April 21, 2008

A local whodunit

There are a number of current TV programs, both fictional and those based on true events, that showcase many of the highly complex technical procedures used to discover “who done it.” On TV, the case is solved in less than an hour.

Here’s a chance for you, the reader, to ponder on a local cold case. It is very cold indeed, as it goes back 71 years.

Lue Cree Overcash, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. James A. Overcash of the Amity community, married Herman Westmoreland. The two had been childhood sweethearts, graduating in the same class from Troutman High. She was 20 and he, 21. Lue Cree was said to have been an exceptionally attractive young lady.

On Jan. 19, 1937, a dark and stormy night, less than two months after the wedding ceremony, the young lady went missing.

Since two weeks before Christmas, Lue Cree had been acting as housekeeper and resided with her husband’s family. Her father-in-law, Harlee, was a 43-year-old widower with three children at home: Clyde, 17; Marie, 15; and Rachel, 10.

The Westmorelands were one of the more well-to-do families in the community; they owned much land and were said to be “influential.”

Lue Cree and Herman were trying to save up to get a place of their own. Herman, who had a job at the Cascade Mill in Mooresville, boarded with an uncle there and came home on weekends.

It would have been difficult for Herman to have gotten home that evening as there had been a severe storm and it was still raining hard and would rain all night. The unpaved neighborhood roads were quagmires.

Lue Cree said good night to all at about 8:30 p.m. and went up the uncarpeted wooden steps to her bedroom on the second floor of the eight-room house, directly above her father-in-law’s bedroom, where he and Clyde slept. The girls’ bedroom was also on the first floor. The rest of the family retired shortly afterward.

The next morning, Marie went up to Lue Cree’s room to tell her that breakfast was ready. Lue Cree was not in the room and her bed did not appear to have been slept in, although one corner of the covers had been turned down. Her watch and ring were found on a dresser. All her clothing seemed to be there except for her silk pajamas and undergarments she was wearing when she retired. The other clothing she had worn was lying on a chair near her bed.

The family began looking for her.

Neighbors were brought in, and an informal search party was organized. Local woods and creek banks were combed to no avail. Early in the afternoon, Iredell County Sheriff John White Moore and two deputies, Wade Moore and Ed Daniels, arrived to help.

Eventually someone suggested looking in the well, which was about 40 feet from the house. The lid of the well was up when the investigation began. Iron hooks were lowered into the water, but nothing was found. Late in the afternoon, water was drawn off and something was seen with the aid of a light. About 8:30 p.m., the body was pulled out.

The well was about 60 feet deep and lined with rock and was the source of water for the home. Water was brought up by a hand-turned windlass.

The body was clad in pajamas and one leg had on a stocking and a tightly tied heeled dress shoe; the other leg was bare. Later, the remaining water was bailed from the well and the missing shoe was retrieved, but the missing stocking, inexplicably, was found in the girl’s bedroom. 

Coroner Notley D. Tomlin called for a six-man coroner’s jury and made a preliminary investigation there at the house. It was determined that the body had gone into the well head-first and that the back of the skull was crushed. Tomlin estimated, from the rigor mortis of the body, that at least six hours had passed between the time of death and the body’s entry into the well.

The next day, the body was taken by hearse to Statesville.

The roads were still so bad that the hearse and some of the automobiles got stuck in the mud between Amity and Oswalt and had to have help from a caterpillar tractor to get free. The group finally got to Statesville around midnight.

Dr. Ross McElwee, the county physician, examined the body more thoroughly the next day at the Johnson Funeral Home. He found a scalp wound at the back of the head and confirmed the fractured skull. Superficial bruises were found on each elbow. As there was no water in the girl’s lungs, it was believed that she was dead before entering the water.

Lue Cree’s father-in-law and his children testified that Lue Cree had been in “fine spirits and good humor” when she went to bed. The Landmark reported that suicide was generally ruled out: “People who knew Mrs. Westmoreland as Miss Lue Cree Overcash are one in attesting to her cheerful disposition and high standard of Christian character. She was active in all phases of church work and a leader in the young people’s organization.”

The funeral for Lue Cree Overcash Westmoreland was held at 2 p.m. Jan. 22, 1937, at Bethesda Presbyterian Church, of which she was a member. The service was conducted by four ministers and an estimated 1,000 people attended the young lady’s funeral.

Besides her husband and in-laws, Lue Cree was survived by her parents, three brothers and two sisters. She was buried in the church cemetery.

Why had Lue Cree gone out of the house?

There was a supply of water in the house drawn the day before, so there was no need to go out in the rain and mud to get a drink. The well was not located along the route to the privy. 

The young lady had not put on a raincoat or other protection from the elements, but had apparently slipped on one of her heeled “Sunday” dress shoes after going upstairs.

Who would have wanted her dead? Who would have benefited from her passing?

Sheriff Moore and other officials surmised that Lue Cree had been lured or frightened out of the house by someone close, someone she knew and trusted.

But who?

These and other questions still stand after 71 years, awaiting answers.

The generation of folks who knew the story first-hand have for the most part passed, but their children remember comments that were made about the tragedy.

One Amity resident, whose father was a member of the search party and was subsequently on the coroner’s jury, said that she didn’t like to pass the site of the Westmoreland house on Withers Creek Road, even though the death of Lue Cree happened before her birth and the Westmoreland house burned down years ago.

The murder of Lue Cree Overcash Westmoreland remains a classic Iredell mystery.
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O.C. Stonestreet is a retired Iredell County history teacher and works in the newsroom at the R&L. He can be reached at .