On September 26, 1981, a fisherman on Fort Loudon Lake near Bicentennial Park on Neyland Drive in Knoxville discovered the body of a woman floating in the water. When recovered, she had been weighed down with cinder blocks tied to her waist; an autopsy found drowning as the cause of death and noted several cuts on her body. Investigators estimated she had been in the lake about five days before being found.

The next day a relative identified her as 37-year-old Katherine Lela Mae Ewing, a Black woman born in Spring City in 1944 who was married to John Dillinger Ewing and had a son, Adam Jerome Ewing. Knoxville Police detectives questioned several men during the initial probe, but no strong leads or public suspects developed and no arrests were announced. The Violent Crimes Unit still lists the case as an unsolved homicide.

If anyone knew Katherine or saw activity on Fort Loudon Lake or near Bicentennial Park in late September 1981, please share what you know.