening ear or a comforting word.”
So when Shirley got the call that her kind, caring mother and her stepfather Roy had been shot to death as they sat in their chairs in front of the TV inside their Kentucky home, she said the shock was overwhelming.
“Mother and murder should never be used in the same sentence,” Shirley said. “But that’s what happened. It was cold-blooded murder. And my mother was taken from us.”
It was Thanksgiving weekend 2010. This year, the anniversary falls on the day after Thanksgiving, as it did back in 2010. And for the past 11 years, the holidays have never been the same for their family.
“That day will be embedded in our hearts and in our heads forever,” Shirley said. “Nothing will ever be the same.”
Her mother had married her friend Roy Campbell, a prominent Perry County developer, in 2008, just three years prior to the murders.
The two, along with their first spouses, Mildred Campbell and A.B. Feltner, were all friends for years, Shirley explained to Dateline.
When her husband died of lung cancer in 2002, Wanda, who had retired from her job at Mary Breckenridge Hospital, and moved to Michigan to be with her two grown children and grandchildren.
But Wanda and Roy, whose wife had died years earlier, remained close and eventually he talked her into moving back to Kentucky, Shirley said.
“She loved being here with family, and her grandchildren most of all,” Shirley said. “But she could never adapt to the cold. It was just too cold here for her. So she moved back.”
According to a profile published in the Lexington Herald Leader, 81-year-old Roy Campbell was described a “visionary land developer but happiest when he was running a bulldozer.”
Shirley told Dateline that Roy was good to her mother and that she was happy.
“She was happy, so I was happy,” Shirley said. “Our family was healing again.”
But on the day after Thanksgiving, their lives were shattered.
Kentucky State Police Detective Clayton Stamper told Dateline that Perry County sheriff's officers responded to the couple’s home a little before 9 p.m. Friday after a family member requested a welfare check after not hearing from them. The blinds had been drawn all day, which Shirley said is unusual, and the doors were locked. But no one answered the door or the phone.
Detective Stamper wasn’t assigned the case until years later, but was on the scene that night and still remembers the sight. He said state police were called in when the couple’s bodies were located. They were still sitting in their chairs in the living room, dead of gunshot wounds.
Detective Stamper confirmed that the doors were locked, nothing had been taken and that it was being investigated as a homicide.
It was Saturday morning when Shirley got the news about her mother.
“I just remember screaming,” Shirley said, her voice breaking. “My mother...out of all people on this earth. Why her?”
For years, state police spent time investigating tips and chasing leads, but there have been no answers.
Detective Stamper told Dateline that while there are persons of interest in the case, there hasn’t been enough evidence to make any arrests. There aren’t any new leads at this time, but Stamper said he urges the public to call if they have any information.
“I remember being at the scene like it was yesterday,” he said. “It’s truly tragic. We hope somebody will have information that can move the case forward.”
Shirley told Dateline that she believes Roy was the target and that her mother was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“He had a lot of friends and knew a lot of people in town,” Shirley said. “But I know there was some conflict with his development business.”
For years, the family put up billboards, offered rewards, and asked for help. But Shirley said that all they can hope for now is for someone to come forward and help them find peace.
“When my father died, it took years to be able to speak his name or look at his picture without sobbing,” Shirley said. “But what happened to my mother has wrecked me.”
The case has quickly grown cold, but Shirley continues to fight. She created a Facebook page “In Loving Memory of Wanda Feltner Campbell” where she posts updates about the case, photos of her mother and pleas for information.
“We just reached a point where we didn’t know what to do anymore,” Shirley said. “But someone knows something. We just need that one person ... we need that burden to become so heavy to carry that they have to get it off them.”
A reward is being offered for the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the couple's deaths.
“We still have just a little bit of hope that there will be justice for my mother,” Shirley said. “A little hope that I’ll have peace… before I leave this earth, I just want that closure.”
Anyone with information about Roy and Wanda’s case is asked to call the Kentucky State Police, Post 13 at (606) 435-6069.
www.nbcnews.com/dateline/cold-case-spotlight/daughter-says-she-still-has-hope-justice-11-years-after-n1284306
Thoughts? I am placing Roy and Wanda's case in the unsolved on tv section because of the above coverage on Dateline NBC's digital series "Cold Case Spotlight."
Admin Note: If you have any news-related updates on this case, please contact us here: amwfans.com/thread/1662/website-contact-form