Michael Whitten, 26, was found dead on December 1, 1979, in a secluded area off Mount Rose Highway just south of Reno, Nevada. He was described as a transient. His body was discovered about 400 yards from the site where another homicide victim had been found two years earlier, a detail investigators noted at the time.

The Washoe County Sheriff’s Office is treating Whitten’s death as a homicide. Over the years leads have dwindled and the case has gone cold; no arrests or publicly identified suspects have been announced. The Sheriff’s Office continues to classify the death as unsolved and asks anyone with information to come forward.

If anyone knew Michael, his movements in late 1979, or saw anything near Mount Rose Highway around that time, please share what you know with investigators.