Doreen Hope Dempsey was 22 and pregnant in the summer of 1973 when she was murdered in Johnsonville, Florence County, South Carolina. She had a two-year-old daughter with her; both Dempsey and the child were drowned, according to the confession of Donald Henry Pee Wee Gaskins, who described luring them by exploiting an acquaintance with Dempsey.

Dempsey’s death was one of several killings investigators later connected to Gaskins. He was convicted, sentenced to death, and executed in 1991. The case is usually discussed as part of the larger set of murders attributed to him rather than as an isolated crime.

Are there anyone in the Johnsonville area who remembers Doreen or her family, or who has information about her final days?