This day in history: On the night of November 20, 1901, a young girl named Ella M. Cropsey, called 'Nell' by those who know her, disappeared from her home in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. Thirty-seven days later, her body was found floating in the Pasquotank River.
The story of Nell Cropsey remains one of the strange tales of murder in North Carolina history. Nell was courted by a young man named Jim Wilcox, the son of the local sheriff. By 1901, they had been together nearly two years and were talking about marriage. Nell was growing impatient with Jim Wilcox’s hesitancy to propose marriage.
"Nell Cropsey began flirting with other men in public in an attempt to spurn Wilcox into proposing. Instead, that evening of November 20, Cropsey and Wilcox had a huge argument. Although some of Nell’s family who were in the house at the time said that she and Wilcox had tentatively made up by the end of the evening, when Cropsey steeped outside the door with Wilcox around eleven p.m. was the last time she was seen alive.
With the discovery of Cropsey’s body, the town went mad. A lynch mob descended on the jail, demanding Wilcox be released into their hands. Nell’s parents refused to join the mob, and pleaded with the crowd to let justice be served in the courts. Eventually, Governor Aycock sent in a small naval reserve group to disperse the crowd.
Wilcox was tried twice for Cropsey’s murder. The fitrst guilty conviction was overturned when the NC Supreme Court declared a mistrial. A second trial convicted Wilcox on a charge of second degree murder an sentenced him to thirty years in prison. At neither trial did Wilcox take the stand in his own defense.
Wilcox was pardoned by Governor Thomas Bickett in 1920. To the end of his life, Wilcox maintained his innocence." Source
Since then, many who have lived in the Cropsey home have reported strange happenings. Lights have gone on and off by themselves, doors open and shut of their own accord, and storage gusts of cold air move through the house.
The pale figure of a young woman has also been seen moving through the house. Many people passing by on the street outside have reported seeing the ghostly figure of a girl looking out of an upstairs window. Residents say that the figure of Nell Cropsey has even appeared in their bedrooms at night.
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