FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. – A North Carolina man serving time in a Georgia prison is set to face murder charges Monday in the murder of his brother and sister-in-law more than two decades ago.
The Cumberland County Sheriff's Office said 48-year-old Sean Patrick McDuffy is being extradited back to North Carolina to face two counts of first-degree murder in the 1985 deaths of 24-year-old Kelly McDuffy and 20-year-old Bobbie Michelle McDuffy. Kelly and Sean McDuffy were brothers.
Kelly McDuffy and Bobbie Michelle McDuffy were found dead in their Fayetteville home on Feb. 21, 1985. Sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Tanna said stab wounds to their upper bodies contributed to their deaths, but she would not discuss additional information on their cause of death.
Tanna said the 24-year-old cold case was reopened in September 2007 after new evidence emerged and homicide detectives sifted through boxes of evidence and crime scene photos. She would not discuss that evidence.
Sean McDuffy was living with his brother and sister-in-law at the time of their deaths. He was considered a suspect at the time, but disappeared shortly thereafter. Tanna said evidence shows McDuffy began traveling across the Midwest.
Cumberland County police discovered in 2006 that Sean McDuffy was in the Telfair State Prison in Helena, Ga. serving a 15-year prison sentence for one count of aggravated assault and two counts of cruelty to children.
Tanna said McDuffy's prison sentence in Georgia is related to accusations that he tried to decapitate a girlfriend after an argument. However, details of the incident were unclear. A message left for the District Attorney's office in Walker County, where McDuffy was charged, was not immediately returned.
The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles granted McDuffy parole in September 2009, but he has been held until he could be extradited back to North Carolina.
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