On the moonlit night of April 12, 1971, 27-year-old Pauline Frances Storment was walking home along South Duncan Avenue in Fayetteville after attending a musical production and studying in the campus library. Witnesses saw a man following her; she screamed and was found fatally stabbed seven times in the chest and arm.

About 40 minutes after the attack police arrested 17-year-old Wallace Peter Kunkel in a car four blocks from the scene; he had bloodstains on his clothing and was charged with first-degree murder. Charges were dropped a few days later after investigators judged the bloodstains not substantial and he passed a polygraph. A blood-stained butcher’s knife was found near the scene but never tied conclusively to the killing. A man named Jack Butler later confessed but provided inconsistent details and was dismissed; investigators also examined Pauline’s security job and a former husband as potential leads.

Pauline’s murder remains unsolved. If anyone knew her, saw her that night, or has information about people seen near South Duncan Avenue in April 1971, please share what is known.