Luther Langford, 66, was found beaten to death with a baseball bat in his Columbia, South Carolina home on June 1, 1978. His wife, Nell Langford, survived a vicious attack during the same incident. Investigators traced the crime to truck driver Edward Surratt after he was seen driving Langford’s car in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, shortly after the murder; when police tried to arrest him there he resisted and escaped.

Items recovered in the abandoned vehicle tied Surratt to a Pennsylvania couple who had been beaten to death the previous year, linking multiple crimes across state lines. Surratt was arrested in Vilano Beach, Florida, in July 1978 and extradited to South Carolina; a Lexington County jury convicted him of Luther Langford’s murder and the attempted murder of Nell Langford, and he received additional life sentences.

Anyone with memories of the Langford family or information about that summer of 1978 is asked to come forward.