On April 27, 1978, Lieutenant William James Nixon, 44, a 23-year veteran of the Jackson Police Department, was killed during a traffic stop on US-127 near Berry Road in Jackson, Michigan. Nixon had stopped a vehicle towing a trailer with a bulldozer because the plates were improper. After Nixon identified the driver as 28-year-old Timothy O’Brien, O’Brien left his truck armed with a .44 magnum revolver and shot the officer. Nixon returned fire but was mortally wounded.

O’Brien was found hiding in a ditch about half a mile from the scene with the murder weapon. The truck, trailer, and bulldozer were discovered to have been stolen. The case was moved to Midland for trial; after a two-week trial a jury convicted O’Brien of first-degree murder and he was sentenced to life in prison.

Did anyone who lived or worked along that stretch of US-127 in 1978 see the vehicle or the trailer before the stop?