The mysterious murder of Alice Ryan, one of the largest investigations in Greenville history

For decades, a cold case in Greenville went unsolved. More than 60 possible suspects and hundreds of leads came up empty, until 2019.

Share This Story

On Saturday, October 8, 1988, Alice Haynsworth Ryan was found dead on the kitchen floor of her home, 16 Woodland Way in Greenville, with multiple stab wounds.

Ryan had just returned home that day,  after spending the previous three days in the hospital undergoing chemotherapy treatment for lung cancer.

Police went door to door asking neighbors if they had any information that might further the investigation. Despite hundreds of leads, the case baffled police for decades.

On May 6, 2019, Greenville police announced Brian Keith Munns, 51, of Americus, Georgia had been charged in connection with Ryan's death.

MORE: Greenville police make arrest in Alice Haynsworth Ryan cold case

Here's an in-depth look at the history of the case, the life and death of Alice Ryan and the impact on her family.

Wealthy widow's slaying baffles police for more than a decade

The investigation, one of the largest in Greenville history, drew dozens of Greenville Police Department officers, a handful of State Law Enforcement Division agents and an FBI agent who drafted a detailed portrait of the kind of person who could commit such a crime. Detectives interviewed 300 people about the Oct. 8, 1988, murder, approximately 60 as possible suspects. 

They filled two large cardboard boxes with incident reports, tape recordings, interview notes, crime scene photos. It did not escape them just who Ryan was, the widow of a millionaire textile company executive and a scion of one of Greenville's most prominent legal families.

Read part 1: Murder of millionaire widow and heir of prominent Greenville family baffles police

Tragedy shatters young socialite, creates reserved, private matron

There was no denying, Alice Haynsworth Ryan led a charmed life. Cotillions and dinner parties. Governors and judges. Her friends say she was enchanting. Even her father, Harry J. Haynsworth, the steadfast barrister, could not quell her irrepressible spirit, she once confided to her children.

Yet, as is so often the case with complex personalities, Alice Ryan led a life of contradictions. She could be flamboyant as well as formal. She spent a lifetime in Greenville and knew many people, but passed her last years in her huge house with her cocker spaniel, Sassy, her children say. She worked difficult crossword puzzles and read mysteries and best sellers, her cherished solitude broken only for visits with a few friends, her Tuesday Study Group and delivering meals to shut-ins.

It was an ending far different from the beginning. Friends and family say her life changed forever when her husband, Joe, died at 45. Alice was 42, the mother of three children not yet grown.

Read part 2: Husband's tragic death shatters young socialite Alice Ryan

A sparkling autumn day turns grisly

The last day of Alice Ryan's life dawned without the slightest hint of the sultry Southern haze that had hung over the city most of the summer. The sky sparkled.

That Saturday, she woke to the clatter of St. Francis Hospital. Alice was ready to go home. Two nights in the hospital for chemotherapy were almost more than she could bear. One more round and she'd be done.

Around 3:10 p.m., Katherine Stribling, 51, wheeled into her mother's driveway. As she neared the back door, she said, she saw the pane nearest the doorknob was shattered. Confused, she inserted the key in the lock, and pushed the door open without noticing whether it was actually locked.

As she entered the kitchen, she saw her mother, motionless, on the floor. Her white silk turban, now spattered with blood, was more than three feet away, leaving her bald head exposed. Her brown trousers were in place, but her pink turtleneck and brown sweater were raised, revealing darkened wounds on her abdomen.

Read part 3: The last day of Alice Ryan's life began at St. Francis Hospital

Detectives find more questions than answers as case develops

The police reports on the Ryan showed a murder weapon — a black-and-yellow-handled flathead screwdriver — had been found in a ravine near where the car was abandoned. The screwdriver bore no fingerprints, police records show. Also found was a bloody, orange-and-white-striped dish towel that matched others in Mrs. Ryan's pantry.

The autopsy report showed no defensive wounds, no hair or skin under her fingernails. Weakened by chemotherapy, she didn't fight back. Four knife thrusts to her back and abdomen killed her but another 33 stab wounds marked her body.

As the details of the murder became known, neighbors grew uneasy. They called burglar alarm companies. They watched for strangers. They made sure their doors were locked.

Just a half-mile from Mrs. Ryan's house, a 16-year-old girl heard her parents talking. A junior at Christ Church Episcopal School, the girl told them she saw someone in a white car careening backwards down Mrs. Ryan's driveway at about the time of the Saturday murder, authorities said.

The girl confirmed the car in police custody was the same one she barely missed rear-ending. She told police the driver had dark hair, but she could not give a better description.

Read part 4: Detectives find more questions than answers as murder case develops

Ryan family deals with pain of mother's brutal slaying

Each of Alice Ryan's children dealt with her death in a different way.

Joe Ryan, 53 when his mother was murdered, became a reserve police officer.

Katherine Stribling, then 51, battled a sense of guilt for leaving out a screwdriver that may have been the murder weapon. She also regretted running away to get help when she found her mother's body.

Rhoda Proffitt, then 48, said she turned a dispassionate face to the day-to-day rumors that raced through Greenville.

Read part 5: Alice Ryan's children deal with the pain of their mother's brutal slaying

Share This Story