Who killed Miss Flora Inman?

My wife, whether she will care to admit it or not, fancies herself as somewhat of an amateur detective. She’s not out on the streets processing crime scenes or anything, but she’s watched enough true crime documentaries to pick up more than a thing or two about forensics and criminal behavior.

Recently, she sent me a link to a Facebook group that she follows where somebody had made mention of an apparent cold case from 1965 in Corbin. The case was the brutal murder of 63-year-old Flora Inman, a Williamsburg native and longtime teacher for Corbin Schools.

At the time of her murder, Miss Inman was inside her home on Master Street. It was mid-December, and she was apparently decorating a Christmas tree when someone entered the house and stabbed her 68 times. According to an article I found in our archives, she had “19 stab wounds in the chest with one each in the throat, cheek, temple, and behind the ear and others over the body.”

The article also stated that two knives had been left inside her body – one in her left temple, and one in her chest. In addition to that, a large flowerpot had apparently been broken over her head. As you could imagine, the scene was horrific.

I can only imagine what it must have been like for East Ward Principal Paul Gibbs and a fellow teacher at the school when they discovered Miss Inman’s body while performing a well care check at her home. The pair decided to make the short walk to the house when Inman did not report to work the following day.

According to the Whitley Republican article from Dec. 16, 1965, the reason for the attack had not been determined. An obituary on the front page of the Dec. 23 edition said, “Officials have not charged anyone with the murder and are still conducting their investigation. Several clues have been found and some suspects have been questioned, but the murder has not yet been solved.”

Now, not being a Corbin native, all of this was totally new information to me. I imagine that several others in the local community are also hearing about it for the first time, but many who have lived their entire lives here may already be aware of all of this. I imagine there are even quite a few folks who can remember when this tragedy took place, but at nearly 60 years ago, that list is definitely getting shorter.

After a few days of learning about this shocking crime, my curiosity got the best of me. I wanted to know if anything ever came of the investigation into Miss Inman’s murder, so I tried to find out.

I looked through more newspaper archives, but I couldn’t find any other stories. At least not in the Republican throughout the following year.

I went to the Corbin Police Department, but was told that all of the old records from that time period had been destroyed in a flood back in the 80’s, so no luck there either.

Finally, I spoke to the son of Mr. Paul Gibbs, who happens to be a friend of mine. He said that, although he does recall his father mentioning Miss Inman on occasion, it wasn’t something that he spoke about often, as it was likely difficult for him to mentally go back to the events of that day. And considering the grisly details just recounted, who could blame him?

So, with no new information I began thinking about where to look next. Then my wife, the amateur detective, sends me a couple of photos of some old Herald-Leader and Courier-Journal clippings. I guess she had continued digging for info online, and had found where someone had posted these images in a comment section on the previously mentioned Facebook group.

The Courier-Journal article stated that “Mrs. Wyona Suter, 45, Corbin, charged with murder in the stabbing death of a Corbin schoolteacher in 1965, was ordered committed to the Kentucky State Hospital at Danville.”

According to the article, this Mrs. Suter had been found mentally ill at a sanity hearing in Knox Circuit Court before being committed. It said that, if treatments were successful, she could be tried on the murder charges.

The Herald story went into a little more detail, but it named the suspect as Mrs. Winona Suter instead of Wyona. The article stated that Suter had already been committed, and was on leave from the Kentucky State Hospital at the time of Miss Inman’s murder.

Suter, I suppose, had been living in a house nearby Inman’s, and she was out of town with her parents when a warrant was issued for her arrest. Once authorities were able to make contact, she was transported from Corbin to Barbourville for the previously mentioned sanity hearing.

So, my guess is that Mrs. Suter went back to the State Hospital, and was never deemed fit to stand trial. Being 45 at the time of the murder, she probably died as a patient of the state. Still, it would be nice to know all of this for certain.

The fact remains that nobody was ever tried for the murder of Miss Flora Inman. In all likelihood we know that this Wyona/Winona Suter was to blame, but it appears that we may not ever know that with absolute certainty.

Additional documentation has to exist somewhere, and I would really like to get over to Barbourville at some point in the near future to see if anything can be found over there, but my guess is there will always be more questions than answers in this case.

If anyone has any knowledge of the case that they would like to share with me, I would be more than happy to hear it. Feel free to email me at tsherman@corbinnewsjournal.com.

In memory of Miss Flora Inman, 63. Graduate, Williamsburg High School. Graduate, Cumberland College. Masters Degree in Library Science, University of Kentucky. Teacher and Librarian, East Ward Elementary School, Corbin.