Mary E. Shields, 61, was found dead on the morning of July 31, 2000, in a desolate patch of weeds behind a factory building near 20th Street and Piggott Avenue in East St. Louis, Illinois. Her body showed signs of strangulation, and investigators concluded she may have been killed elsewhere and moved to the industrial site. The area’s low foot traffic contributed to a delay in discovering her body.

Detectives canvassed the neighborhood and pursued leads amid sparse early information. The investigation later produced a suspect who was charged and convicted in connection with her death. Mary Shields’ case was also later linked to Maury Travis, a suspect in a series of violent murders in the St. Louis region; Travis died by suicide in jail before trial. Does anyone have memories of that industrial area in 2000 or information that could shed light on Shields’s final movements?