Brunswick County group makes billboards in efforts to solve two cold cases

Reported by Laura Sinacori - bio|email
Posted by Debra Worley - email

BRUNSWICK COUNTY, NC (WECT) - Members of Justice for Citizens are using billboards in hope to get answers to two murders that happened years ago.

In February 1987, Jaye Potter-Mintz of Leland was brutally murdered.  She was sexually assaulted and then repeatedly stabbed to death.

For the past 22 years, Renee Braswell has thought about her cousin every day and wants to know why the young mother of two was killed.

Braswell is a member of Justice for Citizens, a non-profit group that looks for answers to unsolved murders in the area.  Most members in the group have lost loved ones to homicide.

The group is using a billboard in effort to obtain information about the death of Potter-Mintz and also in the murder of Bryan Smith.

According to the SBI, Smith was last seen on Front Street in Wilmington around midnight May 1, 1994.  A week later, his body was found floating in the Cape Fear River.

The two new billboards are a gleam of hope for the Justice for Citizens and the families that are still grieving.

"If they [drivers] are passing and they know something, they have to look at that face every single day when they are passing," said Braswell.

"We need the public to help us, and that's why we get the information out there, because somebody knows something somewhere," said group member Roy Willetts.

The Justice for Citizens group said they are thankful for all the help they have gotten from the Brunswick County Sheriff's Office and others who have donated money.

To help the Justice for Citizens, mail financial donations to:

Justice for Citizens
PO Box 88
Shallotte, NC   28459

The families hope that someone will have information that will bring closure to these cases.

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