Killing of Blair Adams

Background

Robert Dennis Blair Adams (December 28, 1964 – July 11, 1996) was a resident of Surrey, British Columbia, Canada. On July 5, 1996, he withdrew most of his money and emptied his safe deposit box of cash, jewelry, gold, and platinum. He attempted to enter the United States by ferry from Victoria to Seattle but was denied entry by immigration officials after being flagged as a possible drug courier and found to have prior drug and assault convictions. In the early morning of July 9, Canadian border patrol officers found Adams attempting to cross the border on foot near the Pacific Highway Border Crossing; he had scratches on his legs and hands. He was briefly connected to a reported vehicle theft but was released for lack of evidence.

Cross-country travel

Later on July 9, Adams entered the U.S. by car, driving a rented Nissan Altima from Vancouver International Airport to Seattle. There he bought a roundtrip ticket to Frankfurt, Germany — a city where he had previously worked and had a former relationship — but did not board that flight. Instead, he exchanged the credit for a one-way ticket to Washington, D.C. After landing, he rented a Toyota Camry at Dulles Airport and, later that morning, was involved in a minor collision on U.S. Route 250 in Troy, Virginia. The other driver told detectives Adams "seemed nice, but was in a hurry."

Adams arrived in East Knox County, Tennessee, on the evening of July 10. He was seen at a BP gas station on Strawberry Plains Pike at 5:30 p.m., where he reported trouble with his car key; a repair driver, Gerald Sapp, determined the key Adams was using belonged to the Nissan he had left behind in Seattle, not the Toyota he was driving. Sapp had the car towed and dropped Adams at a Fairfield Inn on Cracker Barrel Lane, where surveillance footage showed him loitering roughly forty minutes before purchasing a room with $100 cash. He never entered the room.

Discovery and injuries

Construction workers found Adams's body around 7:30 a.m. on July 11, 1996, in the parking lot of an under-construction Country Inn & Suites hotel across the Interstate 40 interchange from the Fairfield Inn. He was found half-naked, with his pants, shoes, and socks near his body, and nearly $4,000 in German, Canadian, and U.S. currency scattered around him. A nearby duffel bag held maps and travel receipts, and a fanny pack contained gold, platinum, jewelry, keys, and sunglasses.

An autopsy by the University of Tennessee Medical Center found numerous cuts and abrasions, some possibly defensive, along with a ruptured stomach and a forehead wound believed caused by a crowbar or club. His cause of death was ruled sepsis from an abdominal perforation. Other injuries indicated a sexual assault.

Investigation

Investigators considered the death possibly "sex-related." A single strand of long hair found gripped in Adams's hand was the only physical DNA evidence recovered. Family members said Adams had been acting oddly in the weeks before leaving Canada and had told friends someone was trying to kill him. In 2010, law enforcement stated no credible tip had ever been received, despite release of a composite sketch of a man reportedly seen speaking with Adams outside a nearby restaurant. The case has drawn media attention including a 1997 episode of Unsolved Mysteries and coverage on several true-crime podcasts.