On the afternoon of Thursday, March 24, 1977, 31-year-old Norman Lee Mercier was working as manager of the Adult Book Store in the Twin City Shopping Plaza on the Barre-Montpelier Road in Berlin, Vermont. Around 4:45 p.m. a commotion was heard in the store; about an hour later a friend who visited found the shop in disarray — an overturned table, scattered merchandise — and Mercier severely wounded behind the front door, trying to speak but unable to do so.

Mercier was taken to a hospital and died at about 10:00 p.m. An autopsy showed he had been shot. Investigators noted the store had been ransacked but that robbery did not appear to be the primary motive: roughly $16 was missing from nearly $1,000 in the register, and evidence indicated the assailant had spent a considerable amount of time in the store before the attack. The Vermont State Police investigation later went cold; no suspects or arrests have been announced.

Whoever knew Mercier or was in the Twin City Shopping Plaza that afternoon and has information is asked to come forward.