A man was riding his four-wheeler in July 1999 when he stumbled across the woman's body in the woods of rural Sampson County. She had been stabbed to death.
"[The killer] had to know the area," says Capt. Landis Lee with the Sampson County Sheriff's Office. "No one could have found this place just by riding around, I don't believe."
With few leads, the sheriff's office turned the theState Bureau of Investigationfor help.
Using skeletal remains, investigators created a model of what the woman may have looked like. They hope the images may jog people's minds, leading authorities to an identification.
"We needed something to show the public what the victim looked like so we could make an I.D.," says the SBI's Jay Tilley.
People in the rural area are still talking.
"It scared me, because the description actually matched my daughter," says neighbor Stephanie Warren. "It made me fear for my kids' safety, because [the body] was right around the corner."
"People began to lock their doors and be a lot more conscious of what's going on," says resident Clark Wooten. "We'd certainly like to see it solved."
Neighboring counties have no missing persons that match the victim's description.
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