Possible murder mystery surrounds North Carolina town's founder: 'The Cary you didn't know'

CARY, N.C. (WTVD) -- It's one of the fastest-growing cities in the Triangle and the country, but Cary started as a small community with a strict founder.

Cary isn't actually named after its founder Frank Page, who was a stern, religious family man who hated drinking hated gambling - He named Cary after a prominent temperance advocate, Samuel Fenton Cary because he wanted Cary to be a dry town when it was founded in 1871.

That didn't happen, and as it turns out, the straight-laced founder of the town may have had more to his story, and one local historian says she was shocked by what she found.

Katherine Loflin is a historian who runs the visitor's center in downtown Cary on Chatham Street. Inside, you'll find all kinds of photos and even T-shirts about Frank Page.

But while his story as a successful entrepreneur from a prominent family is well known, less is known about his tumultuous later years.

After Frank's wife of almost 50 years died, Frank developed a little bit of a wild side at age 74.

"He started to be a little more mysterious in his doings," Loflin says.

He began picking up horse racing and going out more. His conservative family expressed their worry in letters.

"They say things like approaching other women or suggesting to spend time with other women," she says.

One of those women, Lula, almost 40 years younger, apparently had her eyes on becoming his second wife.

In one letter, his kids make it clear they weren't happy about their dad rushing into something so soon, even calling him "insane"

"This woman is 37 years old, a widow and is of course marrying him for his money, the sooner he dies, the better she will like it," one letter reads.

That may have been foreshadowing, because less than a year later, Frank died, apparently under questionable circumstances. Reports list the cause as stomach issues but all of his vitals were fine.

"Everyone knew something fishy was going on but nobody was going to come right out and say it because it was such a prominent family," Loflin says.

The story doesn't end there - his new wife got almost all his money and the right to decide where he'd buried.

So his kids hatched a plan to steal his body back from the Merrimon-Wynne house in Raleigh.

"They stood at the top of the stairs and literally threw the empty casket down the stairs," she says.

To save face, Lula still had a fake funeral at Oakwood Cemetery with the empty casket, while Page was actually buried in Aberdeen, NC alongside his first wife and the mother of his children.

Whether it was a murder or not is up for debate, but the legend lives on.

"Cary has a lot of interesting tidbits that would give us street cred and that's why it deserves the light of day because this is the Cary you didn't know," Loflin says.

They're hosting an event on Sunday, July 14th called "Cary History by Train," taking the train from Cary to Raleigh to explore this story where it happened and let people decide this possible murder mystery for themselves. You can find more information on the Cary Visitors Center website and social media.

Loflin says if you miss that one she'll also be incorporating the story into more historical events and ghost tours.