High Point Author May Have Answer To Unsolved Outer Banks Murder

High Point author John Railey has written a new book. The Lost Colony Murder on the Outer Banks: Seeking Justice for Brenda Joyce Holland tells the story of the 1967 death of Brenda Holland. She had gone to the coast to work on the long-running Lost Colony play when she went missing. Her body was found five days later. The case has never been solved. But through interviews and a trove of unearthed State Bureau of Investigation files, Railey thinks he knows who did it. He spoke with WFDD's Paul Garber about the book. Railey begins with a description of the crime:

Interview Highlights: 

You've got to remember, the Outer Banks at that time was not the overdeveloped McMansion place it is now. Then it was relatively barren and innocent. And I always think of this, that this case is kind of the end of innocence there. They had never seen a savage murder like this. A lot of islanders knew Brenda Joyce Holland. And when she was found in the sound of it, it was devastating.

On Brenda Holland's life before going to Manteo:

I feel like I've gotten to know Brenda now. I mean, I dedicate the book to Brenda to keep her legacy alive. But she was 19 years old. She was in her sophomore year at Campbell College. She was from Canton, which is outside Asheville. Just hard work and good people. And they lived at the base of the family mountain, Holland Mountain — like The Waltons or something. You know, they were mountain people. They were not coastal people. This was her first time she had ever seen the ocean. So it's just blowing her mind. So she goes down there. Her parents didn't want her to go because they were worried about her. They were a little protective. But she goes down there. She's down there for one month. It's just the month of June. But she loves it. And the islanders are not quick to accept what they would call wash-ins, people from afar. But they liked her and she just charmed people and they took her in and it devastated everyone when she was found.

On how sure he is that he's solved the case:

I think it's it's a very strong circumstantial case. This suspect was treated deferentially. They could have made a list that could have taken this case to court.

On what he learned from writing his first book, Rage to Redemption in the Sterilization Age: A Confrontation with American Genocide, about North Carolina's shameful legacy of eugenics, which also has reporting from the coast:

It's just all about people and putting the face on the people. And I think I also believe that there's some great spirit or something that leads you to stories. There is a reason that I grew up on that coastal plain just a couple of hours over from Elaine and Nial, my two main people in Rage To Redemption. And I always keep getting led back there. I spent a lot of my life on the Outer Banks and I was always fascinated by Brenda. I'm always fascinated with underdogs. They get done wrong by the system ... So this was another case of an underdog that was done wrong by the system and justice wasn't done. And it's in my bones from my Atticus Finch type father that when I see justice not done and I can do something about it — I can't change the whole system. But you can start with one case at a time, and you can say this person didn't get justice and I'm going to do what I can with my friends, my newspaper family, my source family. And we're going to get some justice.