Further Reading for The Durham Family Murders & Terry Jo Duperrault
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The story of Terry Jo Duperrault, 11 years old, is like something out of a real life horror movie. Duperrault was the youngest child of Arthur Duperrault and the only survivor of the sinking of The Bluebell, a ship chartered by her father to take the family to the Bahamas in 1961.
On the night of 12 November, 1961, Terry Jo awoke to the sounds of screaming as the ship was on its return course to the United States. She climbed the decks and found her family murdered by stabbing. All of them. The murderer was ship’s captain, Julian Harvey, who had planned to also kill Terry Jo. He scuttled the ship and took off in a dinghy with his then-living wife. Terry was no helpless child, however. As the ship sank and being without a life raft she untied what was essentially an oversized life preserver and watched the ship sink with the bodies of her entire family. Then she drifted.
Harvey was rescued three days later with his wife, who had managed to drown somewhere between the sinking of the ship and Harvey’s rescue. The next day, Terry Jo Duperrault was found floating in her life preserver on the edge of death. When news reached Harvey that she had been rescued, he cut his wrists and bled out rather than face the music. It is believed that the Dupperault family was collateral damage in an insurance fraud scheme to collect on his wife’s policy.
Episode: 28
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