On August 2, 1974, 15-year-old female Cindy Howard, a white teenager from Onslow County, North Carolina, was tragically murdered in a case that shocked the local community. Cindy Howard and another 15-year-old girl, Karen Amabile, had gone to mail a letter at the post office when they encountered 16-year-old Debra Ann Brown, the stepdaughter of Marcus Shrader. Brown, who knew Amabile from school, offered the girls a ride home.
Unbeknownst to them, Shrader was waiting in a van nearby.
According to later testimony, once the girls entered the vehicle, Marcus Shrader handcuffed them, gagged them with pantyhose, and taped their eyes. He then drove them to a remote area where he sexually assaulted both girls. After the assault, Shrader strangled Cindy Howard and Karen Amabile to death. Their bodies, clothed only in their underwear, were later discovered in the Bear Creek area of Onslow County
