‘Killer caught 40 years after he raped and murdered 14-year-old girl’

A suspected killer was caught nearly 40 years after he allegedly raped and murdered a 14-year-old girl.

Robert Adkins, 62, was arrested on Friday and charged with brutally killing Ronda Blaylock in August 1980 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Authorities say Adkins offered Blaylock and a friend a ride home. He then took the friend home unharmed, but disappeared with Blaylock.

Neither youngsters knew the driver who told them his name was ‘Jimmy.’

Blaylock’s partially nude body was found three days later in a wooded area off Secrest Road in Surry County, which is approximately 18 miles from where she was last seen.

A medical examiner said Ronda was forcibly raped then stabbed to death. Authorities have released limited information about the case, but plan to hold a press conference Wednesday morning.

Sadly, Blaylock’s mother Rebecca will never get to see her daughter’s suspected killer brought to justice – because Adkins’ arrest comes on the one-year anniversary of Rebecca Blaylock’s death.

Vicky Thomas, Ronda’s aunt and Rebecca’s sister, does not believe the arrest is just a coincidence, but instead she thinks it was ‘guidance’ from her older sister from beyond the grave.

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She told WXII12: ‘I truly believe that. And all the week prior last week when I’d be home by myself I’d be thinking something’s going to happen this week. I can just feel it.’

Former Surry County Sheriff Graham Atkinson said he was also thinking about Ronda’s mother when he heard the news of Adkins’ arrest.

He said: ‘You would think that after this much time and this much effort that the reaction would be elation.’

‘But my first thought went back to going to visit Ronda’s mother when we first reopened this investigation and sitting in her living room, kneeling and praying with her and my first thought was I just wish Ms. Blaylock was still here to see this.’

Adkins is due back in court on September 9. He is being held in jail without bond, which was denied the Surry County judge.