NC Wanted: Family haunted by woman's murder more than 35 years later

Alice Burgess left the house in Vance County that she shared with her three young children the Tuesday after Thanksgiving in 1977. She was going to meet a friend at a local bar.

"She appeared to have a good time," said Teresa West of the State Bureau of Investigation. "She decided to leave around midnight, and another friend asked if Alice Burgess would drop her at her car. She agreed to do that."

She was never heard from again.

A week later, her car was found abandoned on the outskirts of town, in a place known as Lover's Lane. Burgess' body was in the trunk.

Investigators said she was beaten to death with the tire jack from her car.

"It was a particularly gruesome murder," said former investigator Joe Momier. "She had a number of wounds that went down even through the skull. I mean, you could tell that (she was) brutally beaten to death."

Momier said he believes Burgess had a sexual encounter with someone at the scene, and was killed shortly afterwards.

Burgess' sister, Lou Anderson, still vividly remembers the day she heard what had happened.

"I was at home and my mother called me. I went up to Mom's and she told me they had found Alice's body," Anderson said.

Investigators made an arrest in this case three decades ago, but that person was acquitted at trial.