James B. Grinder

Serial Killer

James B. Grinder: The Arkansas and Missouri Serial Killer

Background

James B. Grinder was an American serial killer and rapist whose known crimes stretched from Arkansas to Missouri between 1976 and 1984. Born in 1945, Grinder worked at various times as a woodcutter and spent years moving through ordinary communities while serious suspicions about him remained unresolved. He is known to have murdered four victims: three teenage girls who disappeared together from Russellville, Arkansas, in December 1976, and a 25-year-old Missouri woman killed in January 1984. More than two decades passed between the first murders and Grinder finally being held accountable. The three Arkansas victims were Teresa Williams, Crystal Donita Parton, and Cynthia Mabry. All three disappeared on December 2, 1976. Teresa and Cynthia were 13 years old, while Crystal was 14. Although Grinder came to the attention of investigators early in the case, the girls were initially considered possible runaways. That assumption allowed an extraordinarily serious crime to remain unresolved for years.

The Russellville Triple Murder

On December 2, 1976, Teresa Williams, Crystal Donita Parton, and Cynthia Mabry disappeared from the Russellville, Arkansas, area. Grinder later admitted that he had picked up the girls and driven them away from Russellville. According to the account he eventually gave investigators, he drove to Morrilton, Arkansas, purchased alcohol, and then continued into the rural area around Brock Cemetery in northern Pope County. Grinder confessed that Teresa Williams and Crystal Parton were sexually assaulted near the cemetery. He said he strangled the girls and then stabbed them in the neck, leaving their bodies concealed with brush near a dead-end road. Cynthia Mabry was initially kept alive. According to Grinder's confession, he drove Cynthia away from the cemetery and into another isolated area of the Ozark National Forest. There he sexually assaulted her and beat her to death. Grinder described first striking her with a bottle and then using a tire iron when the initial attack did not kill her. Investigators did not know these details in 1976. Grinder acknowledged having encountered the girls but originally claimed that he had merely given them a ride and had dropped them near an interstate exit around Pottsville. With no bodies and little physical evidence, authorities initially treated the disappearances as a runaway case. Grinder therefore remained free. The case changed dramatically in 1986, when skeletal remains were discovered near Brock Cemetery. They were identified as Teresa Williams and Crystal Parton. Examination of the remains established that both had suffered fatal wounds to the neck. Cynthia Mabry was not found with them. Despite extensive investigation and Grinder's later confession, Cynthia's remains have never been recovered. ...

Confirmed Victims: (4)

Teresa Williams Age: (13), Date of Death: 1976-12-02

James B. Grinder - Wikipedia