On September 18, 1974, 62-year-old Emmett Johnson and his wife Lois stopped at a rest area near Ely, Nevada, where they encountered a man later identified as Paul John Knowles. Knowles, driving a stolen vehicle, bound and murdered the couple at the desolate rest stop. This attack was one episode in a violent cross-country spree that Knowles later claimed included at least 35 victims; authorities confirmed 18 murders.

Knowles was recognized by a Florida Highway Patrol trooper on November 16, 1974, and during the ensuing events he killed the trooper and another motorist. He was captured and, while being transported on December 18, 1974, obtained a firearm during a struggle and was shot and killed by a Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent. The deaths of Emmett and Lois Johnson remain part of that nationwide series of murders.

Did anyone in the Ely area remember the Johnsons or their stop at the rest area that day?