‘Who killed Beth-Ellen?’ Man’s podcast aims to solve Raleigh’s oldest unsolved homicide

Matt Duff almost altered the course of one criminal case. Now, he hopes to do the same for a second.

Duff, 45, is a private investigator and former TV producer based in Cary. He recently gained national attention for his podcast on the conviction of Ivan Cantu, a Texas man sentenced to death in the 2000 killings of his cousin and cousin’s fiancée.

Duff uncovered new evidence so convincing that a former member of the jury publicly called for a new hearing. A judge ruled that the new evidence was procedurally barred, however, and Cantu died by lethal injection in February.

Months later, Duff is hoping for a different outcome in his latest case: Raleigh’s oldest unsolved homicide.

Beth-Ellen Vinson, 17, of Grantham, an unincorporated community in Wayne County, was brutally murdered in August 1994 after leaving her apartment for a date with an escort-service client. The former beauty queen had moved to Raleigh just weeks before to save money for her dream of dancing on Broadway.

Thirty years on, her killer has never been caught. If Duff has anything to say about it, that’s about to change — with the help of a North Carolina legislator.

An unconventional start

For Duff, who grew up in Danville, Virginia, it’s been a long road to Vinson’s case, which he learned about from a fingerprint examiner he’d worked with on Cantu’s case.

“When I looked it up — that was last year — [I] saw the 30-year anniversary was right around the corner,” he said.

“I know I can generate enough information to change the course of a case and an investigation,” he added. “And so that’s what I hope to do with Beth-Ellen’s as well, for her family and friends.”

He began with old newspaper articles and made lists of key figures to find. When he discovered an anonymous letter was sent to the Goldsboro News-Argus more than a year after the killing, he was pulled in even further.

“That little element was something that said that there was more to this, more under the surface of this case for me,” he said.

Duff spends the first half of each month investigating, then the latter half producing the podcast, titled “Who Killed Beth-Ellen?” The podcast can be found on most podcast platforms and a website dedicated to the case, bethellenpodcast.com.

As of early September, it’s cost him roughly $700, including for a billboard to advertise the podcast and ask for tips.

As of last week, Duff has produced eight monthly episodes on the case, ranging from interviews with Vinson’s best friends to a chat with a forensic psychologist. He plans to keep the podcast going as long as the case remains unsolved. But there have been bumps along the way, with the biggest obstacle being getting people to talk.

“I’m not a cop, so I can’t force them to talk,” Duff said. “But I’m getting to that point of the investigation where there’s certain people that aren’t calling me back.”

Take, for example, Ricky Heath, Vinson’s boyfriend and roommate at the time of her death — and the last known person to see her alive. Despite multiple attempts, Duff hasn’t been able to get in touch with him, and Heath could not be reached for comment for this story.

“I think that, for me, the podcast is not going to be over until I do talk to Ricky,” Duff said. “I think I have to talk to Ricky.”

Other problems, like the erosion of memories over 30 years and lack of access to evidence, have snagged Duff’s investigation. He said he can’t understand why the Raleigh Police Department won’t let him see any part of its file and that when former detectives wanted to see their old notes before chatting with him, the department wouldn’t let them.

The department did not respond to The News & Observer’s request for comment.

‘It just needs to be solved’

Duff has found help from an unusual source: N.C. House Republican Majority Leader John Bell, who represents Wayne County in the General Assembly.

Bell told The N&O he first heard of the podcast after seeing a billboard in Goldsboro that Duff had up for seven months. It struck home, Bell said, as someone who grew up in Mount Olive. His wife was good friends with one of Vinson’s cousins.

“It’s over 30 years now, and it just needs to be solved,” he said. “The family is still hurting, and they want closure.”

Bell said he is hopeful Duff can shed light on the killing. He’s offered to help however he can, including calling people in the podcast industry to spread the word about Duff’s work.

“Some of the other conversations I’ve had, I’ll just keep to myself right now, and Matt,” he said. “I’m hoping to engage some other people that may be helpful.”

Pansy Steele, Vinson’s aunt, hopes the podcast will give their family closure.

“I think the podcast has been amazing,” she said. “I think it’s been very tasteful.”

Vinson was like a second daughter to her, Steele said, tearing up. Her daughter, Vinson’s cousin, still holds onto precious mementos of Vinson, including a black leather jacket that sits in her garage today.

“She was the hub of our life,” Steele said.

And 30 years on from that loss, she trusts Duff to bring new attention to the case, she said.

Duff estimates he receives five tips per episode, and he’s talked to many in Vinson’s inner circle. But he still has 10 to 20 calls to make, he said.

“It’s time to turn up the heat a little bit,” Duff said. “If everybody in North Carolina knew about Beth-Ellen’s case and knew how pieces fit together, this case would be solved.”

So far, he said, the evidence he’s presented on the podcast appears to point to someone Vinson knew — the rage and intimacy required for the 15-plus stab wounds she sustained, the cardboard thrown over her body, the way her car was angled as if she’d pulled up alongside someone. But Duff can’t say who until someone steps forward.

“I think that people are in North Carolina with information,” he said. “I know they are.”

What to know

Anyone with information in the death of Beth-Ellen Vinson can contact Matt Duff at 1-866-TIPS-4-BE or WhoKilledBethEllen@gmail.com . Tips can also be submitted to the Raleigh Police Department at 919-890-3555. For more on the case and the podcast, go to bethellenpodcast.com.