On the evening of December 19, 1977, the body of Alan Forehand, a White man who lived in North Carolina and worked as a mechanic at Tower Toyota in Portsmouth, was found in a ditch along Route 17 in the Deep Creek area of Chesapeake, Virginia. He had completed a full day of work before his death. Investigators determined he had been shot, beaten, and strangled, and there was evidence he may have been drowned in the water-filled ditch where his body was recovered.

Forehand’s Toyota pickup was found backed in on the canal bank near the scene in a position that suggested he had been there to meet someone. A bloody hammer was located near the vehicle. An officer who passed down that road about 30 minutes earlier had not seen the truck, and it was spotted at approximately 7:15 p.m., suggesting the encounter and killing occurred within a narrow window.

Decades later the case remains cold. No suspects have been publicly identified and no arrests have been announced. If anyone knew who Alan Forehand was meeting that night or has information about that stretch of Route 17 in Deep Creek on December 19, 1977, please come forward.