Investigators may have identified someone as a suspect in an unsolved 1979 sexual assault and killing, and they are renewing a call for the public’s help in a second unsolved case involving a woman who disappeared in 1999, officials said.
The Alamance County Sheriff’s Office is seeking fresh input from the public in the 1979 death of Tammy Sue Aldridge, 20, after developing a possible suspect, Sgt. Dan Denton said.
“Even though we have developed a suspect, we are now turning to the public for any possible leads or information that could help further our investigation,” he said.
Aldridge was abducted June 30, 1979, while jogging on Jim Barnwell Road. After her capture, she called home the next two nights, saying that she could not say where she was but that she was OK and would be returning home soon.
Someone found her body about 3:45 a.m. July 3, 1979, near the intersection of N.C. 54 and Jim Minor Road. Her ankles were bound with rope, and she had also had rope marks on her neck and wrists. Her body was still warm, indicating she had been killed not long before her body was found.
The medical examiner ruled she had been strangled to death by hand.
Investigators were able to recover DNA, gray and red human hairs, and dog hair on her clothing. Two men who worked on the Barnwell Farm told investigators they had seen two men driving in the area in a blue/green truck around the time that she went missing.
One man was charged in 1985 and brought to trial, but the case was dismissed due to insufficient evidence.
In addition to the Aldridge case, the sheriff’s office is asking for the public’s help with the the case Cynthia Glenn Kelley, 40, who was last seen on May 13, 1999, at her home on Snipes Road in Graham.
Sheriff Terry Johnson said that investigators check on numerous leads over the years, but with no luck.
“We have even dug in wells, based on a tip,” he said. “Shortly before he passed, her father came in my office crying and in pain over not knowing where his daughter was. It’s heartbreaking.”
Any information that someone has about either of these cases — even if you feel that it’s insignificant — could actually be important, Johnson said.
Investigators ask that anyone with information on either case call the Alamance County Sheriff’s Office at 336-570-6300 or Crimestoppers at 336-229-7100, or provide a tip online at www.p3tips.com.
This is the second week in a row that the sheriff’s office has sought new information in at least one unsolved killing. Last week it was the case of Larry Gray Knighten, 40, who was fatally shot at his home on Mount Willen Road in southeastern Alamance County about 11 p.m. on Dec. 4, 1998, by someone he had let in the front door.
