Do you know who murdered Alan Forehand?
On the evening of December 19, 1977, the body of a White male, Alan Forehand, was discovered in a ditch along Route 17 in the Deep Creek area of Chesapeake, Virginia. A resident of North Carolina, Forehand was a mechanic at Tower Toyota in nearby Portsmouth and had completed a full day of work before his death. An investigation revealed that he had been brutally killed, having been shot, beaten, and strangled. There was also evidence to suggest he may have been drowned in the water-filled ditch where he was found.
Forehand's Toyota pickup truck was located at the scene, backed in on the canal bank in a manner that suggested he was there to meet someone. A bloody hammer was found near the vehicle, a grim testament to the violence of the encounter. The timeline of the crime is believed to be narrow. An officer had reportedly been down the same road just 30 minutes before Forehand's truck was spotted at approximately 7:15 p.m., and had not seen the vehicle. This suggests the fatal meeting and subsequent murder occurred within that short window.
Decades later, the case of Alan Forehand's murder remains cold and unsolved. No suspects have ever been publicly identified, and no arrests have been made in connection with the crime. The investigation has been hampered by the passage of time, which has led to the death of many potential witnesses and even members of Forehand's own family. Without new information, the identity of who Alan Forehand was meeting that fateful night, and who was responsible for his violent death, remains a mystery.
