In the quiet, rural community of Mars Hill, Alabama, the morning of January 3, 1980, brought with it a gruesome discovery that would haunt the area for decades. Mae Bell Roberts, a 77-year-old woman, was found brutally murdered in the modest farmhouse she shared with her siblings. The scene that greeted a family member who had come to visit was one of unimaginable violence. Mae Bell, who was apparently in the middle of sewing, was found with a thimble still on her finger, a poignant detail in a room otherwise filled with chaos and death. She and her three brothers had all been shot.
The initial investigation into the horrific crime pointed towards robbery as a motive. A trunk, rumored to contain a significant amount of cash, was missing from the home. However, the true motive remained shrouded in mystery as the trunk, when found years later, contained only old suits. The brutality of the attack on the elderly siblings, some of whom were already in poor health, shocked the small community and left a lasting sense of fear and unease. The investigation, which involved multiple law enforcement agencies, struggled to identify the perpetrators, and for years, the case grew cold.
Though no one was ever officially charged with the murders of Mae Bell Roberts and her brothers, the shadow of suspicion fell on several individuals within the community. The local sheriff believed that two men, Roy Harris and Carlton DeMoss, held key information about the killings. In a dark turn of events, both men met violent ends themselves within a few years of the murders. DeMoss took his own life, reportedly telling his wife he had done a horrible thing he couldn't live with, while Harris was found shot to death.
Years later, a significant break in the case occurred when the murder weapons, a sawed-off shotgun and a. 38 caliber pistol, were recovered. The guns were found in the possession of members of the Hiett family. While ballistics confirmed these were the weapons used to kill the Roberts family, the trail to the actual killers remained convoluted. Though some individuals connected to the Hiett family were indicted on charges of perjury related to the investigation, a conviction for the murders themselves has never been secured, leaving the brutal slaying of Mae Bell Roberts and her siblings an unsolved case.
