The Lost Colony Murder on the Outer Banks

Seeking Justice for Brenda Joyce Holland

De: John Railey

Narrado por: Patrick Lawlor

In the summer of 1967, 19-year-old Brenda Joyce Holland disappeared. She was a mountain girl who had come to Manteo to work in the outdoor drama The Lost Colony. Her body was found five days later, floating in the sound. This riveting narrative, built on unique access to the state investigative file and multiple interviews with insiders, searches for the truth of her unsolved murder. This island odyssey of discovery includes seances, a suicide, and a supposed shallow grave. Journalist John Railey cuts through the myths and mistakes to finally arrive at the long-hidden truth of what happened to Brenda Holland that summer on Roanoke Island.

Contains mature themes.

©2021 John Railey (P)2021 Tantor

Underrated book, excellent!

Very well written, paced perfectly, and makes the case very convincingly. Surprising it is not more popular

A reporter's tenacity finally reveals a murderer

Intriguing. Heart-breaking. Yet one more situation of power/prestige allowing the guilty to go free for far too long and those around them being left to pay the price and pick up the pieces. Thank you, John Raley, for not allowing it to remain that way. I hope Brenda Holland can rest in peace ~ at long last.

Interesting case, Amatuer Analysis

this book feels very amateurish to me both in the investigation and thought process and has way way too much added detail and fluff that nearly drove me crazy.
The authors conclusion is completely ridiculous to anyone, esp someone who has spent thousands of hours wasting their time reading true crime books and watching Forensic Files and such.
it's almost embarrassing.
this case absolutely could have been solved had the sheriff not been completely unable to investigate anything physical.
the bizarre stuff the Sheriff's Office did like washing the victims clothes before they sent them to the FBI for forensic analysis?
This was 1967 but still even without forensics we have today they could have at least collected evidence from the last place she was known to have been. which was the main suspects bedroom,
they could have been impounded the cars of the three men in the apartment she ended up in that night. the main suspect that lied about bringing her home. but thankfully a friend was able to contradict him right then because they had been waiting on her & knew he had not even driven by. then they told him even stupider story and that was fine with the sheriff
at the end of the book the author gives his own opinion and it is something I probably would have come up with when I was 15 years old.
it's a solution people used to believe before forensics ,,, like people used to believe that it was always an out of town Drifter, or that sex murderers had homosexual tendencies, or of course she left the guys home at 4 in the morning on her own and wasn't sexually assaulted because she was dressed when found dead?,
or you find out that a man and woman have a very contentious marriage and you decide he's the killer of some random stranger across town that he has no ties to because he has supposedly physically hurt his wife (according to his stepdaughter 40 years later.)
the conclusion made me angry and I hope that someone with a lot of experience will revisit this case like an FBI profiler and review the autopsy for more clues because from what little bit we got on that it sounded like the Examiner had a brain in his head.
-the sheriff was clueless
-in my opinion one or two guys with her that night got away with murder
- this book accuses a troubled and innocent man and the theory makes no sense but it is a type of theory you would hear in the 1970s 1980s 1990s before the FBI started doing profiling of killers.
my opinion is this is date rape and murder

The reader kills the story😕

Too bad. She seemed like an interesting woman. I would have liked to know more about her and what happened, but the narrator read it like a weather report. Turned it off after the prologue.

Interesting story

Every tragedy like this should haves book written about it. A good listen just sad.

Unbelievable

So hard to listen to so thorough in the investigation. I’ve really enjoyed this and my heart breaks for Brenda and her family.

Interesting

Well written and very touching. The author does a fantastic job portraying the family and helping the reader get a feel for who Brenda was.

The narrator is very monotone and dull, however. I think this would have been a better read than listen.

It takes forever to get to the actual story!

Dear Lord, a lot of filler. It took 4 1/2 hours just to get to the story! Way too much information that doesn't matter.

Disappointed

I had to quit the book about 1 1/2 hours from the end. Way too much history about the town history that from what I could tell, had no bearing on the outcome.
One thing I like in listening to an audio book is a chance for your mind to catch up with the reading. A pause for a few seconds is needed. Did not have it in this book. Just constant information that was boring.

Narrated methodically.

Endless names to remember. Tough to get thru. If the book wasn’t an audible, and was paperback, I would have given up reading.