In mid-summer of 1978, a couple would be found murdered some distance apart, and would remain unidentified for nearly forty years. Though they have recently had their names restored, their killer is still unknown.
It was June 17th, and a farmer was driving a tractor along an access road near Interstate 55 in Blytheville, Arkansas when he spotted the body of a young woman lying in a ditch near the edge of the highway.
The woman was white, thought to be between eighteen and twenty-five years old, with light brown or blonde hair, hazel eyes, and an amateur tattoo on her right arm reading “Kim.” She had been shot once, in the left side of the head.
On the same day, approximately twelve miles away in Pemiscot County, Missouri, another set of remains would be discovered, also dumped beside Interstate 55. These belonged to a white male in his mid-twenties, with brown hair, blue eyes, a vertical scar on his forehead, and a tattoo reading, “J.H.” He had been shot three times: once in the back of the head, and twice in the neck.
Almost immediately, the pair was determined to have been killed by the same assailant, despite the distance between the bodies. Early on the morning of June 17th, the victims had been spotted together and alive at a Blytheville truck stop restaurant called Scotty’s. According to witnesses, the couple had been dropped off at the restaurant by a man who worked at a car dealership just opposite the truck stop. A waitress at the restaurant told police that the young woman was carrying a backpack and a bedroll, but that the pair appeared very neat and clean, and not as though they had been sleeping outside.
As the investigation continued, a trucker also came forward and confirmed that he had seen the two victims walking together down the shoulder of the interstate on June 17th, only hours before they were both found dead.
For decades, the couple was unidentified, despite numerous attempts by law enforcement to locate their next of kin. It seemed almost certain that the slain pair would be forever branded as John and Jane Doe. The individual who killed them, likewise, was a complete mystery, with some detectives speculating that the victims had run across an unknown serial murderer, such as the mysterious I-40 Killer.
Then, in May of 2017, thirty-nine years after the crime, familial DNA tests finally established the male subject as twenty-one-year-old Jimmy Hendricks, originally from Flint, Michigan. His DNA was matched to that of his sister June, and further proof of his identity came from a match of the dead man’s fingerprints with those on file with the Michigan prison system, as Jimmy had served some time there for an unspecified offense.
After contacting the Hendricks family, relatives were able to suggest to authorities that the dead woman was likely Jimmy’s girlfriend, nineteen-year-old Kim Mills, and this was confirmed in September of 2017. Interestingly, neither Jimmy nor Kim had been reported missing in 1978, since they had told their families that they were leaving Michigan due to a particular stipulation in Jimmy’s parole agreement. According to Jimmy’s sister June, the couple had informed relatives that they were moving to Texas and would return to Michigan in seven years, once the parole term had ended.
The person who murdered Jimmy and Kim, however, is still unnamed and unapprehended.
Crime Immemorial 