Patsy Bray Cowan, a 50-year-old real estate agent, was found murdered in her Virginia Beach home on October 9, 1980. She returned from a real estate and builders picnic in Chesapeake that evening and arrived home at about 8:15 p.m.; her body was discovered around 11:45 p.m., stabbed multiple times. The scene showed a violent struggle: furniture overturned, a blood trail from the kitchen to the bathroom where she was found, the telephone line ripped from the wall, and ropes tied to the master bedroom bed. There were no signs of forced entry, and expensive jewelry remained, suggesting robbery was not the motive and that she likely knew her attacker.

Patsy’s .38 caliber Smith and Wesson revolver was missing and is presumed taken by the killer. Two weeks earlier, on September 27, 1980, Patsy had been sexually assaulted in her home after a man entered through a window; investigators have not conclusively linked that assault to the murder. No arrests have been announced in Patsy’s killing; her family continues to seek answers.

Did anyone in the area know Patsy’s visitors or movements on the night of October 9, 1980?