Freeda Bolt

Murder

Freeda Bolt was a high school senior when she planned to run away with her boyfriend, Buren Harman, who was twenty years old, to get married in Roanoke. After several days without hearing from her, her parents put up a hundred-dollar reward for information. Sheriff D. P. Hylton, sometimes called Hilton, arrested Harman. At first, Harman claimed he had not seen Bolt the night she vanished and denied any wedding plans, but later admitted to killing her.

The murder took place on the road going down Bent Mountain. He pulled her body about thirty feet off the road and down a slope, covering it with leaves and logs. The next morning, he came back and found her still alive, so he finished killing her. Her body was found on December 19, after lying in the woods for six days before Harman confessed.

He led the sheriff and two deputies to the spot. A thick cord was wrapped around her neck. The county coroner, Dr. G. A. Kolmer, arrived. That evening, her body was taken to a building at Back Creek Orchard owned by J. D. Willet, where Hylton used the phone to call her parents.

An autopsy in Salem the next day determined she was strangled. The crime horrified the Bent Mountain area and Floyd County. Hylton moved Harman to the Roanoke jail for his own safety. Bolt was buried five days before Christmas, and many people attended the funeral.

Did You Know?

• An autopsy revealed that Bolt had been pregnant at the time of her death.
• Harman was sentenced to life but was released after serving eighteen years.
• The murder helped launch the career of journalist Jim Bishop.