Leslie Spellman was 27 when her body was found on the morning of June 19, 1977, along a walking trail in the Asticou Azalea Gardens in Northeast Harbor, Maine. She had been severely beaten; an autopsy determined blunt force trauma to the head from a blunt instrument as the cause of death. There was no evidence of sexual assault. Leslie had been hitchhiking toward a Bar Harbor ashram after parting ways with her sister in Barre, Vermont, and she was traveling with her dog Taylor, a mutt later found about a mile from the scene, physically unharmed but shaken.

Investigators have long believed she was picked up while hitchhiking and killed at the garden early that morning. Over the decades police pursued multiple leads and publicly mentioned possible suspects, including James Hicks, but no arrests were ever made and the case remains unsolved. Maine State Police have periodically renewed appeals and cited advances in DNA technology as a potential avenue.

Does anyone who lived near Northeast Harbor in 1977 or who remembers Leslie and her travels have information that could still help bring clarity to this case?