Michael McCown, 40, was found dead on April 27, 1992, inside Sylvia’s Ceramics in Terre Haute, Indiana, a shop owned by his mother where he worked. A customer discovered his body in the afternoon; investigators determined he had been shot in the back of the head while stocking shelves.

Authorities linked McCown’s killing to a string of recent homicides along Interstate 70 and believed a single offender, later called the I-70 Killer, was responsible for several murders of women who worked in small shops near the interstate. A prevailing theory in McCown’s case was mistaken identity: McCown wore long hair often in a ponytail, and it is speculated the shooter may have thought he was a woman.

Decades later the case remains unsolved. A multi-agency task force was formed in 2021 to re-examine the cold cases, but no arrests or definitive suspect has been publicly named. Did anyone in Terre Haute at the time know Michael, his routines, or who might have had reason to target Sylvia’s Ceramics?