Irving Plaisted, 78, a Minnesotan passing through Albuquerque, was killed after a routine request for directions on October 8, 1980. According to accounts, a stranger who offered help instead robbed Plaisted, forced him into his car, drove him to the outskirts of town and shot him in the chest and head, leaving him to die on a lonely edge of the city.

Investigators later linked the killing to Thomas Wayne Crump, described as a drifter whose violent spree that fall stretched across New Mexico and Nevada. Crump reportedly entered Plaisted’s vehicle under the pretense of assisting him before the robbery and shooting. Police arrested Crump on November 16, 1980, after a motel fight led officers to the wanted man; he subsequently confessed and was convicted in New Mexico for Plaisted’s murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.