Margaret Byron, a 59-year-old secretary at the Hedderman Religious Shop on 50 Columbia Street in Albany, New York, was killed on November 24, 1976. She and the store’s proprietor, Robert Hedderman, were found midafternoon inside the shop, each stabbed repeatedly in the chest and with their throats slit.

Early witnesses provided key leads: William Weber said he saw a wild-eyed man in the store standing near Byron’s body, and Maureen Toomey reported seeing a man leave around the time of the murders. Investigators later developed evidence pointing to Lemuel Smith; both Weber and Toomey identified Smith from photo lineups, and a sweater of Smith’s recovered from a building where he had worked yielded a hair that the FBI reported matched Byron. Smith was indicted by an Albany County grand jury on July 27, 1978, tried with an insanity defense, convicted, and given consecutive terms of 25 years to life for each murder.

Does anyone have memories of Columbia Street in 1976 or recall seeing someone who might match the witnesses’ descriptions?