Suspects

Wallace Peter Kunkel

On April 12, 1971 at approximately 10:30pm he would be picked up by Fayetteville, Arkansas Police three blocks from the murder site sitting in the passenger side seat of a vehicle being driven by a 19yr old Mike Boyd. The arresting officer would state that there were splotches of blood on his clothing and fit the general description provided by the witnesses at the scene.

Charles Joseph Pate

On June 1, 1965, in Ozark, Franklin County, Arkansas Pauline Storment (name misspelled on marriage certificate as Pauline Scrumet) married Charles Joseph Pate. During the course of the investigation into Pauline’s murder a former roommate of hers named Iris Fletch would tell investigators that Pauline was deathly afraid of her ex-husband.

*NOTE* As of 2024, when Lt. Tim Franklin of the Fayetteville Police Department searched the system he could not find a record of a divorce certificate though it was also that people who knew Pauline while she worked various jobs in the Memphis, and Atlanta areas that she had been divorced since at least 1969.

** I will note that Investigators in 1971, did not aggressively pursue this theory because supposedly he attended the Pauline’s funeral but at least one of Pauline’s first cousin’s doesn’t remember this man being in attendance but memories fade and it’s been 53yrs and counting since then.

Jack Butler

It should be noted that Jack Butler isn’t being seriously considered as a suspect but based on case documentation he probably should be when one couples together his confession statement with the anonymous letter sent to a true crime magazine in which the anonymous letter re-affirmed that Pauline was killed due to mistaken identity.

Butler’s Confession is as follows:
On May 21, 1971, at 8:30pm, Jack Butler walked into the Fayetteville Police Department at the age of 27 and confessed to Capt. Riggins of murdering Pauline Storment.

In short, Butler claimed he was swimming at the campus pool than went to the concert on campus but didn’t stay long. He went home and got his pocket knife then would walk through the Evergreen Cemetery where he would meet a man. He and the man would walk west along Center Street with him on one side of the road and the other man on the other side. Butler would state he saw a woman and begin following her then when she turned off center and onto Duncan he continued that stabbed her from behind. Yet, when he got home he was shocked to see his wife because he told Capt. Riggins he thought he had killed his wife and killed Pauline Storment instead.