27 Years On, Peggy Cox's Murder Still Unsolved

FRANKLIN, TN — February 1, 1991, was Peggy Cox's 49th birthday and still she was working the late shift at the Hardee's on Murfreesboro Road in Franklin.

She wasn't supposed to work that day, but she took a shift. At 11:45 p.m., no customers were in the restaurant and the last customer of the night pulled up to the drive-thru and in a voice that bore a bit of a twang, ordered a roast-beef sandwich.

Seconds later, two gunshots burst through the drive-thru window. Peggy Cox fell to the floor. The first person to reach her was her 20-year-old coworker, Jude Cox, Peggy's son. In the back, the manager called 911. By the time Franklin Police arrived, the killer was gone.

Nothing was stolen. Jude told police there was hardly enough time from when the car pulled up to when the shots rang out for there to have even been a robbery demand. No one saw the car, let alone the driver.

Peggy Cox was murdered and no one knew who did it.

Twenty-seven years later, no one knows still.

In 1991, Franklin was a lot different. The population growth had begun, but it was still a fairly sleepy town of 21,000 or so. These days, it's more like 75,000 and the city stretches into shopping malls and corporate headquarters at its fringes. In 1991, it stretched into darkness.

Then, as now, violent crimes and murder were rare in Franklin. Cox's was the only murder of the year. It is the only cold-case murder in the Franklin Police files and the reward for tips that might solve it — a combined effort between the city, the governor's office and the FBI — has grown to $25,000. The FBI produced a short podcast about the case and a video.

Franklin Det. Darren Barnes took over the case file in 2011. He had been working as a 911 operator in Franklin the year of the Cox murder and joined the police force the next year. In 2013, he took the case to the renowned Vidocq Society, a Philadelphia-based members-only club of crime-solving professionals who examine cold cases, almost always murders and particularly those investigated by smaller police forces who may not have the access to high-level forensic examiners. Then-Franklin Police Chief David Rahinsky was a former Phialdelphia officer and his father was an inspector on the City of Brotherly Love's police force and Rahinsky used his connections to get the Vidocqs to take a look.

Still, five years later, it's unsolved. Barnes follows every lead he gets, even minuscule ones and every year on the anniversary of the murder — Cox's birthday — the force pushes again for information from the public.

The Peggy Cox tipline is (615) 550-8404.

Image via Franklin Police