Killer revealed; mystery deepens

STAUNTON -- The woman who said she fatally shot two young store clerks more than 40 years ago -- and got away with the murders -- said on her deathbed that the lead investigator always knew she was the killer, authorities revealed at a news conference yesterday.

Sharron Diane Crawford Smith told investigators the details of the double homicide in a series of interviews as she lay dying of kidney and heart failure. She said lead Staunton police investigator Davie Bocock helped her bury a .25-caliber handgun used in the murders.

In another twist, Smith revealed she shot the victims because she was taunted for being a lesbian -- a sexual orientation that would have been met with hostility at that time in the conservative Shenandoah Valley town.

Years later, Smith would become a guard at the Virginia Correctional Center for Women in Goochland County.

And in yet another development, a circulation manager for the local newspaper yesterday turned in to police a .25-caliber handgun that she said the now-deceased detective gave her husband 28 years ago.

Smith was arrested in December in the deaths of Constance Hevener, 19, and her sister-in-law, Carolyn Perry, 20. Each was shot at point-blank range at a High's Ice Cream store on April 11, 1967.

Smith, 18 when the shooting occurred, died Sunday at the age of 60 while free on bond. She was being treated at a Harrisonburg medical facility for a number of ailments when she died.

Smith told authorities, who were reinvestigating the case after a tip, that Bocock knew she had killed Hevener and Perry. In a Dec. 30 taped interview at the medical facility, Staunton detectives asked Smith about her relationship with Bocock. The transcript reads:

Question: "Yeah, so you guys were pretty good friends?"

Smith: "Yeah."

Question: "When you met with Bocock, did he ask you if you had shot the girls, or did you tell him you had shot the girls? Did you tell him what happened? Do you remember exactly what you told him?"

Smith: "I believe that I had shot the girls."

Question: "You told him that?"

Smith: "Yep."

Rumors that Bocock had covered up the crime have circulated in Staunton for years. Bocock, who died in 1988, had cleared Smith as a suspect early in the investigation despite a tip that she was the killer.

Police took the extraordinary step yesterday of releasing all the voluminous files in the case -- including transcripts of the half-dozen recent interviews with Smith -- to show good faith.

"We are doing this in an effort to be as transparent as possible," said Chief Jim Williams.

"Any implications that the police department was protecting their own is totally crazy," Commonwealth's Attorney Ray Robertson said of the long-investigated case. "We're hell-bent on finding out the how and why."

. . .

Smith said she gave Bocock, a veteran detective, the .25-caliber murder weapon and they buried it together deep in a hole in a metal box by a tree and cinderblock house on his property outside Staunton.

She also said she stayed at a house on his farm for a few days after the murders and left the jeans and blouse she wore during the shootings at the house. Police said they are searching for the handgun at that location.

In what may be a related development, an employee of The News Leader in Staunton turned over a .25-caliber handgun to police yesterday. Kathy Myers, the paper's circulation manager, said her late husband was given the gun by Bocock in 1981, said Cindy Correll, the community conversations editor for the paper.

Myers, who said her memory was jogged by a News Leader webcast on the crimes, "wanted to know if there was any connection" between the gun and the murders, Correll said.

Police said they have no idea why Bocock would not arrest Smith but instead would allow a Staunton man, William W. Thomas Jr., to be tried for one of the murders in 1968. Thomas was acquitted.

Authorities would not say if they believed there was a romantic relationship between Smith and Bocock.

"There's likely to be questions surrounding this case that we'll never be able to answer," Williams said.

"We don't even know if it's true" Robertson said about Smith's claims that Bocock covered up a crime he was investigating. "We know it's what she told us. You can't accuse somebody of something and ruin their good name without facts."

Dave Bocock's son, Robert, could not be reached for comment.

. . .

Police have corroborated some of Smith's claims, including that she was a lesbian, by interviewing a woman with whom Smith had lived for many years.

Smith, who was sedated heavily and rambled at times during the interviews, told police on Nov. 28 that Hevener and Perry were counting money at the ice-cream store at closing time. Smith said she got into an argument with the girls and shoving occurred.

Smith said she shot Perry first in the head. Then Hevener "hunkered down" to help Perry, and Smith stood over her and shot down into her head.

Smith swept up about $100 lying on the counter and ran off to her car. She left Virginia for a while but returned and worked at Western State Hospital in Staunton and worked for years as a guard at the state women's prison in Goochland.

"She expressed shame in herself, but I never saw any tears," said Mike King, a Staunton police investigator who conducted the deathbed interviews.

Danny Perry, who was married to Carolyn Perry when she was killed, said: "I think they got the right person, but she got away with it -- having never been convicted.

"At least the part of knowing who did it is over with. But it won't be closure -- might never be closure -- until we find out how this thing was covered up and why."
Contact Carlos Santos at (434) 295-9542 or .