Jessie E. Kendrick was 80 when he and his 81-year-old wife, Elizabeth, were found shot in the head inside their Danville, Virginia home in November 1996. Their townhouse showed signs of a violent robbery. The couple’s daughter, Barbara K. Case, became concerned when she could not reach them by phone while traveling through Greensboro, North Carolina, to meet them for Thanksgiving; after finding no one at the airport she went to their Danville home and, finding it dark with the car missing, alerted police the next morning.

Officers discovered Jessie Kendrick face down on the living room floor and Elizabeth Kendrick in the den; the couple’s car was recovered a short distance away. The investigation focused on 19-year-old Percy Levar Walton of Danville, who was arrested and charged in the killings and in a nearby murder of Archie Moore. At trial the prosecution presented forensic evidence and confessions attributed to Walton; the defense argued he was mentally ill. A jury convicted him of capital murder and imposed the death penalty, a sentence the Virginia Supreme Court later upheld after appeals.

Did anyone in Danville remember Jessie and Elizabeth Kendrick or notice anything unusual around their townhouse that November?