Debra Helmick

Larry Gene Bell (October 30, 1949 – October 4, 1996) was an American murderer and suspected serial killer in Lexington County, South Carolina, who was electrocuted for the murders of Sharon Faye "Shari" Smith and Debra May Helmick.

Bell forced Smith to write a "Last Will and Testament" before he murdered her and taunted her family by telephone.

Larry Gene Bell was born in Ralph, Alabama and had three sisters and one brother.

The family reportedly moved frequently.

Bell attended Eau Claire High School in Columbia, South Carolina from 1965 to 1967.

The Bells moved to Mississippi, where Larry Gene Bell graduated high school and trained as an electrician.

He returned to Columbia, married, and had one son.

Bell joined the United States Marine Corps in 1970 but was discharged the same year due to a knee injury suffered when he accidentally shot himself when cleaning a gun.

The following year, he worked as a correctional officer at the Department of Corrections in Columbia for one month.

Bell and his family moved to Rock Hill, South Carolina in 1972, and the couple divorced in 1976.

Bell was also a suspect in three other disappearances: the disappearance of Beth Hagen, the 1984 disappearance of Sandee Elaine Cornett, and the 1975 disappearance of Denise Newsom Porch.

On November 18, 1984, Sandee Cornett, then aged 26, was last seen arriving home from supper with her fiancé at 6:30 p.m. Later that evening, her fiancé attempted to reach her on the phone but received no response as he drove back to his house in Greenville, South Carolina.

The following day, when she failed to show up for work, her neighbor reported her missing.

There were no indications of a break-in or struggle at her house.

Her checkbook, house keys, and driver's license were all close, and the brown pocketbook was on her bed with the TV on.

There were only three items missing: an ATM card, a dictaphone, and a dark blue Velour jogging suit (probably worn by Sandee).

Because she "was not the sort to open her door to a stranger", investigators think she was taken away in her home by someone she knew.

Authorities spent two days looking for Sandee in the neighborhoods and neighboring woods, but they were unsuccessful.

The lost ATM card was located and used twice at an unidentified Charlotte bank.

Bell kidnapped 17-year-old Sharon Faye "Shari" Smith at gunpoint from the end of her driveway on Platt Springs Road in Lexington County, South Carolina around 3:38 p.m. on May 31, 1985 while she was collecting mail from the mailbox.

Her car was found abandoned at the curb near the mailbox, still running.

Mail was scattered on the ground.

Shari's parents, Bob and Hilda Smith immediately contacted the Lexington Sheriff's Department to report their daughter missing.

Two days after Shari's kidnapping, the Smith family received a phone call from her abductor, Bell.

Bell called in a distorted voice from a payphone 20 miles from the Smith home in Columbia.

Over the next few days, Bell called the Smith family regularly from a payphone to tell them Shari was fine and to taunt them.

In fact, Shari likely was killed within twelve hours of her abduction.

He told the family to expect a letter in the mail the following day with more information about their missing daughter.

The letter, which was two pages in length and written on paper from a yellow legal pad, was in Shari's handwriting.

Across the top she had written, "Last Will and Testament".

Several times throughout the letter, Shari emphasized to her family how much she loved them.

She wrote that they should never let her kidnapping ruin their lives.

She also requested that she have a closed casket at her funeral.

Six days after her disappearance, Bell called the Smith family and provided specific directions to follow which led to Shari's remains.

Her body was found behind an old Masonic Lodge in Saluda County, 18 miles west of the Smith home.

The autopsy showed that Shari had been dead for about four days.

Authorities were unable to determine her cause of death, but a residue of duct tape on Shari’s face suggested she had died of suffocation by having had duct tape wrapped around her face.

Two weeks after Shari was kidnapped from outside her home, on June 14, Bell kidnapped 9-year-old Debra May Helmick from her front yard near her family's trailer on Old Percival Road in Richland County, 24 miles from the Smith home.

He killed her, and again called the Smith family after midnight on June 23, to tell them where he had left Helmick's body just off a dirt road, amongst thick brush.

Debra was also suffocated to death with duct tape around her face.