In the summer of 1977, Patricia Ann Greenfield, a bright and promising 19-year-old, was back home in Boynton Beach, Florida, from her first year as an honor student at George Washington University. Known as Patty to her friends and family, the young woman took a summer job at a Cumberland Farm Food Store in the nearby city of Delray Beach to save money for her next semester.
Her life, full of potential, was brutally cut short on the night of June 25, 1977, in a crime that would be remembered as one of the most infamous in the city's history.
Shortly before 10 p.m., as Patty was preparing to close the store, two men walked in. They were 28-year-old Nollie Lee Martin and his 18-year-old cousin, Gary Paul Forbes. After bringing two cases of beer to the counter, Martin pulled out a knife, robbed Patty of approximately $90, and abducted her from the store. Witnesses across the street heard her scream as she was forced into a car and driven away. The men took her to Martin's apartment, blindfolding her with Martin's shirt along the way, where both men subjected her to forcible sexual battery.
After the assault, they put the still-blindfolded Patty back in the car, assuring her she would be released in a remote area. They drove aimlessly for some time before arriving at a county landfill. There, Martin walked her away from the car, out of his cousin's sight. He first attempted to strangle her with a rope, but when she resisted and fought for her breath, he stabbed her multiple times in the neck. Her body was discovered in the landfill four days later, initially identified by the plaid shirt and corduroy slacks she was wearing.
The break in the case came more than a week after Patty's murder. On July 3, Martin and Forbes kidnapped a hitchhiker and took her to Martin's apartment, where they raped her at knifepoint. The woman managed to free herself after they left and alerted a neighbor, who called the police. She identified her attackers, leading to their swift arrest. During interrogation, Martin confessed to the murder of Patricia Greenfield, telling detectives, "I had no alternative but to kill." He confessed a second time on July 11.
The investigation revealed that Nollie Lee Martin was a serial killer who had been paroled from a North Carolina prison just two months before murdering Patty. He had served only four and a half years of an 18 to 30-year sentence for second-degree murder in a 1972 arson that killed a mother and her two young daughters. A relative had given Martin a job at a service station in Delray Beach, which led to his parole being transferred to Florida.
During his trial, Martin's defense argued he was insane and suffering from paranoid schizophrenia at the time of the killing. However, state psychiatric experts testified that he was mentally fit to stand trial. In April 1978, a jury found him guilty of first-degree murder, kidnapping, robbery, and forcible sexual battery. Following the jury's recommendation, he was sentenced to death on November 13, 1978. His accomplice, Gary Paul Forbes, who pleaded guilty and expressed remorse, received a sentence of life plus 99 years.
After years of appeals, Nollie Lee Martin was executed by electrocution on May 12, 1992. He was responsible for at least four proven murders between 1972 and 1977. Patty's parents later stated that their religious faith helped them cope with the devastating loss of their daughter. The murder of the promising university student on her summer break remains a painful memory for the community she called home.
