Account
Dec 12, 2008
Dec 19, 2023
Linda
Lunsford
65
38
60 inches
61 inches
110 lbs
White / Caucasian
Female
On a cold morning after Christmas in 1996, 38-year-old Linda Evans Lunsford vanished from Midlothian, Virginia, leaving behind a life she was known for diligently building. A dedicated mother, she was last seen on December 26, 1996, after working an overnight shift at a Walmart on Midlothian Turnpike to prepare for the post-holiday sales. Following her shift, which ended around 8:30 a.m., Linda and a co-worker, who was also her ex-boyfriend John Howard, went to a nearby McDonald's for breakfast. She was then expected to pick up her three daughters from her mother's house, but she never arrived. The failure to show up for her children was the first sign to her family that something was terribly wrong, as it was completely out of character for the hardworking mother of five. Later that day, her family discovered her 1994 burgundy Nissan Sentra, locked and abandoned, in the parking lot of a Food Lion within the same shopping center where she worked. There was no sign of Linda. The investigation into Linda's disappearance quickly focused on John Howard, the man with whom she was last seen. Their relationship was described as rocky, and Linda had ended it three months prior to her disappearance. Howard told police that after breakfast, Linda had gone to his home to discuss their relationship, claiming she was safe when she left his house alone. However, Linda's family told a different story, one of stalking and fear. Her sister revealed that Linda had made statements at Thanksgiving, just a month before she vanished, indicating that if anything happened to her, Howard would be responsible. Adding to these concerns was the fact that Linda had recently filed a sexual harassment complaint against Howard at their workplace. Despite these suspicions, the case grew cold. For over two decades, Linda's children and family were left without answers, and her remains were never found. Investigators, however, never gave up, treating her disappearance as a suspicious case from the beginning and eventually classifying it as a "no-body homicide." After more than 24 years of uncertainty and persistent police work, a breakthrough occurred in the case. In May 2021, authorities arrested John Howard and charged him with the first-degree murder of Linda Lunsford. The trial, which took place in August 2022, proceeded without the discovery of Linda's body, a challenging feat for the prosecution. Despite this, the jury found John Howard guilty of first-degree murder, bringing a long-awaited sense of justice to Linda's family. Before he could be sentenced for the crime, John Howard died in February 2023. The case of Linda Lunsford is a somber tale of a devoted mother whose life was cut short. It highlights the tireless efforts of law enforcement to solve a decades-old cold case and a family's prolonged and painful search for the truth, which concluded not with the discovery of their loved one, but with the conviction of her killer.
Dec 26, 1996
Midlothian
Virginia
Chesterfield County
6912
Chesterfield County Police Department
Chesterfield
Virginia
Chesterfield County
23232
Chris Humphries
Police detective
10001 Iron Bridge Road, Virginia
8047481251
County
Law Enforcement
Chesterfield County Police Department
4874
Blond/Strawberry
Green
Green
No
06/06/2026
