On the evening of Monday, September 23, 2002, 45-year-old Hong Im Ballenger was shot once in the head and killed as she walked to her car after finishing her shift as manager of the Beauty Depot on Florida Boulevard in Baton Rouge. A witness saw the shooter grab her purse and run toward a nearby park; Ballenger carried pepper spray but had no chance to use it. Bloodhounds and local law enforcement were unable to immediately catch the assailant.

Ballistic testing later matched the bullet that killed Ballenger to the Bushmaster rifle used in the series of sniper attacks targeting the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. Store receipts found in a car linked John Allen Muhammad and a teenage accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, to Baton Rouge on the day of the slaying. After the D.C. suspects were captured, both Muhammad and 17-year-old Malvo were charged by the Baton Rouge Police Department with robbery and first-degree murder in Ballenger’s death, and a state grand jury in Baton Rouge returned indictments. Prosecutors announced their intent to seek the death penalty for both men in connection with this killing.

Does anyone have memory of that stretch of Florida Boulevard in September 2002 or recollections about Hong Im Ballenger that could help fill gaps in the timeline?