In August 1974, 19-year-old white female Cheryl Potter Boyd was kidnapped and murdered in Jacksonville, North Carolina. Cheryl was abducted from the parking lot of the post office on New Bridge Street. According to her younger brother, Cheryl was getting into her car when a man entered from the passenger side. That man was later identified as Marcus B. Shrader III, a Navy medical corpsman stationed at Camp Lejeune.
Shrader forced Cheryl to assist him in robbing a nearby bank.
During the robbery, he wore a green ski mask, which may have led Cheryl to recognize him, as authorities had already been searching for a suspect using such a disguise in connection with other crimes. After the robbery, Shrader shot Cheryl Potter Boyd in the face and left her body in her car behind the New River Shopping Center.
Shrader was arrested just two days later, on August 18, 1974, after a fellow corpsman recognized him from a wanted poster—despite the ski mask—by the freckles around his eyes. This tip led police to raid Shrader's home in Cedar Point, where he was taken into custody. He was convicted later that year of kidnapping and murdering 19-year-old white female Cheryl Potter Boyd and sentenced to death.
In addition to Cheryl's murder, Shrader was suspected in the killings of three other females: 15-year-old Karen Amabile, 15-year-old Cindy Howard, and 23-year-old Ginger Rader. Though he was never tried for those crimes, police believed he was responsible. Shrader died in prison in 2007 of natural causes at the age of 65.
