Terry Fetner

True Crime All The Time Unsolved

The episode investigates the unsolved 2000 murder of Terry 'Dale' Fetner in Greenville, South Carolina. Hosts Mike Ferguson and Mike Gibson

Key takeaways

• Terry 'Dale' Fetner was stabbed 15 times in an attack that investigators believe was targeted.
• A suspicious fire damaged Fetner's home months before his murder, potentially forcing his relocation.

Main topics

• Terry Fetner murder investigation
• Greenville cold cases

Notable quotes

The moment a body is found, the clock starts ticking.

Conclusion

The episode highlights both the enduring frustration of unsolved crime

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:00) The moment a body is found, the clock starts ticking. 48 hours before the trail goes cold. From A &E and Crime House, this is the official podcast from the famous true crime series, The First 48. I'm Carter Roy. Every Thursday, I revisit a landmark homicide investigation in depth with long-form storytelling built for your ears. Listen to and follow The First 48 on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Speaker 4 (1:14) and welcome to episode 484 of the True Crime All the Time Unsolved podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson, and with me as always is my partner in true crime, Mike Gibson. Gibby, how are you? Speaker 3 (1:23) I'm good, man, and you? Speaker 4 (1:25) I'm doing great. Awesome. Having a good week. Temperature's dipping a little, though, in Ohio. Speaker 3 (1:30) Yeah? Speaker 4 (1:31) Getting down in the 60s high. Speaker 3 (1:33) Is that why your voice is going up a little bit? Speaker 4 (1:35) Yeah. Yeah? You know what happens when things get cold. Yeah. Let's go ahead and give our Patreon shout outs. Morgan McGuire jumped out our highest level. Speaker 3 (1:45) Hey, thanks, Morgan. Nicole Williamson. Hey, Nicole. Speaker 4 (1:48) Paula Stevens. Speaker 3 (1:49) What's up, Stevens? Karen Cruz. Hey, Speaker 4 (1:52) Karen. Raymond McDumpy. Or Raymond. Could be. Speaker 3 (1:57) Could Speaker 4 (1:58) be. And last but not least, Speaker 3 (2:00) Tammy Olson. Well, it's always nice when you get one of the Olsons in the house. It is. It Speaker 4 (2:05) is. Speaker 3 (2:05) Then if you go back into the vault. Speaker 4 (2:08) This week, we selected Jody. J to the Odie. So we appreciate the new support, the continued support. We also had a great PayPal donation from Anna Mayan. Speaker 3 (2:22) Thanks, Mayan. Speaker 4 (2:23) So we appreciate that as well. Gibbs, we have a new episode out right now on True Crime All the Time where we're talking about William Keck. This is a guy who found out that his estranged wife was pregnant with her fiance's baby. And he plotted his revenge armed with a chainsaw and an assault rifle. Yeah. It is a wild story. Not one, both. Both at the same time. We also dropped a new Patreon episode Saturday night. 39-year-old John Hillrich, the successful advertising executive and father of two, was leaving work when he was gunned down in a parking structure outside his office. Investigators quickly zeroed in on their suspects who had connections to John's wife. Speaker 3 (3:13) You never know. Speaker 4 (3:15) No, we know because we researched the story. Speaker 4 (3:21) All right, buddy, are you ready to get into this episode of True Crime All the Time Unsolved? Speaker 3 (3:25) I'm ready. We're Speaker 4 (3:26) talking about the murder of Terry Fettner. 44-year-old Terry Dale Fettner was stabbed to death in his apartment in Greenville, South Carolina during the weekend of Thanksgiving 2000. Dale was recently divorced and had moved into the apartment after his home was damaged by a suspicious fire. Nearly 26 years later. Authorities have not named any suspects. So I do think we're going to have a fair amount of intrigue, though, here. Terry Dale Fedner was born on January 24th, 1956. Dale grew up in Belton, South Carolina, with his brother and sister. He was described as a popular kid who had a lot of friends. According to the state newspaper, he had a typical Southern upbringing, with a father who worked as a carpenter. and a mother who enjoyed cooking for whoever showed up at her table. Speaker 3 (4:24) Man, I like those type of moms. Speaker 4 (4:25) Oh, my gosh. My grandma was like that for sure. You know, if I stopped by her house, I could bring one friend. I could bring 10. Speaker 3 (4:34) Yeah. Speaker 4 (4:35) Somehow she would whip something up in a matter of no time to feed however many. She always had things on hand. Oh, yeah. That was her specialty. Reverend Bob Clardy. who's good friends with Dale's older brother, recalled that Dale always wanted to tag along. Clardy also said that Dale's father often took them camping, fishing, and worked on cars with them. Clardy told the state, Dale was always up for a challenge. We had a lot of fun. Just being boys, we'd slip and smoke, stuff like that. He wasn't one. But, you know, to me, Gibbs, this idea that The younger brother wants to tag along with the older brother. I think that is pretty universal. Speaker 3 (5:23) It really is. I've always wanted to tag along with my older brother. And when I was the older brother, you know, my little brother wanted to tag around with me. Speaker 4 (5:33) Yeah, I don't know what tag around means. It's not something I've heard a lot, but I get it. You want to mix it up and not say tag along twice. Okay. That might be a new one, though, that you've come up with on your own. Speaker 3 (5:47) So you never had an older brother or a younger brother. Or Speaker 4 (5:51) a Speaker 3 (5:51) younger Speaker 4 (5:51) brother. Speaker 3 (5:51) So you didn't get to have that tag-along stuff. Speaker 4 (5:55) No, no, I didn't tag-along, and I was never tagged-along. I don't know how you say that past tense. Tagged-around. Tagged-around. But I'm sure if I'd had an older brother, I would have wanted to do the things that he did. Probably some things that he shouldn't have been doing and I definitely shouldn't have been doing, but that's just kind of how brothers go, I assume. It is. Dale's family attended Whitefield Baptist Church in Belton, where Bob Clardy is an associate pastor. Dale continued to attend most Sundays as an adult, usually sitting in the back with his sister. Dale moved to Greenville, South Carolina after graduating high school. He got married in 1990. but was divorced about two years later. In 1992, he purchased the house near downtown Greenville. Greenville, South Carolina is a nice little town. Yeah, yeah. I've been there one time and I remembered I did like it. Dale's son was born in 1994. He married his son's mother in 1996, but he was divorced for the second time just two years later. Well, sometimes marriage Speaker 3 (7:07) just doesn't work out for people. Speaker 4 (7:08) Yeah. It's a little strange that like two years for each of them, but, you know, hey. There wasn't really a lot about the particulars behind, you know, the relationships or the divorce. So it's kind of hard to know how things went. Dale owned a contracting business called Renovations by Dale. He did jobs of varying sizes from changing electrical outlets to rebuilding the inside of a store at the local mall. Speaker 3 (7:40) That's confidence when you name the company after Speaker 4 (7:42) yourself. Well, you're putting your name out there. Yeah. On the line. It's like me with the dancing with Rex West. But also there is a big difference from changing electrical outlets, which I can do. Yeah. Speaker 3 (7:54) To Speaker 4 (7:55) rebuilding the inside of a store at a mall. Those are two very different jobs. Speaker 3 (8:01) Different skill levels. Speaker 4 (8:02) Yeah. One I can do, one I cannot do. Dale was described as an easygoing guy who could have a conversation with almost anyone. He was physically large and imposing. Sources describe him as 6'4 and 240 pounds. Speaker 3 (8:19) That's a big Speaker 4 (8:19) boy. It is. At the time of his death, Dale was living in an apartment in the Azalea Hills complex on the east side of Greenville. He moved into the apartment after his home was damaged by a fire. On July 31st, 2000, nearly four months before his death, firefighters were called to Dale's home. Dale's house. wasn't destroyed by the fire, but it was damaged enough that Dale had to move out. The fire was classified as suspicious, but it remains unsolved. His new apartment was located in a prosperous area near the Verde golf course, according to the state. And I said it right up front, right? He moves into this apartment not all that long before he's killed. Right. So not much of a stretch that we're going to be talking about this time and that it's going to come into play in this case. You add on to that the fact that they classify the fire as suspicious. Okay. Well, what does that mean? Did he do it? Maybe. But did someone else do it to get him out of that house for whatever reason? Or someone Speaker 3 (9:38) else did it hoping that he would be in the house. Speaker 4 (9:40) That's true. And then him moving was just a byproduct of some failed attempt. Speaker 3 (9:48) Yeah. Speaker 4 (9:49) Dale spent Thanksgiving Day 2000 with his family. Later in the week, he worked on a house. He was building in Saluda, North Carolina, which is about an hour from Greenville. It was supposed to be a mountain retreat for him. And who wouldn't want a cool mountain retreat? Speaker 3 (10:08) I think Speaker 4 (10:08) everybody Speaker 3 (10:08) should have a cool mountain retreat. Speaker 4 (10:10) Well, not everybody can afford a mountain retreat. I mean, you got to think that he's doing fairly well with his business. Speaker 3 (10:20) I mean, it does help if you can provide the labor yourself. Well, Speaker 4 (10:23) that's true. You know, if you can build it or most of it yourself, obviously you're going to save a bunch of money. Dale spent Sunday, November 26, 2000, working on his home in Saluda. It was a cloudy day as he drove home down the mountain through the Greenville Watershed, a protected wildland that surrounds the North Saluda Reservoir. Dale stopped at Arby's at 6.30 p.m. to get some food before heading to the apartment. By the time he got home, it had been dark for about an hour. And I'm all in on Arby's. Arby's is one of my favorite fast food restaurants. You Speaker 3 (11:05) like that Arby's, don't you? Speaker 4 (11:06) I do. I feel like Arby's, at least where I live, is very consistent. You know what you're going to get. Whereas a lot of the other ones, the fries could be stale. They could be, you know, not crisp, taste old. You just don't know what you're going to get. I Speaker 3 (11:25) think you like those steak bites. Speaker 4 (11:27) I actually don't. I tried those ones and did not like them. I thought for sure you would like those. Speaker 3 (11:32) But I do like roast beef and I love curly fries. You like those? Well, that's like their staple, isn't it? Curly fries. No, Speaker 4 (11:39) their staple is roast beef. They actually have, I'm pretty sure that's what they started on. Yeah, yeah. Speaker 3 (11:47) Is Speaker 5 (11:48) that Speaker 3 (11:48) with the cowboy hat? Yeah, I was going to Speaker 4 (11:51) head that direction. At some point after exiting his work van in the parking lot, Dale was attacked. Investigators believe the assailant met him at his door. Dale was stabbed multiple times before succumbing to his wounds. Between 8 and 8.15 p.m., a neighbor found Dale face down in a pool of blood. His body was in plain view in front of the complex, about 25 feet from where the struggle began. So it's a rough scene. You have an individual lying face down in a pool of blood. And this is... out in front of the apartment complex, basically where anybody could see him. And obviously, at some point, somebody does, a neighbor does. That's just going to be a bad night for everyone involved. Oh, Speaker 3 (12:44) for sure. Speaker 4 (12:45) And obviously, Dale has lost his life. The coroner determined that Dale was stabbed 15 times in the