Joyce Tharp, a 29-year-old Black woman from Paducah, Kentucky, was abducted from her home in March 1979 and later found dead behind a local church. Her abductor drove her across state lines into Southern Illinois, where the killing occurred, then returned her body to Paducah.

The case remained unsolved for decades until 2007, when Timothy Krajcir, already imprisoned for violent sex crimes, confessed to Tharp’s murder as part of a series of admissions covering nine murders across several states in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Krajcir gave details investigators said only the perpetrator could have known. Because the fatal act occurred in Illinois, Paducah authorities instead indicted him on kidnapping and burglary charges; he pleaded guilty to those counts and was already serving multiple life sentences for other crimes.

Who knew Joyce or was in Paducah or southern Illinois in March 1979 and might have information about her abduction or movements that day?