Most parents know they’d do anything for their children, including going to unimaginable lengths to keep them safe. On May 18,1994 an unspeakable act occurred in a sleepy bedroom community in South Carolina. A loving couple was murdered in cold blood for refusing to give an intruder information about one of their children.
Barbara and Joseph Lafayette lived in the small unincorporated South Carolina community of Adams Run. They had three grown children, all serving in the armed forces.
Some three years earlier, James Earl Reed, the boyfriend of one of their daughters, was convicted of assault when in a fit of rage and jealousy he tried to run over a man who was simply trying to help out his girlfriend. He hit him with the car and consequently went to jail for 37 months.
Upon his release from jail, instead of heading to the halfway house for recently released prisoners, Reed was busy hitchhiking - and he'd somehow managed to acquire a handgun.
He made his way to Adams Run and to the home of the Lafayettes. Using the gun, he tried to get them to give him the whereabouts of their daughter. But the Lafayettes refused to give him the information he wanted. So, he killed them in cold blood. He shot them five times.
There were eye witnesses who claim to have seen him leaving the home, and the tennis shoes found in his possession at the time of the arrest matched the prints found outside the Lafayettes' home. But there was no real physical evidence linking him to the crime scene.
Some reports say Reed at first confessed to the heinous crime and then claimed he was innocent, citing there was no physical evidence to link him to the scene. But the jury wasn't buying it. They spent all of 30 minutes deliberating the fate of James Earl Reed.
In the 1996 trial Reed was found guilty of two counts of murder and sentenced to death. At that time, prisoners on death row in South Carolina could choose their method of execution. Reed chose the electric chair. On June 20, 2008 Reed was executed for the murders of Barbara and Joseph Lafayette. Reportedly, he didn't request a last meal and had no final words prior to the execution.
In 2002, the Lafayettes' children established a scholarship that is awarded to an outgoing senior from Baptist Hill High School. So far, 20 students have been awarded the Lafayette Scholarship Award.
Six weeks ago, on May 18th - the anniversary of their parents' death -the children established a GoFundMe campaign to help raise the money for next year's scholarship.
Their GoFundMe summary says they've turned their tragedy into an opportunity for a young student to go to college - and to give back to the community.
This heroic story of parents who made the ultimate sacrifice one hopes any parent would be happy to make in exchange for the safety of a child, is a heartbreaking moment in the history of the Palmetto State. Do you remember these tragic murders in South Carolina?
To the contrary, here’s a deplorable moment in South Carolina’s history when a parent did anything but keep her children safe. Read on to learn more.
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