Boyd Dale Stearns, a 38-year-old contractor, was reported missing by his wife on September 4, 1979, after he left for work early that morning in Bowling Green, Ohio, and did not return. A hunter found Stearns’ pickup truck in a wooded area off Dirlam Road on September 21; the hunter only checked the vehicle after noticing fresh tracks and finding Stearns’ name on paperwork, then alerted authorities once he learned Stearns was missing.

On October 1, 1979, a township worker mowing weeds along a creek bank near Greensburg Pike, about two miles from Stearns’ home on Sand Ridge Road, discovered his partially decomposed body. He was lying face down wearing only underwear. The autopsy found Stearns had been shot in the back and a small bullet fragment was recovered.

The Wood County Prosecutor’s Office and Sheriff’s Office investigated, and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation lists the homicide as an open case with no suspects identified. Does anyone who lived or worked near Dirlam Road or Greensburg Pike in September 1979 have information that could help this investigation?