Jeanette Dyer, 50, was murdered on December 20, 1979, in Martel, Florida. She worked as a clerk at the Little Country Store and was found on the floor with a severe head wound; she had a faint heartbeat when discovered but died shortly after being taken to the hospital. The medical finding attributed her death to a single bullet that entered her right eye and brain from about one foot away. A sum of money was also reported missing from the store’s cash register.

Investigators arrested 22-year-old Sonny Boy Oats Jr. after a high-speed chase that began when an Ocala policeman observed him acting suspiciously near a Jiffy Food Store. During the chase Oats discarded a weapon that was later recovered and linked to the Martel shooting and to a robbery and shooting at an ABC liquor store the previous day. Oats confessed to both crimes, saying at first the gun discharged accidentally during the Martel robbery. He was convicted of first-degree murder in 1981 and sentenced to death. The case has since gone through appeals and reviews, including questions raised about Oats’ intellectual functioning and whether that could affect his sentence.

Did anyone who knew Jeanette or worked in that area remember details about the Little Country Store or the days around December 20, 1979?