At this hour, a decades-old disappearance in North Alabama remains one of the state's most perplexing mysteries.

On the rainy night of March 3, 1956, three relatives, Billy Howard Dye, Robert Earl Dye, and their cousin, Dan Brasher, left a party in rural Jefferson County and simply vanished without a trace.

Billy Dye was 19 years old. His brother, Robert 23, their cousin Dan Brasher, was 38. The three men

drove away together in a dark green 1947 Ford and were never seen again.

Investigators quickly suspected foul play.

Witnesses later told authorities the men may have been involved in an argument earlier that

night with local bootleggers at a time when illegal moonshine operations were widespread across rural Alabama. In the days following

the disappearance, rumors began circulating throughout the community. Some claim the men's car had been

buried beneath what later became highway construction sites. Others reported seeing men carrying

shovels and tools late into the night

near wooded areas. One detail that drew particular attention came from a local store clerk

who recalls selling cleaning supplies to a man seeking to remove what appeared to be a blood

stain shortly after the disappearance. Over the years, law enforcement

has reopened the case multiple times. In the 1970s, investigators drilled into areas along

U.S. Highway 79, following metallic readings that raised hope of finding the missing car.

Those efforts turned up nothing more than scrap metal.

In the 1980s, a prison inmate claimed responsibility for the killings,

but investigators were unable to corroborate his story,

and the confession ultimately collapsed.

Today, the disappearance of Billy and Robert Dye and Dan Brasher

remains the oldest active coal case in Jefferson County. The men's vehicle has never been

recovered, and no physical evidence has ever confirmed what happened that night. Even after

...