On the night of January 17, 1987, 19-year-old Travis Melton was shot in the head inside the Shelby III adult bookstore on U.S. 74 in Shelby, North Carolina. Masked gunmen forced Melton and other men to the floor, shot Melton and two other men, 29-year-old Kenneth Godfrey and 26-year-old Paul Weston, in the head, then set the bookstore on fire. Two additional men, James Parris and John Anthony, survived with serious injuries and escaped the burning building.

Investigators examined a range of possible motives early on, including a mafia hit, a business dispute, and a crime of passion. Attention later turned to Frazier Glenn Miller Jr., leader of the White Patriot Party, and three associates. Miller, Douglas Lawrence Sheets, Robert Eugene Jackson, and Anthony Wydra were arrested on April 30, 1987, in Missouri with a large cache of weapons and explosives; Miller implicated Sheets and Jackson, who were later indicted. Sheets was tried and acquitted in 1989 and charges against Jackson were dropped. As of 2024 the murders remain officially unsolved.

Does anyone with memories of Shelby in 1987 or information about the bookstore or its patrons have details that could help fill gaps in the case?