Adele Margaret Crabtree, known as Gypsy, was a 16-year-old runaway from Cincinnati who was found dead on November 3, 1971, in a remote area of Montgomery County north of Houston, Texas. She had been killed by shotgun fire — two loads of buckshot and one bird-shot — and evidence suggested she may have been sexually assaulted before her death. Adele had been living in various hippie communes in Houston and worked as a go-go dancer, cocktail waitress, and gas station attendant.

Houston police detectives Paul Nix, John Donovan, and Ed Horelica, along with Texas Ranger Kelly Whitehead, identified her within a day and began tracing her movements. Investigators revisited a 1969 incident involving wrecker driver James M. Whittle after Detective Nix recalled a woman at the police station who had once planned to accuse him of rape but left without filing a report. Follow-up inquiries led to Whittle being convicted for Adele Crabtree’s murder.

Are there readers who knew Adele, her circles in Houston, or who have information about her final days?