A family returning from Daytona Beach was ambushed at a rest stop on Interstate 75 near Lenox, Georgia, in the early hours of July 10, 1980. David Hardin, a male resident of Kentucky, was sleeping in the driver’s seat when a truck driver approached and shot him to death. His wife, Katie Christine Back Hardin, attempted to get out of the car; the attacker grabbed her, and after she resisted and screamed for her fatally wounded husband, he shot her in the head. The couple’s children and David’s niece were in the vehicle and witnessed the killings.

Police circulated a description of the suspect and his truck; the man was arrested at another rest area in Dooly County. A .38 caliber revolver recovered from his vehicle was later tied to the killings, and David Hardin’s wallet was found in the truck. The defendant, William Howard Putman, was tried in Cook County in September 1982, convicted of both murders and given the death sentence.

Does anyone have additional information about the family’s travel that night or about witnesses who may have been interviewed at the rest area?