Hi, Cold Case listeners. I'm Marissa Pinson. And if you're enjoying this show, I just want to remind you that episodes of Cold Case files as well as the A&E Classic Podcasts, I Survived, American Justice, and City Confidential are all available ad-free on the new A&E Crime and Investigation Channel on Apple Podcasts and Apple Plus for just $4.99 a month or $39.99 a year. And now on to the show.

This program contains subject matter that may be disturbing to some listeners. Listener discretion is advised.

There are over 100,000 cold cases in America.

Only 1% are ever solved.

This is one of those rare stories.

Mike and Jeff Jones have a problem.

On April 16, 1979, in Iredale County, North Carolina,

they reported their mother, Harriet Simmons, missing.

The day before, Harriet had climbed into her car in Raleigh, North Carolina,

for a weekend road trip to Nashville.

The drive should have taken eight hours.

Five days later, she still has not arrived.

We were very frustrated with the search effort,

and we were just trying to do whatever we could.

There was nothing else to do but to go look for mom.

Ronnie DeMent is Harriet's son-in-law.

It was totally out of character for a mom not to call when we knew she would,

because her kids were her life.

She would never go that long and not be in touch with them.

He joins the search and begins to retrace the route she would have taken to Nashville.

After two and a half hours of driving, he finds Simmons car parked in the exit ramp

leading out to a rest stop.

...