Fifteen-year-old Alexander Eugene Sztanko left his Manassas, Virginia home in June 1990 to ride his dirt bike and meet friends at a wooded spot in Prince William County known as the power lines. He never arrived; his family reported him missing and a daylong search of the heavy woods involved about 75 people. A Spotsylvania County deputy found Alexander’s body in a ravine the next afternoon. He was shirtless and shoeless and had a fatal gunshot wound to the head. An autopsy showed he had been tortured with a stun gun on his thighs and scrotum before he was killed.

The investigation centered on 32-year-old Michael Carl George, found walking in the woods near where Alexander’s body was located and initially arrested for trespassing. Searches of George’s vehicle and home turned up a 9mm pistol later tied to the killing, a stun gun, handcuffs, a machete, and a map marked with an X at the body’s location. George had been on parole after serving just over two years for a 1979 involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors later charged him with Alexander’s murder along with abduction with intent to defile and robbery. If anyone knew Alexander, what details about his last day or those woods might help the case?