John Henry Lee, an 80-year-old white man of Robeson County, North Carolina, fell ill on June 4, 1977 with severe stomach and chest pains, vomiting and diarrhea and died shortly afterward. His symptoms were first attributed to a severe stomach virus and no foul play was suspected at the time.

John and his 76-year-old wife, Record Lee, had employed 45-year-old Velma Barfield as a live-in caretaker in the months before his death. Barfield had a prior record for writing bad checks. After a later investigation following the death of Barfield’s boyfriend, Stuart Taylor, Barfield was arrested in May 1978 and confessed to poisoning multiple people in her care, including John Henry Lee, saying she gave him arsenic to stop him from discovering a forged $50 check.

Barfield’s confession led to convictions. Did anyone in Robeson County remember John Henry Lee or his household in 1977 and have information about Barfield’s time there?