In September 1978 a man looking for his deer dogs found the body of 19-year-old Evelyn Weston on a dirt road near Old Percival Road in Columbia, South Carolina. The Richland County Sheriff’s Department determined she had died from a gunshot wound. Her car was later located at a Steak and Ale restaurant on Forest Drive, and investigators mapped that location in relation to the scene near Fort Jackson while trying to reconstruct her final movements. No suspect was identified during the initial investigation, and the case grew cold despite continued interest from detectives, including Leon Lott, who worked on the file early in his career.

In 2018 a Texas Ranger contacted the Richland County Sheriff’s Department after Samuel Little began confessing to numerous killings. Little described a South Carolina slaying near a military base within the same time frame as Weston’s death, and those details persuaded investigators he was responsible. Little was already incarcerated when he made the confession. The confession provided a name and face to the person linked to Evelyn Weston’s murder after four decades.

If anyone knew Evelyn, her movements in 1978, or saw her car at the Steak and Ale on Forest Drive, please share what you remember.