On the morning of September 4, 2000, Charlotte Powell went to her mother’s home on 2nd Avenue in Opelika after she could not reach her by phone and found 75-year-old Mary Elece Rice Rearden dead in a hallway. The scene showed a violent struggle: multiple defensive stab wounds to her right forearm, stab wounds to her back, and evidence suggesting the attacker climbed through a bedroom window before ambushing her in the living room. The autopsy listed blunt force trauma and strangulation as the cause of death.

Officers noted nothing appeared to have been stolen, and neighbors said the home had been burglarized a few times before the murder. Investigators have conducted numerous interviews and submitted evidence for DNA testing, but no arrests have been made and no definitive suspects identified. The State of Alabama has offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.

Did anyone in Opelika know Mary, her routines, or notice suspicious activity around her home around Labor Day 2000?