Beth-Ellen Vinson moves from Goldsboro, NC to Raleigh, NC, and takes a job working as a private dancer for an escort service. According to her mother, Beth-Ellen moves into an apartment with a young man she had met previously and several other roommates.

Beth-Ellen receives a phone call for a work opportunity at approximately 2:00 am, according to her boyfriend, who was in the apartment he shared with her at the time.

Beth-Ellen's Apartment (Approx. Location)

Beth-Ellen is last seen leaving the apartment she was sharing with her boyfriend, Rick Heath, at approximately 2:30 am. According to Heath, Beth-Ellen was going to meet a client at the Innkeeper Hotel on Capital Boulevard and she had planned to return soon.

Innkeeper Hotel

As an employee of Goodwill Used Cars, a local car lot, arrives for work around 5:30 am, they find Beth-Ellen's white 1990 Mazda 626 sedan parked sideways at the entrance of the building.

Goodwill Used Cars

According to investigators, the car windows are rolled down, the radio is playing, and one of Beth-Ellen's shoes is on the ground on the driver's side. Officers at the scene report that a young man - Beth-Ellen's boyfriend - drives up to the car during this time. He informs the officers that he is out looking for Beth-Ellen, because she had been gone all night and hasn't returned home.

Goodwill Used Cars

After Beth-Ellen goes missing, police question Beth-Ellen's boyfriend, Rick Heath, and the client at the hotel, and cannot eliminate either of them as suspects. Eventually, however, authorities finally determine that Beth-Ellen never made it to the Innkeeper Hotel to meet the client that night. It was difficult to confirm at first, but the client had been on a binge of drinking, drugs, and prostitutes, and he could not say for sure whether he had ever met with Beth-Ellen. As for her boyfriend, no physical evidence linked him to the crime scene.

Beth-Ellen's remains are found shortly after 12:00 pm by a businessman when he looks around the business after an employee reports a strange smell. According to the businessman and local police, Beth-Ellen's remains are found under pieces of flattened cardboard in a wooded ditch between a couple of businesses.

Beth-Ellen's Remains Found (Approx. Location)

Three days after Beth-Ellen's remains were found, investigators announce a $6,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the individual responsible for Beth-Ellen's death. The reward includes $5,000 from the North Carolina Governor's Office and Raleigh CrimeStoppers.

An anonymous tip sent into Raleigh CrimeStoppers leads police to the remains of another young woman, later identified to be Tracy Ann Moschette. The remains are found behind a Kmart in West Raleigh, near the business' garbage bins. Investigators announce that Beth-Ellen's and Tracy's causes of death are different, and that the cases, in general, are very different. Tracy's death at this time is labeled as a suspicious death, but investigators do not rule out murder as a possible manner of death. Police do not believe that the two cases are related or connected in any way.

Tracy's Remains Found

Anonymous donors - along with CrimeStoppers - add an additional $6,000 to the reward fund for answers in Beth-Ellen's case, bringing the total reward amount to $12,000.

Superior Court Judge Donald Stephens signs a court order delaying the release of the medical examiner's report for Beth-Ellen's death on Friday, September 13, 1994. At this point, the judge also announces that the autopsy results would be released sometime "in the forseeable future". The reasoning given behind this delay is due to information being present in the reports that may cause issues within the investigation, or be of "advantage to the suspect".

The main information noted in this letter, which is received by the Goldsboro News-Argus newspaper, is that Beth-Ellen was killed because she had allegedly attempted to blackmail members of a 'sadomasochistic' group that she worked for. This group, as explained in the letter, was called the 'Power Exchange of the Triangle', which allegedly included highly-regarded members of society, including lawyers, public officials, and executives. According to an article written by The News & Observer newspaper, this letter, presumably written by another individual who may fear for their safety, states that Beth-Ellen was working for individuals who had "unique tastes", and that Beth-Ellen had been making approximately $300-$500 without providing sexual acts. The letter continues to explain that Beth-Ellen had "got sick of the pain, but still wanted the money", and ultimately tried to blackmail former customers. The writer of this letter ends with the following statements: "I asked her if she was scared that something might happen to her. She said 'No, I've got a list of names hidden, and if anything happens to me, I've got a friend 70-something miles down the road that'll send that list to the Argus (newspaper)". The letter continues to explain that "The night that Beth-Ellen disappeared, she said that she was going out 'to collect.' The hit man that was hired may be caught, but those responsible will never be brought to justice."

Detectives announce that 3-4 rings that Beth-Ellen always wore were missing from her remains when she was found on August 23, 1994. Detectives plead that the public view replicas of each ring, with the belief that it is possible that someone who may not be directly connected to the murder may have been given the rings sometime between late August of 1994 and today. Investigators also announce that Beth-Ellen's purse was missing, described as "a cloth, pull-string shoulder bag purse that was burgundy, burnt-orange and brown with the figure of a cowboy woven into the side. It had a zipper on the top with a leather strap and was 6 inches wide and 4.5 inches tall". Specifically, police note that one of the rings was "a sterling silver spoon ring popular in the 1960s and '70s", which reportedly had a Chantilly pattern. Another ring, which was given to Beth-Ellen as a gift from her mother, is described by police as a "14-karat gold band with two amethyst stones on either side of a garnet stone". Finally, investigators describe two rings that are also missing from Beth's collection: "a 10-karat ring with a purple amethyst, two diamond chips, and a yellow gold band (described as stackable"), and "a fake silver mood ring which had a white stone that grows dark with body heat".

Beth-Ellen's murder is included as a featured case in the October issue of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Law Enforcement Bulletin.