Linda Muegge, 55, was a Fredericksburg business owner and the operator of The Peasant Kitchen. Described as spirited and generous, she raised horses, goats, and sheep and had a background in photography and dance. In the years before her death she reported two troubling incidents: in September 2003 a man named Frank followed her home and she called 911, and in February 2006 two of her bottle-feeding sheep were shot dead.

On the evening she died in 2007, Linda returned from a yoga class around 5:30 p.m. and her house was set on fire before 8:00 p.m.; firefighters found her body partially burned. The medical examiner ruled the manner of death homicide, with stab wounds and blunt force injuries to the head and neck occurring before the fire. Investigators noted Fred Muegge, her ex-husband of 30 years, as a person of interest; credit card receipts placed him nearly 100 miles away in Austin the night of the killing though no witness confirmed the swipe, his DNA was found in the house, and he failed two polygraph tests during the probe.

The case remained unsolved as of the latest update and ViCAP issued an alert in 2010 adding investigators to the file. If anyone has information about Linda’s 2007 murder, contact Lt. Terry Weed at the Fredericksburg Police Department or the FBI ViCAP Unit.