Unsolved but not forgotten: Eight York County cold cases in need of a breakthrough

Melvin Roberts’ killing in York 14 years ago is one of the county’s most notorious murders, but it’s among many cold cases that remain unsolved in York County.

Police say a cold case describes when investigators exhaust existing leads, and no new information comes in. Detectives are assigned those cases to review evidence, make new inquiries and re-interview people connected with the investigation.

Such a review happened in Roberts’ murder because of suspicions about a second killer. Police believe the case remains half-solved partly because Roberts girlfriend Julia Phillips was too small and frail to have killed Roberts. And Roberts’ family remains committed to getting answers.

There can be breakthroughs in cold case killings that are years or decades old — especially when evidence collected years before matches new information such as a DNA hit, or there are tips from the public.

Such a breakthrough occurred in 2021 in connection with a newborn baby found dead in the Catawba River near Rock Hill. York County Sheriff’s Office detectives did not know the identity of the infant, nicknamed ‘Baby Angel Hope,’ until 2021, when DNA from a woman charged in a 2019 drug case matched DNA from the baby.

The DNA showed the woman, Stacy Michelle Rabon, was the baby’s mother. A judge sentenced Rabon to life in prison in 2023 after a jury found her guilty of homicide by child abuse.

Many other cases remain under review, with hopes of DNA, witnesses or other evidence that could turn a cold case into an arrest.

Here are some of the area cold cases still under review by law enforcement:

▪ Alexis Massey killing in 2021. Massey , 20, was an innocent bystander at a Rock Hill gathering when she was shot on May 10, 2021. A task force that includes the federal ATF, and state and local police is investigating. A $5,000 reward has been offered in the case.

William Mason killed in 2021. Mason, 82, a military veteran, was found beaten in his Rock Hill home on Jan. 1, 2021. He died days later. The coroner and Rock Hill police said the case was a homicide. Police released a sketch of a person of interest in early 2023 but have made no arrests or identified the person in the sketch.

▪ Daniel Ervin murdered in Rock Hill 2013. Ervin, 29, was found shot to death outside his family’s Pebble Road home on Oct. 16, 2023. The case went cold, but a task force of state and local police was created in 2023 to continue investigating.

▪ Cora Campbell killing in Rock Hill 2012. Campbell, 76, a widow, was stabbed to death in her Rock Hill home on Dec. 14, 2012. A handyman was convicted of trying to steal from Campbell, but no one was ever charged in her death. Rock Hill police did a “Cold Justice” television special in 2017, but the case remains unsolved.

▪ Latoya Cureton shooting death 2015. Cureton, 27, was found shot to death on Green Street in Rock Hill on Aug. 5, 2015. Cureton’s family, which includes an assistant football coach at Northwestern High School, has held vigils and events to keep the case in the public eye. The case remains unsolved.

▪ Double homicide in Fort Mill 2013. Two people from the Columbia area, Reginald Strother, 24, and Steve Vandross, 47, died after being shot at an event on Munn Road. Fort Mill Police Department officers collected evidence and interviewed dozens of people who were at the gathering but the case remains unsolved.

▪ Body found near Fort Mill and North Carolina state line in 2005. The skeletal remains of a Hispanic male were found by hunters in a shallow grave near Pleasant Road and Vista Road on Oct. 30, 2005. The remains were sent to an anthropologist to try and determine the identity of the deceased man. The man’s identity and a suspect in the death have not been found.

▪ Rennie Rinehart murder in York County 1986. Rinehart, 34, was shot outside her home in the Catawba area of southeastern York County on Oct. 4, 1986. Rinehart worked at the former Celanese textile plant in Rock Hill. The sheriff’s office did a podcast about the cold case in 2021 but it remains unsolved.

To contact law enforcement about any of these cases, call York County Crime Stoppers at 1-877-409-4321.

Sources: Rock Hill Police Department, York County Sheriff’s Office, Fort Mill Police Department, 16th Circuit Solicitor’s Office, The Herald archives.