In the quiet farming community of Mount Sinai in Gaffney, South Carolina, the morning of February 13, 1968, began like any other for fifteen-year-old Opal Diane Buckson. The young African-American girl was walking to her school bus stop when the unimaginable happened. Her sixteen-year-old sister, Gracie, watched in horror as a blue car pulled up and abducted Opal.
This brazen act in broad daylight triggered a massive search effort, drawing in local law enforcement, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, the FBI, and concerned community volunteers who combed the area for any sign of the missing teenager.
The tight-knit community was gripped by fear as days turned into weeks with no word on Opal's whereabouts. The break in the case came from the vigilance of two women who spotted a suspicious vehicle and, despite the driver fleeing, were able to jot down the license plate number. This crucial piece of information led authorities directly to thirty-year-old Lee Roy Martin, a local textile worker and father of three. Under the pressure of interrogation, Martin's composure crumbled, and he confessed to the kidnapping and murder of not only Opal Buckson but also three other women: Annie Lucille Dedmond, Nancy Carol Parris, and Nancy Christine Rhinehart.
Martin, who would come to be known as the 'Gaffney Strangler,' led investigators to the locations where he had left his victims, providing details that only the killer could have known. His confession brought a swift end to the mystery that had terrorized the region. Following his arrest on February 27, 1968, Lee Roy Martin was convicted of four counts of murder and handed four life sentences. His reign of terror was over, but his own life would also end violently. On May 31, 1972, he was stabbed to death by a fellow inmate while incarcerated at the Central Correctional Institution in Columbia, South Carolina. Martin's confession also had another significant consequence; it exonerated Roger Dedmond, who had been wrongfully convicted of his wife Annie's murder and had already served ten months in prison. He was subsequently released, and all charges against him were dropped, bringing a final, twisted chapter of the Gaffney Strangler's saga to a close.
