On the early morning of December 21, 1975, Springdale police officer John Tillman Hussey, 22, disappeared while on patrol. His patrol car was found with the door ajar and its lights still flashing. A short time later his body was discovered in a wooded area west of Fayetteville; he had been handcuffed to a tree and fatally shot with his own service revolver. Hussey had been on the Springdale force for about six weeks.

Investigators ultimately identified two suspects. A 39-year-old man was placed on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List and was captured in Denver on May 9, 1977; he was convicted of Hussey’s murder and given life without parole, later escaped in 1988, was recaptured after being featured on a television program, and died in prison in 1995. A 30-year-old man was arrested in Conrad, Montana, on June 8, 1978, brought back to Arkansas, tried, convicted of murder and sentenced to life; he died in prison in 2019, nearly 44 years after the killing.

Are there readers who remember Springdale or Fayetteville in 1975 and can share any local details about the investigation or the area where the patrol car and body were found?