Murder of Nancy Dean Morgan
| Date | June 15–17, 1970 |
|---|---|
| Location | Madison County, North Carolina, United States |
| Type | Homicide |
| Cause | Strangulation |
| Outcome | Unsolved |
| Deaths | 1 |
| Arrests | 1 |
| Suspects | Ed Walker (acquitted) |
| Charges | Murder |
The murder of Nancy Dean Morgan was an unsolved homicide that occurred in June 1970 in Madison County, North Carolina, United States.[1][2][3] Morgan was a 24-year-old Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) worker assigned to community development projects in the Appalachian region.[4] On June 17, 1970, she was discovered in the back seat of her government-issued vehicle on a remote logging road, with her body found in a hogtied position on a hillside of Hot Springs Mountain.[5] The autopsy reports indicated that she had been sexually assaulted and strangled.[6]
In 1985, local authorities charged Ed Walker, a fellow VISTA worker,[7][8] with the crime, but he was acquitted after the prosecution’s sole eyewitness was shown during cross-examination to have a record of providing false statements.[9]
References
- ^ Neufeld, Rob. "Visiting Our Past: VISTA worker homicide haunts Madison County". The Asheville Citizen Times. Retrieved 2025-08-15.
- ^ Pickens, Cathy (2022-09-26). True Crime Stories of Western North Carolina. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4396-7616-5.
- ^ Pinsky, Mark I. (2022-04-05). Met Her on the Mountain: The Murder of Nancy Morgan. The University Press of Kentucky. doi:10.2307/j.ctv2902g5k. ISBN 978-0-8131-8715-0. JSTOR j.ctv2902g5k.
- ^ I. Pinsky, Mark. "An unsolved murder, a closed mountain community, and a reporter". The Herald.
- ^ Pinsky, Mark I. (2024-12-04). "My 50-Year Obsession with an Unsolved Mountain Murder". The Assembly NC. Retrieved 2025-08-15.
- ^ "Suspect Indicted in Morgan Murder Case" (PDF). The News Record. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2024-12-04. Retrieved 2025-08-15 – via newspapers.digitalnc.org.
- ^ Jackson, Rick (2020-07-31). North Carolina Murder & Mayhem. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4396-6820-7.
- ^ "From a convicted murderer, a confession". The Charlotte Observer.
- ^ "Writer pursues 40-year quest in search of truth". Wilmington Star-News. Retrieved 2025-08-15.