Frances Souther

Do you know who murdered 56 year old Frances Hess Souther in 1992?
In the days leading up to Thanksgiving in 1992, Frances Hess Souther was likely preparing for the holiday. A 56-year-old Caucasian woman, she was a familiar and friendly face to children at a local elementary school in Concord, North Carolina, where she worked in the cafeteria. She lived a quiet life in a home on the 3400 block of Old Airport Road, a rural stretch in Cabarrus County. But the holiday peace was shattered when she was found murdered inside her residence.

The last time anyone is known to have seen Frances alive was on the evening of Wednesday, November 25, 1992, the day before Thanksgiving. A neighbor saw her in the carport of her home. What happened over the next two days remains a mystery. On the morning of Friday, November 27, after Thanksgiving had passed, Frances’s daughter went to check on her. Tragically, she discovered her mother’s body inside the house.

The Cabarrus County Sheriff’s Office was called to the scene, and an investigation into a homicide began. Detectives determined that Frances had been the victim of foul play, but details about her injuries or the specific cause of death have not been publicly released. The crime scene was processed for evidence, and investigators worked to piece together a timeline of her final hours, but the case yielded few immediate leads. No arrests were made in the initial stages of the investigation.

For more than three decades, the murder of Frances Souther has remained unsolved, a painful and lingering question for her family and the Concord community. The case is now classified as a cold case, but it has never been closed. It is one of several unsolved homicides from that era that investigators with the Cabarrus County Sheriff’s Office continue to review, hoping that new technology or a long-overdue witness account might finally provide a breakthrough.

The passage of time has not diminished the hope for justice. Investigators believe that someone, somewhere, has information that could be crucial to understanding what happened to Frances in her home during the 1992 Thanksgiving holiday. Even a seemingly small or insignificant detail could be the missing piece that allows detectives to move forward. The case of Frances Hess Souther is a stark reminder of the lasting impact of violence and the enduring search for answers.

As of November 2026, the investigation into the homicide of Frances Souther is ongoing and remains an active cold case. The Cabarrus County Sheriff’s Office continues to ask for the public’s help. Anyone with information regarding the case is urged to contact the Cold Case Investigation Unit, in the hope that after so many years, the person responsible can be identified and Frances’s loved ones can finally have a measure of closure.