JOHNSTON COUNTY: In the nearly 35 years since Bonnie Neighbors was murdered, a cloud of suspicion has hovered around one 'local man.'
On Wednesday afternoon, November 21, that cloud lifted.
In April of 2007, Johnston County Sheriff Steve Bizzell formed a Cold Cask Task Force and re-opened the case.
The Sheriff's actions were sparked in part by NC WANTED's investigation into the crime that had begun a few months earlier in January. NC WANTED later profiled the case in May of 2007 during its Saturday night broadcast.
On the program, Bonnie’s family members openly discussed a 'local man,' who allegedly never cooperated with investigators. They wondered why he never had been charged or eliminated as a suspect.
These questions were addressed by Sheriff Bizzell's Cold Case Task Force as the group's first assignment.
Rufus Edmisten was the Attorney General and in charge during the early years of the investigation. He granted an exclusive interview to NC WANTED, during which Mr. Edmisten agreed that the so-called 'local man' was suspicious, but insisted that the local man had not murdered Bonnie Neighbors.
"I know this is strange to say for a former attorney general, but I don’t know of any credible evidence that we ever collected that tied anybody in the Benson area to anything. A lot of speculation; a lot of people making wild conjecture, but that won’t cut it," Edmisten said during his interview with NC WANTED.
For decades, Mr. Edmisten had been openly criticized by long-time Benson residents for his handling of the Neighbors case. Since the 1970s, Edmisten had taken the unpopular stance of ruling out the 'local man.'
Now, after 35 years, it appears Mr. Edmisten took the proper stance.
Not long into the re-investigation, Sheriff Bizzell's Cold Cast Task Force prompted new analysis of old evidence. This evidence included the clothing found on Bonnie's body at the crime scene.
In recent weeks, new DNA evidence was discovered on Bonnie's clothing and was sent to the SBI lab for analysis.
Once the results were confirmed by the SBI Lab, investigators approached the local man and he agreed to provide a sample.
Johnson County Sheriff Steve Bizzell confirmed Wednesday, November 21, that the DNA on Bonnie's clothing did not match the local man. “This person has been eliminated as a suspect at this time,” Sheriff Bizzell said. “This investigation will proceed in new directions.”
Reached at her home Wednesday afternoon, Mary Neighbors, wife of Bonnie’s widower, Ken Neighbors, said the news was an overwhelming relief. “We were wrong. I can say that now,” she said. “We’re very happy to know, just to know.”
The investigation is nowhere near over, the sheriff said. Detectives will now start collecting DNA samples from other people of interest in the hopes of closing the file.
Ken Neighbors also provided a DNA sample. His sample did not match the DNA on Bonnie's clothing, so he, too, has been ruled out as a suspect.
Mary Neighbors said she’s optimistic. “I just have a good feeling,” she said.
“Sometimes you just can’t see the forest for the trees,” Sheriff Bizzell said. “But we’re ready to move forward.”
JOHNSTON COUNTY: Life was good for Kenneth and Bonnie Neighbors.
They met at the drive-in in Benson and were married six months later. He was older, quiet and intelligent. She was pretty and shy. The couple would stay up at night planning out their future – Ken would build up his burgeoning accounting business and if it went well they would build a house on the Neighbors family farm. They would have two children, maybe three. Finally, all the planning was paying off. Business was going well. The couple had just finished building the large, brick house on the family farm, and after trying for quite some time, Bonnie had gotten pregnant with their second child. They named him Arthur Glenn.
She was a homemaker and worked at the church school to be near her children.
But Bonnie was lonely. Ken was frequently gone, and although he tried to come home every weekend, she felt isolated in their large new home, sometimes even frightened.
Bonnie was found in an abandoned migrant labor camp outside Benson, three days after they found her bronze station wagon. She had been struck in the head and shot twice with a small-caliber handgun, in the lower abdomen. She was fully dressed and police guessed she was killed within several hours of going missing. Her four-month-old infant cried as he nuzzled beside her cold body.
It was freezing that day. Decades have passed and other details have faded but investigators remember the bitter cold.
It was December of 1972. Ken was in Morehead City for business that week, and remembers his father calling Thursday night. Bonnie didn’t pick their son, 7-year-old Ken III, up from school that afternoon and no one knows where she is. The baby is with her. During the summers Bonnie traveled with him to the beach – she liked to fish – but after school started she stayed behind in Benson.
The last time Ken talked to his wife, the Wednesday before she disappeared, she was crying. She said she missed him and didn’t like being by herself. Ken consoled her – because Christmas was approaching Ken III would be on holiday and the following week they would all stay at the beach together. He remembers it making her feel better, and the phone call ending with both happy and eagerly awaiting the weekend.
The next morning, December 14, Bonnie went Christmas shopping with her mother in Smithfield, with plans to pick up Ken III from second grade later in the day. She never arrived at the school, and a milk delivery truck driver recalls seeing her station wagon heading the opposite direction of the schoolhouse that afternoon. There appeared to be no one with her in the car besides Glenn.
A friend spotted the 1969 Country Squire parked behind a downtown store on Friday morning, the key lying on the front seat. A white, crocheted baby cap was left behind. Investigators found tire tracks they think match those on her car at the labor camp where Bonnie was found.
A massive search began and the media went wild. Roger Allen, now retired from the State Bureau of Investigation, remembers working weekend duty in the field office in Garner when he was summoned to Benson by the Johnston County Sheriff’s Office. They flew him down on a helicopter. He remembers the scene when Bonnie was found on Sunday.
Sherwood Lee, a local farmer’s son, heard the baby crying that afternoon and followed the sound. That’s when he found them – Bonnie sprawled across a cot and Arthur Glenn, cold, hungry and crying in her arms but otherwise unharmed.
The community was horrified and scared. Eventually a group of concerned citizens formed The Bonnie Neighbors Committee, setting up shop in a local business and taking calls from anyone with information, which they would pass on to the SBI. The reward for information that solved the case topped $20,000 by 1975, unheard of more than 30 years ago.
In the first stage of the investigation, SBI agents searched wildly for anyone who may have witnessed Bonnie with someone that Thursday afternoon.
Other eyewitness accounts surfaced, but it was difficult to convince someone to make a statement to police, much less substantiate any claims.
Although the case has spanned nearly three and a half decades, many who are familiar with the case have strong feelings about how it could and should be solved. Rather than fade away, memories of the murder have evolved into myth in the small town.
The case has been a staple of various sheriffs’ campaign promises, and earlier this month Sheriff Steve Bizzell reopened the case, appointing a handful of retired SBI agents and other law enforcement. He is adamant the case can be solved.
