In the early morning hours of November 7, 1998, the Lexington Fire Department responded to a structure fire at the Nixon Hearing Aid Center on Malibu Drive. After quickly extinguishing the blaze, firefighters made a grim discovery in the back hallway: the body of 43-year-old Linda Marie Rutledge, a female employee at her family's business. An autopsy would later reveal a more sinister cause of death; she had sustained multiple gunshot wounds to the head, injuries unrelated to the fire.
Her car was later found in the parking lot of a nearby apartment complex.
For nearly three decades, the murder of Linda Rutledge remained a painful cold case for the Lexington community and a source of unending grief for her family. Detectives diligently pursued leads and reviewed the evidence over the years, holding out hope for a breakthrough. The turning point finally arrived in July 2025, when the Austin, Texas Police Department contacted Lexington investigators with a significant development. A. 380 shell casing recovered from the scene of Linda's murder was a ballistic match to a casing found at the scene of the infamous 1991 "Yogurt Shop Murders" in Austin, where four teenage girls were killed.
Further investigation solidified the link between the two cases. In September 2025, a sexual assault kit from Linda's case was sent for advanced DNA testing, which matched the DNA profile from the Austin crime scene. This crucial evidence pointed to one man: Robert Eugene Brashers, a suspected serial killer believed to be responsible for at least eight murders between 1990 and 1998. Tragically, Brashers would never face justice for his crimes; he died in January 1999. While no arrest can be made, the Lexington Police Department has officially closed the case, finally bringing a measure of resolution to Linda Rutledge's family after 27 long years of uncertainty.
