On a September day in 2018, the bodies of 31-year-old Monica Cooper Graves and 70-year-old John Allen Softley were found inside a pickup truck beneath the Interstate 22 overpass at Exit 78 near Dora, Alabama. Both had suffered fatal gunshot wounds. Monica Graves lived in nearby Empire and was identified as White; Softley served on the Parrish Town Council and worked part time with the Jasper Police Department.

The Alabama State Bureau of Investigation concluded that Softley shot Graves and then took his own life, ruling Graves’ death a homicide and Softley’s death a suicide; with the shooter deceased the case was treated as closed. Community members were left to absorb the shock of two local deaths tied to the same violent event.

If anyone knew Monica Graves or her connection to John Softley and has information that wasn’t publicly reported, please share what you know.