Why is the Raeford, North Carolina area so murdery, by murders?

Raeford is a town a railway made. In 1898 it was a cotton field with a few families on it. A year later the line from Aberdeen to Rockfish came through, and by 2020 the population was 4,859, ninety minutes from Raleigh and two hours from Charlotte. The name was stitched from the surnames behind the distillery and the general store. Twelve miles away, over in Robeson County near the South Carolina line, Red Springs has about 3,400 people and a median household income of $19,868. That's the Raeford area: two small towns in south-central North Carolina.

The five murders fall between August 1980 and November 1985. Three are in Red Springs, one of them on an October night in 1983. The other two are in Raeford, in September 1983 and November 1985. Episode 102 carries the Red Springs three and episode 155 carries the Raeford two, so the count is split between them.

Both episodes came decades later, in 2019 and 2020, long after the railway town had settled into being small. The entry ranks 100 overall and third in North Carolina.