Blair Adams

Case background and investigation

Robert Dennis Blair Adams, known as Blair, was a construction foreman in Surrey, British Columbia. According to Unsolved Mysteries, his mother said that in the summer of 1996 he became anxious and moody and would not tell her what was wrong. On Friday, July 5, 1996, he withdrew his savings and emptied his safe deposit box of cash, jewelry, gold and platinum.

Over the next several days his movements became erratic. Unsolved Mysteries reported that he was refused entry to the United States at the border, quit his job, bought a round-trip ticket to Frankfurt, Germany, and told a friend he feared someone was trying to kill him. Instead of flying to Germany, he turned in the ticket, rented a car and crossed into the United States. From Seattle he flew to Washington, D.C., arriving on July 10, where he rented a car and drove about 500 miles to the Knoxville area, the Knox County Sheriff's Office said.

That afternoon he locked himself out of the rental car, or had the wrong key, at a BP station on Strawberry Plains Pike. A tow-truck driver arranged to hold the car until the rental company could supply a key and dropped him at a nearby Fairfield Inn. Hotel staff described him as nervous and watchful. He paid for a room but, according to the sheriff's office, is not believed to have entered it; Unsolved Mysteries put the last sighting at 7:37 p.m.

Construction workers found his body the next morning, July 11, in the parking lot of a motel under construction on Crosswood Boulevard, about half a mile away. WATE, citing Associated Press reporting, said his pants had been removed and thousands of dollars in Canadian, German and US money lay around him, along with a fanny pack containing gold, coins and jewelry. An autopsy found he died of septic shock after a beating in which a blow ruptured his stomach. Injuries suggested a sexual assault, and the only notable physical evidence was a long strand of hair found in his hand.

Because his money and valuables were left behind, the sheriff's office has said robbery did not appear to be the motive, and Adams knew no one in the area. Investigators told Unsolved Mysteries they believed the threat he feared may have been imagined. The case remains open with the Knox County Sheriff's Office Cold Case Unit.