The Eastburn family murders were the murders of Kathryn "Katie" Eastburn and her daughters, Kara and Erin, which occurred in Fayetteville, North Carolina, in May 1985. In 1986, United States Army Sergeant Timothy Hennis was tried and convicted for the three murders. In 1988, Hennis's conviction was overturned on appeal, and he was acquitted the following year. In 2006, the Cumberland County Sherriff's Office obtained DNA evidence linking Hennis to the crime. Despite the Fifth Amendment's Double Jeopardy Clause prohibiting retrials after acquittals, the United States Army was able to initiate prosecution and trial proceedings against Hennis under the dual sovereignty doctrine. In 2010, Hennis was tried and convicted by an Army court-martial for the triple murders and sentenced to death.
Background
Eastburn family
The Eastburn family was a military family that lived in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Gary Eastburn was a Captain in the United States Air Force. He had met Kathryn "Katie" Eastburn during the 1970s, with the couple marrying in 1975. Gary and Katie subsequently had three children: Kara, Erin, and Jana (aged 5 years, 3 years, and 22 months, respectively, at the time of the murders). In 1983, the Air Force sent Gary and his family to Pope Air Force Base, where he served as air traffic control chief. In May 1985, Eastburn was undergoing training at a squadron's officer school in Montgomery, Alabama, with his wife and children remaining in Fayetteville.
Timothy Hennis
Timothy Baily Hennis (born February 24, 1958) grew up in Rochester, Minnesota, and graduated from Mayo High School in 1976. His father, Robert Hennis, was a manager at IBM Rochester during the 1970s. Hennis worked in Rochester until he joined the United States Army in 1980. Hennis later married. He and his wife, Angela, had a daughter in 1985. Around May 1985, Hennis worked as a parachute rigger at Fort Bragg.
Murders
Since the Eastburn family was planning to relocate to England so that Eastburn could take up a liaison job with the Royal Air Force, Katie made arrangements to rehouse the family's English Setter Dixie, posting an advertisement in the local newspaper Beeline Grab Bragg. On May 7, 1985, 27-year-old U.S. Army Sergeant Timothy Hennis responded to the ad, visiting the Eastburn family home. Hennis's young family owned a spitz at the time. After chatting with Katie, Hennis took home Dixie.
On May 11, Katie did not respond to her husband Gary's routine phone call. On May 12, a concerned neighbor named Bob Seefeldt and a police officer visited the home, where they discovered the remains of Katie, Kara, and Erin. Katie had been stripped to the waist, raped, and stabbed 15 times. Semen was also found inside her body. Kara had been stabbed repeatedly in the chest, while Erin had been bludgeoned in the chest and back. The youngest child, Jana, survived the attack, but was dehydrated and suffering from diarrhea.
Investigation
Detectives Robert Bittle and Jack Watts of the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office were in charge of the homicide investigation. While combing the house, investigators found fingerprints and hair. A luminol test of the walls and master bathroom indicated that somebody had tried unsuccessfully to clean up the crime scene. After returning to Fayetteville, Gary Eastburn helped Bittle and Watts identify missing items, including an envelope of cash, Katie's ATM card, and a piece of paper containing her ATM password.
On the first night of the investigation, a janitor named Patrick Cone approached Bittle and Watts, telling them that he had witnessed a tall white man dressed in jeans, a knit cap, and a black "Members Only" jacket exiting the Eastburns' driveway carrying a garbage bag in the early morning hours of May 10. According to Cone, the man drove away in a white Chevrolet Chevette. Based on Cone's account, investigators believed that the Eastburn murders had occurred between 8 pm on May 9 and 3 am on May 10. Cone's description of the suspect was passed onto local media. Cone also helped the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation produce a composite sketch of the suspect.