November: 24-Year-Old Double Murder Cold Case Involving Sean Patrick McDuffy Solved

24-Year-Old Double Murder Cold Case Involving Sean Patrick McDuffy Solved
November 11, 2009

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Already in a Georgia prison serving time on a first-degree attempted murder charge for trying to decapitate his girlfriend during an argument, Sean Patrick McDuffy, 48, now faces charges in North Carolina dating back 24 years for the first-degree murders of his brother and sister-in-law. Kelly McDuffy, 24, and Bobbie McDuffy, 20, were found dead on February 21, 1985 inside their home in the 400 block of Squirrel Street in the North Carolina community known as Bonnie Doone. Both had sustained sharp force trauma to their upper bodies, and according to old news reports there was a butcher knife in Kelly McDuffy's side.

Georgia Department of Corrections records show that Sean McDuffy was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 1996 for the attempted murder conviction—the sentencing records also showed that he had been charged with cruelty to children.

McDuffy resided with his brother and sister-in-law at the time of their deaths, and had been a prime suspect after the killings. However, because a judge had ruled in 1986 that there was no probable cause for his arrest, he was released and the case remained closed until Bobbie McDuffy's father, who was dying, persuaded the police to reopen it. As a result, detectives began reexamining the case files, sifting through boxes of evidence, analyzing crime scene photos, and so forth, which prompted them to focus on Sean McDuffy as the suspect in the brutal killings.


Following the murders, McDuffy began moving around, and detectives were able to trace his movements to Missouri, Ohio, Arizona, and finally to Georgia where they discovered he was in prison. Satisfied that they had enough evidence to charge him with the murders of his relatives, McDuffy was indicted on two counts of first-degree murder earlier this year. McDuffy's parole in Georgia is coming up soon, and it is a certainty that he will be extradited to Cumberland County in North Carolina as soon as he is paroled, according to Debbie Tanna, spokeswoman for the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office. If convicted of the murders of his relatives, McDuffy could receive the death penalty or life in prison without parole.