Vicki Ann Garner, 38, was murdered in her Tyler, Texas, apartment on the night of September 24, 1996. She lived in a complex serving people with mental disabilities, was a patient at Andrews Center Behavioral Healthcare Systems, and worked in the facility’s copy/mail room. A friend left her apartment about 8:15 p.m.; investigators estimate Garner’s time of death at about 8:45 p.m.

Emergency crews found her the next morning after a fire at the residence. She was lying face down, naked from the waist down, with hands bound behind her and a belt tightened around her neck; ligature marks were on her ankles and burns and partial burning of bedding and body were noted. The medical examiner reported blunt-force injuries from a hammer, binding of wrists and ankles with an electrical cord, semen indicating sexual assault, and manual strangulation as the cause of death. Crime scene evidence showed signs of robbery, a missing VCR with its instruction manual left behind, and a full palm print on a kitchen cabinet door.

Investigators identified Robert Charles Ladd, a former Andrews Center employee and a parolee with a prior triple murder conviction, as the suspect; he was arrested the day after the killing. If anyone knew Vicki Garner, worked at Andrews Center in 1996, or has information about that night, please share what you remember.