Buffie Rae Brawley, 27, of Toledo, Ohio, was found dead on March 24, 2004, at the abandoned Blue and White Truck Stop near Pittsboro, Indiana. A truck driver discovered her remains at the desolate site off Interstate 74. The autopsy listed blunt force trauma, asphyxiation, and suffocation as causes of death. Investigators reported she had been partially disrobed, bound, struck on the head, had duct tape obstructing her breathing, and there were indications she may have been run over by a vehicle.

Early inquiries looked into connections with her life in Toledo, where she had worked in the sex trade; her husband, Derek Maes, was investigated but placed in another state at the time and was not charged in her killing. The case later cooled until authorities linked it to a pattern of violence at truck stops. In 2007 long-haul truck driver John Robert Williams confessed to her murder, giving details about the scene and a rose tattoo bearing her daughter’s name that had not been public. Williams was already serving a life sentence in Mississippi for another murder; his confession cleared the Indiana case.

Did anyone who knew Buffie or who worked around Interstate 74 in 2004 ever see her or her truck stop acquaintances that spring?