In the early morning hours of March 16, 1973, a tractor-trailer parked beneath a bridge in Vonore, Tennessee, drew attention when a local resident noticed its hazard lights. Inside the cab, slumped over the wheel, was 35-year-old John Raymond Constant, Jr. He had been shot at least 17 times with a high-powered rifle and a shotgun. Investigators concluded the killing likely occurred elsewhere the previous day because of a conspicuous lack of blood in the cab.

Family members said Constant was not a sterling character and had been involved in transporting untaxed cigarettes and stolen goods; they also reported he was planning to leave that life and was on the verge of becoming an informant. Early suspicion focused on organized crime and the Dixie Mafia, and a friend of Constant’s, Ray Owenby, was shot and killed months later. In 1982 a hypnotized witness identified Harold Buckner and Marvin Ray Big John Pittman as men seen with Constant; charges against Buckner were dropped and Pittman died in 1975.

Decades later a terminally ill individual came forward, leading to the February 2019 arrest of Max Benson Calhoun, who was 21 in 1973; he was indicted but charges were dropped in April 2021 for insufficient evidence. The case remains unsolved.

Did anyone in Vonore or the surrounding area have contact with Constant in March 1973 or knowledge of his movements that week?