On September 17, 1980 — forty one years ago today – Stewart County sisters Carla Atkins and Vickie Stout went missing and about three weeks later their shotgunned bodies were found in the Lost Creek/Mint Springs area of LBL. No one has ever been arrested or charged and the case has baffled investigators, reporters, citizens for decades. Very few clues have ever been made public. Speculation has run rampant, especially in recent years.
One of the few clues made public in the case is the blue truck. An eyewitness reportedly told law enforcement then about seeing Carla and Vickie talking with a male in a blue truck at the intersection of Highway 79 and I think the name of the road is Pumpkin Ridge Road, or at least that is what we have always called it.
I put most of my faith in the very first news accounts published. The news accounts change over time about information on the case; so I trust the initial news reports. I think the first ones were the closest to the actual story.
So back to the blue truck. The very first stories said the truck was a light blue or sky blue. Initially that is what folks were told. The blue truck the man was in who was pulled over on Highway 79 talking with Carla and Vickie was a light blue or sky blue truck. As time went on — and really not much time at all — the shade of the blue on the truck changed to medium blue. There is a difference between light blue or sky blue and medium blue. At least to me there is.
So what I am about to relate now is all information I have gathered and it all may add up to nothing OR it could mean something significant. Who knows? As I said in a prior post many folks only believe the Potneck News theory. (I will get to that theory in a coming posting. The Blue Paint Theory does not necessarily point to or away from the Potneck News Theory. But The Blue Paint Theory could possibly point toward an individual who was one of .. if not the very first … person of interest in this case.
Here is where Former Stewart County Sheriff David Hicks comes in on The Blue Paint Theory. The summer before David HIcks died I visited him at his house and he invited me in and we talked at length. Then a few months later and just a few weeks before he died, David Hicks through a mutual friend invited me to come to his house. He said he had some things to tell me. Of course I went. .. And I NEVER said David HIcks gave me a “Deathbed Confession.” I do not know where that came from. I surely never said it because what he told me was not a confession and he was not on his deathbed. I actually thought he looked pretty good, especially that summer. He did tell me about the blue paint on the tree near where the bodies of Carla and Vickie were found.
Now through the years I have heard little bits and pieces about blue paint being on a tree near where the bodies of the girls were found. Blue comes in many shades. Remember, the truck with the man talking to Carla and Vickie was initially reported as being light blue or sky blue.
David HIcks told me several TBI agents and other law enforcement officers had come to his house and had asked him if he knew anything about the blue paint? He said he knew some, “what specifically are you asking about?” See. David Hicks was a very intelligent man. Some try to portray him as a ‘not bright’ cop. He was anyting but that. David Hicks was smart and he was still sharp when I last talked with him a few weeks before he died.
David told me the investigators had some blue paint chips as evidence. but they did not know who had collected the evidence. — See, this tells US a few things.. first, as I suspected, if investigators are coming around asking who did what and who collected what and when, then that means they have holes in their documentation on chain of custody of evidence. I have suspected (actually more than suspected) this for some time. This gap will be hard to patch if and when this double murder case ever comes to trial. But I will get back to that.
David told me the investigators had a paint chip or chips of blue paint and they needed to know who had collected it. David said at first he did not remember and then he said he told the investigators he did remember. He said he remembered some time — possibly a year or so after the murders — he and other officers had gone to West Tennessee and had found a blue truck that could have possibly been linked to the murders. David said the person of interest in West Tennessee was NOT the same person in West Tennessee known as the Mussel Diver serial killer. Hicks said this was another person of interest. Hicks said he did remember being the person who had collected the blue paint off of the truck, “It was me because I was the only one of the bunch who had a pocket knife.”
So for decades since the first sighting of Carla and Vickie talking with a Man in a Blue Truck, most folks, including the cops, have been looking for that blue truck. After the initial news reports were published, the next round of news reports had the blue truck as a Medium blue, not light blue or sky blue.
Recently I was contacted by someone, who said they had gone to the scene of where the bodies of Carla and Vickie were discovered just a few days — no more than a week — after the bodies were found and removed. This person said they had driven their car down the logging road almost to the scene. They said they came in from the U.S. 79 entrance/exit. There is another way to the scene where the bodies were discovered on a logging road, just off of the Mint Springs road. But this person had driven in from the Highway 79 portion. They said they had stopped their car and walked and found the scene because it was still marked with yellow crime scene tape. This person said the Blue Paint was still on the tree.
I was amazed! After all of these years — and this has just recently happened. — I had an eyewitness to the scene (albeit a week after the discovery of the bodies) describe the scene. They said some yellow crime scene tape was on the ground in a perimeter and some other crime scene tape was hanging down from a tree. This person said that near the logging road where the bodies were found by hikers was a tree by the logging road and it had blue paint still on it. I asked what shade of blue the blue paint was. They seemed confused. I said , “If you were going to say the shade of blue on the tree was light blue, or sky blue, or medium blue or dark blue or very dark blue, what would you call it? (I realize this is subjective)” The person said, “It was medium blue.”
I asked if they would call the paint light blue or sky blue.
“No,” they replied. It was not light blue or sky blue. It was medium blue. Remember, the Man in the Blue Truck was initially said to be in a light blue or sky blue truck. The truck changed shades and it seems to have changed shades after the discovery of the bodies and after the discovery of the medium blue paint on the tree at the scene of where the bodies were found. ( I never call it the murder scene, because it more than likely was the murder scene, there is another theory that has Carla and Vickie being murdered or at least held elsewhere. But this too is a story for another day.) Back to the Blue Paint.
The person who had been to the scene a few days to a week after the bodies were found also told me this information. They said the paint on the tree was a pretty good size, perhaps a foot or more up and down the tree and a few inches wide at its widest point. They also said the lowest part of the blue paint was very low down on the tree. This person said they were familiar with automobiles and that the paint — at its lowest point — was very low to the ground; so low in fact they said the paint could not have come from a four wheel drive truck and even really was so low that it was probably not possible that it was made by a two wheel drive truck. This person said the paint was so low it appeared to have been left by a low slung car, not a truck. They went further .. they said when they saw the paint it appeared to be the shade of blue .. medium blue — that belonged to a car this person knew to be in the vicinity of Old Highway 79, on the road between Walnut Grove Church and the intersection of old Highway 79 and State highway 232.
In fact, the person said they had said when they saw the paint that they though it belonged to a specific car. They said they thought that because the paint did not appear to be factory paint from an auto .. it appeared to be paint from a spray can or other after market paint. They said the paint did seem to have been left on the tree by an auto brushing against the tree. They said they had said to the person with them, “This looks like it belongs to __________’s car!” . They said they knew of a car, a low slung hot rod car, that once had been competition orange and that the owner had painted it was a spray can or a brush and had painted it medium blue. The said as soon as they saw the paint they thought it belonged to that hot rod car.
I asked if they had looked closely at the blue paint. They said they had. They said they had touched it and had touched the bark of the tree and had noticed right away that the lowest spot of the paint, more than likely, was not made by a truck — not a two wheel drive truck or certainly not a four wheel drive truck. They said they were convinced it was made by a low riding car and that this person knew of such a car in the area and that car’s color matched the color of the blue paint on the tree and that car had been repainted with non factory paint, perhaps from a spray can — which could explain why there was so much paint on the tree.
I asked if they remembered anything about the bark. They said they had touched the paint and had touched the tree. I asked if the bark on the tree had been roughed up or disturbed. I asked if there were marks on the tree. They said the bark on the tree had not been disturbed and it was still intact. I asked if they were sure and they said they had looked very closely. No bark was disturbed. I confirmed that they knew a bit about cars and they reiterated they drove hot rods as a younger person and knew cars for sure.
I asked them if they felt like if the auto that had left the paint on the tree had left that much blue factory paint on the tree, wouldn’t the bark have been scratched up or more than likely the tree would have been damaged? They said they had never thought of that, but if an auto had hit the tree hard enough to scratch off that much factory paint, it would have damaged the bark on the tree, if not the tree itself. The tree with the blue paint on it had no damage. The bark was intact.
Also, the person who owned the low slung hot rod that had been painted medium blue was one of the first .. if not the first .. person of interest in this case. This person also went on to be charged and sent to prison for allegedly kidnapping a girl in Henry County and then driving her near the scene of where Carla and Vickie’s bodies were found. This happened less than two years after Carla and Vickie were murdered.
Also, if you look very, very closely at the very first sketch released of the person who is supposed to be the Man in the Blue truck and then look at a high school yearook photo of the guy with the blue hot rod, you will see an uncanny resemblance. Side by side… look at the sketch of the Man in the Blue Truck and look at the hot rodders yearbook photo and you will see that the eyes are identical. They have the same drooping eyelid and the details are . in my opinion.. identical. The sketch has always been problematic to me for many reasons. It seems to have been drawn carefully from a photo, especially in the eyes and nose area .. it seems as if it were drawn from a photo and not an eyewitness who had seen the perosn briefly and had given a description. The eyes are very detailed. It looks as if the eye and nose area was drawn from a photograph.. possibly a yearbook photo. The hot rodder also has a close connection to the family of Carla and Vickie … or at least one time had a fairly close connection.
I also know from a very good source close to the investigation, that in recent years the man with the blue hot rod has been looked at again as a person of interest in the murders of Carla and Vickie. The man was looked at VERY closely and very recently.
I am certainly not saying this person is the guilty party. I am not saying a hot rod — not a truck — left the blue paint. But at this point all leads and clues should be pursued.
The paint on the tree was medium blue. The Man in the Blue truck was originally said to have been in a light blue or sky blue truck. The paint on the tree did not appear to be factory paint. The paid was too low to the ground to have been made by a truck. Investigators have been looking for a blue truck for decades. Perhaps they should have been looking for a blue, low slung hot rod.
It is possible and likely probable that the owner of this low slung hot rod painted blue has an airtight alibi in regards to the murders of Carla and Vickie. I have never accused him or anyone else of having murdered those girls. I have no idea who did it. He may have an airtight alibi. That car doesn’t.
I do not know who killed Carla and Vickie. I have NEVER said I knew who killed them. I have NEVER accused ANYONE of being the murderer or murderers. I do think people know something about the crime, but are not talking. I have doubts about any statements from people coming forward today — who are waiting 41 years to say anything — to say they SAW Carla and Vickie get into a blue truck. That was never reported to law enforcement in 1980.
In fact, the TBI initially said they wanted to talk with the Man in the Blue truck because they did not know if he was a witness or suspect. Through the years the story has morphed into the Man in the Blue Truck killed Carla and Vickie. No one knows that. If they do, they need to present their evidence to the Grand Jury and seek an indictment or tell the cops if you have not done so. If they are unable or unwilling to do that, I find their story or stories questionable at best.
I am not saying the person who owned the blue hot rod is the killer of Carla and Vickie. I have never accused anyone. I am NOT doing that now. Also, I have no idea if the hot rod was the car that left the blue paint on the tree at the scene. It is my opinion that all possible clues and all possible theories into this unsolved forty one year old double murder of two children in LBL needs to be pursued.