A North Carolina sheriff renewed his plea this week for help solving the fatal 1981 shooting of 19-year-old Rhonda Hinson, killed in a car on Interstate 40 as she returned home from a Christmas party.
A combined reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction in Hinson’s death has been increased to $94,700, Sheriff Banks Hinceman said on Facebook on Wednesday.
“I believe there is someone with credible information that could help bring the person(s) responsible for this murder to justice,” Hinceman said.
“I know it’s been 42 years,” Hinceman said. “If you’re worried about what people will think about you, it’s never too late to do the right thing.”
Hinson was shot while heading toward Valdese, N.C., on I-40 West to the Mineral Springs Mountain Road exit, Hinceman said.
Judy Hinson, Rhonda’s mother, told Charlotte Observer news partner WSOC that she and her husband still think about their daughter every day.
“If we don’t talk about her during the day, we dream about her at night,” Hinson said. “The most caring, loving child you have ever met.”
The case has attracted national attention over the years. It was featured in an episode of “Unsolved Mysteries” on Netflix and in a December 2022 report from NBC News Dateline.
“She was funny and cheerful,” Judy Hinson told Dateline. “She loved everyone. She has never met a stranger.”
Sheriff’s investigators and State Bureau of Investigation agents have spent thousands of hours investigating Hinson’s death over the decades, Hinceman said.
“My prayer is that the Lord will weigh heavily on someone’s heart to come forward with credible information that will bring justice to Rhonda and her family,” he said.
The sheriff’s office has a tip line related solely to Hinson’s case: 828-764-9549.
