On the night of September 7, 1984, 42-year-old Maria Marshall, a mother of three, was shot and killed in her car at a picnic area off the Garden State Parkway in Lacey Township, New Jersey. Her husband, Robert O. Marshall, told police he had pulled over to check a flat tire, was knocked unconscious, and later discovered his wife had been shot twice in the back.

Investigators concluded the flat tire had been deliberately damaged and built a case that Robert Marshall had arranged the killing to collect a $1.5 million life insurance policy, allegedly to pay debts and leave his marriage. Three men from Louisiana — Billy Wayne McKinnon, Robert A. Cumber, and Larry N. Thompson — were identified as part of the alleged plot; Robert Marshall was arrested three months after the murder and charged with hiring assassins.

By 1986, Robert Marshall was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and sentenced to death, a sentence later commuted to life. McKinnon pleaded guilty to conspiracy and testified against others; Cumber was convicted as an accomplice and received a life term. The identity of the shooter remained contested for years. If anyone knew Maria, was at the Garden State Parkway picnic area that night, or has information about the men named in this case, please share what is known.