Murderer May parole denied for another four years
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Randy Lee May – the man who tricked a pair of teen girls in 1980, murdered one and left the other for dead – will spend at least another four years in prison after the state parole board ruled against his release.
In 1980, May lured 15-year-old Mitzi Holt and 16-year-old Mary Jones into the woods by pretending to be a police officer and asking for their help in locating a missing child.
May stabbed Holt three times in the chest, slashed her throat and handcuffed her to a tree before attacking, raping and killing Jones.
He returned to Holt, stabbed her again and then fled.
Holt managed to free herself and make it out of the woods seeking help.
Local officials such as former Hamblen County Sheriff Esco Jarnagin and former Hamblen County Mayor David Purkey – both of whom were working that night in different capacities – have frequently and vocally opposed May’s release.
“Because I lived this night in that emergency room with both these girls (one savagely murdered, the other scarred for life), I implore you to deny this request for parole,” Purkey wrote previously. “Randy Lee May deserves additional time in state custody to carry the burden of his calculated acts.”

