William \Pete\ Fikes vanished while traveling the 8 miles from his grandmother home to his home in near Jasper, Alabama in 1976. In the crisp autumn of 1976, a chilling mystery began to unfold in the small community near Jasper, Alabama, with the disappearance of 41-year-old William Charles 'Pete' Fikes. On the morning of November 29th, Fikes, a former Alabama Conservation agent, left his grandmother's home in Jasper, headed for his own residence in the Burrow's Crossroads community.
He was driving his father's 1972 Plymouth Valiant, a detail that would soon become a pivotal clue in a case that would haunt his family for decades. When he failed to arrive, his concerned family initiated a search that would stretch into years of uncertainty and anguish.
The first break in the case came nearly four months later, in February 1977, when an investigator discovered a bill of sale for the Fikes' vehicle. The car had been sold for a mere $200 just one day after Fikes was last seen. The purchaser led investigators to the three men he had bought it from, and inside the vehicle, they found the ominous presence of dried blood. One of the sellers, James Arthur Gregg, was arrested for forging the bill of sale and for buying, receiving, and concealing stolen property. During questioning, Gregg delivered the grim news that Fikes had been murdered and his body hidden. Despite this confession, extensive searches of the surrounding areas yielded nothing, and without a body, further charges were not pursued at the time.
For years, the Fikes family lived in a painful limbo, clinging to the hope of finding answers. That hope took a somber turn in September 1980 when a human skull was discovered at a dump site near Sipsey. Two months later, forensic analysis confirmed the skull belonged to William Fikes. The examination of the remains revealed fractures, leading investigators to believe he had been struck with a blunt object. This grim discovery finally provided a crucial piece of evidence in the long-stalled investigation.
The case gained momentum once more in 1982 when the Walker County Sheriff's Office announced a significant development. An arrest was made in connection with the robbery and murder of William Fikes. The suspect was identified as 24-year-old Perry Mixon. However, the path to justice remained complex as it was revealed that Mixon was already incarcerated, serving a lengthy sentence under the Habitual Offender Act for unrelated crimes. While an arrest was made, the ultimate resolution of the charges against Mixon in relation to Fikes' death remains unclear, leaving a lingering sense of unresolved justice for the family of William Charles 'Pete' Fikes.
