Our card this week is Cindy Ilias, the Six of Diamonds for Minnesota.

Cindy was a 19 year old college student enjoying a night out with friends when she made the

decision to get into someone's car, a decision that would change the course of her life,

and leave homicide detectives in Minnesota searching for answers for 45 years.

To this day, her story remains the oldest unsolved case in the state, but efforts to get

to the bottom of the mystery surrounding her death have not stopped and they will not stop.

I'm Ashley Flowers and this is The Deck.

On the afternoon of Thursday, March 24th, 1977, a man named Robert Johnson was driving home

from work in Aurora, Minnesota.

Even though it was the end of March, winter was still hanging on in Aurora and there was

a fresh dusting of snow covering the field's trees and freshly cut logs on either side of

the roadway.

As Robert was driving, he had his eyes peeled because the day before a neighbor's dog

had gotten loose and still hadn't made its way back home.

Robert was looking for the dog, though he figured with the low overnight temperatures, it

would be surprising if the dog had survived the harsh weather.

And right as he was thinking that, something caught his eye.

He spotted a trail of dark red stains in the snow on the road up ahead of his car and

his first thought was maybe the dog hadn't succumbed to the weather at all, maybe it had

been hit by a car.

So Robert pulled over and got out to take a closer look.

As he moved closer, the only thing he could think was if it wasn't the dog, then maybe

...