Police photo of the staged burglary during the Durham family murders. Note that if the footstool had actually been thrown with force the drinking glass would have been knocked over.
Bryce Durham, 51; his wife, Virginia, 44; and their son, Bobby Joe, 18 were found deceased with rope marks around their necks and crowded side-by-side, clothed, leaning across and into a filled bathtub, their heads in the water.
The son-in-law told authorities that his wife's mother had called from the house and said three black men were beating Bryce and Bobby Joe Durham. Then the phone went dead. Within weeks of the crime, authorities arrested four men — all white — who were later released for lack of evidence. The son-in-law later told investigators that he and his wife were listening to music when he answered the phone, and that Virginia Durham spoke in such low tones he could not be sure what she said. They, along with their neighbour as their driver, we the ones to find the bodies.