Kenneth Arnder was 18 when he was last seen alive on July 20, 1978.

On July 25, 1978, Arnder’s decomposing body was found in a gully near a dirt road across the state line in Surry County, North Carolina. He had been shot in the head and both hands had been severed at the wrists, a detail that was reported as suggesting a drug-related killing. North Carolina authorities initially investigated but did not file charges.

In June 1982 Stockton was arrested in Virginia, where prosecutors argued Arnder had been killed and the body moved to North Carolina. The prosecution’s case relied heavily on testimony from a convicted felon, Randy Bowman, who said he heard Stockton agree to kill Arnder for $1,500 at the request of another man, Tommy McBride. Stockton was convicted of capital murder in March 1983; the jury recommended death. Bowman later recanted and then denied the recantation, and questions about who might have committed the killing have been part of the record.

Does anyone have memories or information about Arnder, the July 1978 timeline, or the people named in the case?