Defying Explanation: The Baffling Murder and Strange Final Days of Blair Adams
In July 1996, Canadian Blair Adams was found murdered in a Tennessee parking lot. With no known ties to the area, Adams' murder has confounded investigators for nearly three decades
Background
“It was the most interesting and the strangest case in my entire 31-year career so far.”
These were the words of Knox County Sheriff Jimmy “J.J.” Jones when describing the bizarre murder of 31-year-old Surrey, British Columbia, resident Blair Adams.
On July 11, 1996, authorities in Knox County, Tennessee, responded to a report of a vagrant sleeping in the parking lot of a hotel that was under construction off I-40, just outside of Knoxville.
However, when police arrived, they made a grim discovery. The man who had been mistaken for a sleeping vagrant was, in reality, the battered corpse of Blair Adams. Adams had no known ties to Tennessee and no known reason for visiting. In addition, aside from a single strand of hair recovered on Blair’s body, there was no physical evidence at the scene.
Blair was described as being “half-nude” when he was found. His pants had been removed, likely by another person. He was also found in possession of thousands of dolla…
