Local News

Still No Arrests In Durham Cross Burnings

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Burning Crosses
DURHAM, N.C. — Five months after police found three crosses burning at different locations around the Bull City, Durham investigators still have made no arrests in the case.

The crosses -- each about 7 feet tall and 4 feet wide -- were burned in separate spots across the city during a span of more than an hour. Police said yellow fliers with Ku Klux Klan sayings were found at one location.

The first incident was reported on May 25 at about 9:19 p.m. on a hill near St. Luke's Episcopal Church at 1737 Hillandale Road.

Half an hour later, officers and firefighters responded to the area of South Roxboro Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway, where they found a cross burning on a hill of dirt near town homes under construction.

A third incident was reported at 10:28 p.m. in a field near Holloway and Dillard streets.

The perpetrators left little physical evidence at the sites. Police recovered a shoe print from a flier left at one of the scenes, but it was a popular and common Reebok athletic shoe.

Samples of the lumber and burlap used to make the crosses were sent to an FBI forensic lab in Quantico, Va., for analysis, but they have yielded little information.

Anyone with information on the case is asked to call CrimeStoppers at

(919) 683-1200

. Reward money for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the case is now up to about $22,000.

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