William Charles Pete Fikes, 41, disappeared on November 29, 1976 after leaving his grandmother’s home in Jasper, Alabama, bound for his Burrow’s Crossroads residence. He was driving his father’s 1972 Plymouth Valiant and failed to arrive; family members began a search that stretched for years.

In February 1977 a bill of sale showed the Valiant had been sold for $200 one day after Fikes vanished. The buyer led investigators to three sellers; dried blood was found inside the car. One seller, James Arthur Gregg, was arrested on charges including forging the bill of sale and buying, receiving, and concealing stolen property. Gregg told investigators Fikes had been murdered and his body hidden, but searches turned up nothing at the time.

In September 1980 a human skull was found at a dump near Sipsey and two months later was forensically identified as Fikes. The remains showed fractures consistent with blunt-force trauma. In 1982 Walker County authorities announced an arrest in the robbery and murder; the suspect was identified as 24-year-old Perry Mixon, who was already serving a lengthy sentence under the Habitual Offender Act.

Does anyone have information about Fikes, the 1972 Plymouth Valiant, or those seen around Burrow’s Crossroads in late 1976?