Disclaimer: This article contains mentions of murder and assault. Reader discretion is advised.
ABC 20/20‘s Lock the Door Behind You reexamines the violent crimes of convicted serial killer Henry Wallace. The upcoming episode will premiere on the network this Friday, July 19, 2024, at 9 p.m. ET. It will also include prison interviews with Wallace, who confessed to multiple murders, offering insights into his mind. A synopsis of the episode reads, “Never-before-broadcast video gives insight into the mind of serial killer Henry Louis Wallace, who confessed to 11 murders from 1990-1994, and his only surviving victim speaks in his first interview.”
Henry Wallace, now a convicted killer on death row, personally knew most of his victims. He worked at several fast-food joints where he met these women and befriended them. Later, he would violently murder the unsuspecting victims. The serial killer’s murder spree began in the 1990s and ended in 1994, following which authorities arrested him. Wallace then confessed to murdering 10 women in North Carolina and one in South Carolina. A jury finally convicted him of nine murders in 1997, handing him nine death sentences.
Where is confessed serial killer Henry Wallace now?
According to ABC News, confessed serial killer Henry Louis Wallace now remains on the death row in Raleigh’s Central Prison. His crimes will feature in ABC 20/20’s Lock the Door Behind You. Additionally, the episode comprises interviews with friends and family of Henry Wallace’s victims.
People Magazine stated that one such individual speaking out in the upcoming episode is Tyrece Woods. He was only 10 months old when Wallace murdered his mother, Brandi June Henderson, who was the final victim. The serial killer attacked Woods and Henderson in their Charlotte, North Carolina, home on the evening of March 8, 1994. There, he raped the 18-year-old Henderson before strangling her to death. The violent attacker also strangled Woods, but he survived.
Woods, now a grown-up, “truthfully” told ABC 20/20 that he “wanted to die for a long time.” But, he claimed that “as I started learning more, that’d be too selfish. She [Brandi June Henderson] fought too hard to keep me alive, and that’s why I survived. That’s why I didn’t die.” He added, “I went through all of that, so I’m like I’ve got to be doing something great for her. I’ve got to do something to the point where she can say, ‘I’m proud of you son.'”
ABC 20/20’s Lock the Door Behind You also shows an interview with Dee Sumpter, whose daughter Shawna Hawk was another one of Wallace’s many victims. Others who appear in the episode, which first premiered in 2022, include the detectives who worked on the case and the prosecutor. Henry Wallace’s high school classmates will also discuss the serial killer alongside journalists who reported on the killings.
Reportedly, Marsha Goodenow, a prosecutor on the case, revealed how investigators linked Wallace to the killings. They began looking into the men who likely visited Brandi Henderson’s apartment and learned about Wallace, who has a criminal background. Authorities then linked him to a murder victim using a unique hoop earring he wore. They connected it to a man in a bank security footage who had tried using a victim’s bank cards. March 12, 1994, marked an important date in the case as Henderson’s body was discovered and Wallace was arrested.
The police in Barnwell, South Carolina, had first encountered Henry Wallace in 1990. It was the same time Wallace had murdered his first victim, for which he never faced charges. Following this, he moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, where he committed the remaining murders. Dee Sumpter and others believe Wallace’s crime spree could have ended in Barnwell had authorities made the “obvious connections,” reported ABC News.
ABC 20/20’s episode Lock the Door Behind You will air on Friday, July 19, at 9 p.m. ET.
