During the 1953-54 school year, freshman Neota Moad was a “purple majorette” at Texas Christian University. In high school, she played the cornet in her high school band in Cisco, Texas. She was also a majorette. Sadly, in 1963, she was brutally bludgeoned in her Fort Worth home. While unconscious she was set afire in a house blaze. Her murder has never been solved. (Sources: University of North Texas archive and the 1954 Horned Frog yearbok.)

Very little has been written about this case since the 1960s. We found one true crime blog that reported she’d married Dude Green who was part of a gangster family. (Source) Also, in a tragic twist, Moad’s mother, Elva, shot and killed her husband (Neota’s father) in 1949. Elva Moad testified in her own defense telling jurors that Emory Moad was going to kill her and so she shot him in self defense. This has nothing to do with baton twirling but maybe something to do with how a beautiful young woman found her way into a ganster family and ended up dead at 27.

Finally, Neota had a sister, Elova, who also played the cornet and attended Texas Christian University.