In the quiet town of Anniston, Alabama, a grim story unfolded in March of 1986, forever altering the lives of a local family. On March 26, Evelyn Caine Blackmon, a 41-year-old woman, and her 76-year-old husband, Fred Blackmon, disappeared from their home. The alarm was raised when Evelyn's daughter, Julie Greenwood, returned home to find them and their Cadillac Eldorado missing.
Two days later, a missing person's report was filed, launching an investigation that would uncover a brutal crime.
The investigation soon led police to two men: William Glenn Boyd, who had previously dated Evelyn's daughter, and his accomplice, Robert Milstead. The pair had entered the Blackmons' home, armed and with the intention of robbery. They deceived the couple into believing they had kidnapped their daughter and demanded a ransom. Fred Blackmon was forced to withdraw $5,000 from his bank account. After receiving the money, Boyd and Milstead bound and gagged the couple and drove them to a wooded area. There, they subjected them to a brutal beating before shooting them to death.
The gruesome details of the crime came to light as the investigation progressed. The perpetrators returned to the scene to dispose of the bodies. Fred Blackmon's body was discovered in the trunk of his own car, which had been submerged in the Coosa River. Evelyn Blackmon's body was found in a metal drum, also dumped in the river. An autopsy revealed she had been gagged, shot three times, and had suffered numerous fractures to her face and a significant wound to her lower back.
Both William Glenn Boyd and Robert Milstead were arrested. In their statements to the police, each man attempted to place the primary blame for the murders on the other. However, the evidence against both was substantial. Robert Milstead eventually entered into a plea agreement and received a life sentence in exchange for his testimony against Boyd. William Glenn Boyd was charged with capital murder. Despite a jury recommendation for life without parole, the judge sentenced him to death, citing the heinous nature of the crime. After years of appeals, William Glenn Boyd was executed by lethal injection on March 31, 2011.
