On this day, Dec. 28, in 2003, Faye Copeland, who with her husband were considered the oldest serial killers ever sentenced to death, died of natural causes.
In October 1989, Missouri police received a tip that a human skull and bones could be found on farmland owned by an elderly couple, Ray and Faye Copeland. Ray was 75 and Faye was 69. Police found five bodies buried in shallow graves around the farm. They also found a handmade quilt Faye Copeland made out of a dead victim’s clothing.
Recommended Stories
The Copelands’ modus operandi was to hire drifters, involve them in a scheme to buy cows at auction with fraudulent checks, and then kill them. The Copelands were convicted of five murders, but are suspected of as many as 12.
Although the Copelands were the oldest couple to be sentenced to death, neither was executed. Ray died in 1993 on death row. Faye’s sentence was commuted to life in prison. She was released on medical parole and died at age 82.
– Scott McCabe
