On the evening of December 22, 1981, 19-year-old Rhonda Hinson was driving her beige two-door Datsun 210 toward home after a work Christmas party at the American Legion Hut in Hickory, North Carolina. She stopped first at a friend’s house to pick up her car and call her boyfriend, then took the Mineral Springs Mountain/Highway 350 off-ramp from Interstate 40 and turned north up a steep hill toward her neighborhood.

While driving, Rhonda’s car was struck by a single bullet that entered through the trunk, passed through the backseat and the driver’s seat, and struck her in the back, reportedly piercing her lung and heart. Her vehicle was found in a ditch with the driver’s side door open and Rhonda outside the car near that door.

Who in the area that night might have seen a beige Datsun 210 on that stretch of road or noticed anything unusual around the Mineral Springs Mountain off-ramp?