Around 11:00am on May 3rd, 1986, a motorist driving on I-24 East near the Old Hickory Boulevard overpass noticed something on the side of the road. When he stopped to see what it was, he discovered a blue sleeping bag and the partially naked body of a woman against the back of the guardrail and reported it to the police. The police identified the woman as Betty Sue Wilburn. She was known to hitchhike, often with truck drivers, between Nashville, Florida, and Mississippi. The Medical Examiner determined the cause of death as manual strangulation and that she had likely died at some point between 11:00pm the night before and the time she was found. Betty Sue Wilburn was 54 years old at the time of her death.
If you have any information regarding the murder of Betty Sue Wilburn, please contact the Cold Case Homicide Unit at MNPDColdCase@nashville.gov
You can also call the Nashville Police Department’s Crime Stoppers Division anonymously at 615-742-7463
We feel it is important to put a face to the name. If you have a photograph you would like to submit to be posted (as an addition or substitution) please email: MNPDColdCase@nashville.gov