Christine Jenkins was 15 when she was shot to death in the small Vidette house where she lived with her mother, Brenda Jenkins Palmer, and her baby half-sister on the night of September 10, 1995. Court records say the house had become a hiding place after Brenda separated from her husband, Willie Williams Palmer, obtained a restraining order, and had told others Palmer threatened to find and kill her. Prosecutors say Palmer drove toward Vidette with his nephew, Frederico Palmer, armed himself with a .22-caliber rifle, cut the telephone line, kicked in the door, shot Christine in the face, then went into the back room and killed Brenda as she held the baby; the toddler was found alive the next morning curled near Christine’s body.

Frederico later confessed, led officers to Brushy Creek Bridge where the rifle was recovered, and pleaded guilty to two counts of felony murder in October 1995, receiving two consecutive life terms in exchange for cooperation. Willie Palmer was indicted in April 1996 on multiple counts including malice murder and was a long-running defendant in the case that focused on the killings of Christine and her mother.

Did anyone who knew Christine or the family in Burke County around 1995 see or hear anything that night?