Carl Leonard Lee Stroop was 42 and lived in Roanoke, known to friends as Lee. Described as a large man with a bushy beard and a sparse, simple life, he socialized closely with a small circle of friends who struggled with alcohol but relied on one another for support.

On the early morning of January 1, while celebrating in the carriage house apartment of Susan Hutchinson and Dale Arnold in Old Southwest Roanoke, Stroop and four others—Hutchinson, Cynthia LaPrade, Daniel Mason, and Dale Arnold—were fatally shot. A neighbor, Robert May, who was 27 at the time, was identified as the primary suspect after reportedly being invited into the gathering and an argument ensuing.

Stroop’s body remained unclaimed at the morgue for eleven days before he was buried in a pauper’s grave in the city cemetery, marked only by a small metal plaque numbered 1224.