James Joseph Ryon was 26 when he was shot and killed in Shelbyville, Indiana, on January 31, 1980. The case remains unsolved: investigators never released any arrests or publicly identified suspects, and the investigation produced no significant leads.

The homicide has gone cold, and the passage of decades has not produced new information. Ryon’s father, James Jimmie Ryon, died in 2009 and did not see the case resolved.

What did the community in Shelbyville remember about that day or about James Ryon’s life that might help reopen leads?