Murder in Pilot Mountain: A 40 Year Mystery

On August 26, 1980, 14-year-old Ronda Blaylock disappeared shortly after leaving her high school. In the days to follow, her family and friends searched for her in the area of her hometown in Rural Hall, North Carolina, hoping to bring her home alive. Shockingly, Ronda’s partially clothed body was found three days later in a town called Pilot Mountain, with deputies saying she’d been raped and brutally stabbed to death. As an appalled community wrapped their minds around the vicious crime, detectives released information on a suspect. The killer, however, remained at large. More than three decades later, a group of seasoned detectives took over the case. Together, they re-examined old evidence, submitted new evidence and reinvented how the case was investigated. Nearly 40 years after her death, all roads led to a 62-year-old man, who was living mere miles away from the sheriffs office. This is Murder in Pilot Mountain: A 40-year Mystery.