A mysterious blonde in a Lincoln Town Car could have answers in cold case murder

Julia Coin
Updated ·2 min read

A woman with long, blonde hair sat shotgun in a brand new Lincoln Town Car, waiting for its driver to come out of a Lenoir supermarket.

It was 1988. Now, Florida police are looking for the woman once seen in the small North Carolina town with a suspected killer. Authorities think she has information that could help solve a cold case murder.

Witnesses say they saw the woman with Kenneth “Ray” Miller at Lowell’s Food Market on East Harper Avenue, according to a news release from police in Lenoir and Charlotte County, Florida.

Three days later, North Carolina police found the car parked along Lenior’s Main Street. It looked like it had been there for days, police say.

But the car wasn’t Miller’s, police say.

Its owner had been murdered in southwest Florida — 700 miles away — days before.

Three days later, North Carolina police found the car parked along Lenior’s Main Street. It looked like it had been there for days, police say.
Three days later, North Carolina police found the car parked along Lenior’s Main Street. It looked like it had been there for days, police say.

Detectives say Miller stole the car from Robert Hetch, a 58-year-old retired US Army officer originally from New York.

The two men were seen at a Punta Gorda, Fla., bar Saturday, Nov. 26, 1988. That Sunday, Hetch missed his weekly call with his out-of-state sister.

Police later found Hetch dead in his Florida home, “the obvious victim of murder,” the news statement on Wednesday said.

Last year, police in Florida working the cold case named Miller as the murder suspect but learned he’d died in 2007. Miller was 36 at the time Hetch was killed.

Detectives don’t believe the woman was involved in the murder, but they do think she has information that could help with the cold case investigation, according to the news release.

Police are also looking for information on Miller and the woman’s connection to Lenoir and Kingsport, Tenn.

Police ask anyone with information on the woman to call Charlotte’s Cold Case Homicide Unit Detective Kurt Mehl at (941) 763-0582 or Detective Mike Vogel at (941) 763-9394. The public can also call the Lenoir, NC Police Department at (828) 757-2100.