James Lynwood Norford Jr., known as Jimmy, was 37 and a father of six when he was killed on August 24, 1976, while opening Bell’s Store, a Texaco country store at Stony Point northeast of Charlottesville. What began as an ordinary morning shift ended when Norford was robbed and shot in the back of the head; police were clear it was a homicide.

The killing was later linked to a traveling fugitive, Allen Leroy Anderson, whose cross-country crime spree that summer involved stolen cars, stolen credit cards, robberies and multiple killings carried out with a .22-caliber revolver. Anderson was arrested in October 1976 after a stolen van stop in California and was eventually brought back to Virginia. He pleaded guilty in Albemarle County Circuit Court to Norford’s murder and received a life sentence.

Norford’s death was one episode in a series of violent incidents during Anderson’s 1976 travels. Does anyone have memories of Bell’s Store, Norford, or details from that Stony Point community in 1976 that could add context to this case?