Murder of Nancy Dean Morgan
The murder of Nancy Dean Morgan was an unsolved homicide that occurred in June 1970 in Madison County, North Carolina, United States. Morgan was a 24-year-old Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) worker assigned to community development projects in the Appalachian region. 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. The autopsy reports indicated that she had been sexually assaulted and strangled.
In 1985, local authorities charged Ed Walker, a fellow VISTA worker, 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.