#20 Heather Uffelman l Music City Murder

This episode of Music City Murder begins in Nashville but ends in Marietta (Atlanta), GA. It still counts as a Nashville true crime case, however, and the unsolved mystery of Heather Uffelman's death will send chills down your spine.

Sources:

• Unsolved Mysteries l Season 6 l Episode 20
• A Reddit Thread on /r/UnresolvedMysteries by /u/ElementaryFan

Show Notes:

• In September 1992, in Nashville, a local music video company ran two ads in the classifieds trying to sell the central processing unit and monitor for an Apple Quadra 950.
• • They put 22-year-old Jeremy Rolfs—a 22-year-old senior at Tennessee State University—in charge of the process.
  • One of the ads read ULTIMATE Power (ultimate in all caps): Apple Quadra 950 + plus some other details...$24,000 obo.
  • • I think this is the first mistake. Putting the price for such a huge and costly piece of equipment will draw criminals.
• On October 7, 1992, a man calling himself “Tom Johnson” called about the ad and said he was a freelance computer programmer
• Jeremy Rolfs even met up with this “Tom Johnson” to preview how the equipment worked.
• • Unfortunately, there were no other witnesses to this event, and so it went completely unnoticed.
• Since the destination was over 200 miles away, he decided to drive through the night, and his fiance, Heather Uffelman, joined him to keep him awake.
• At 1:30 AM on October 24, Jeremy and Heather set off for Marietta.
• • They arrived at the motel at 7:30 AM. Originally, they had been set up to meet at an industrial park.
  • • But “Tom” said the directions were so complicated that it would be better to meet somewhere else.
    • Since Jeremy had spent plenty of time wandering through industrial parks looking for unmarked addresses, he thought it was reasonable.
  • “Tom” said his business partner had the check and would be along in an hour, so the couple went to breakfast.
  • When they came back a half-hour later, “Tom” said he’d spoken with the business partner and he was on the way.
  • • Rolfs so trusted the guy that none of this struck him as odd, and so he just went along with it.
    • There were no clues that this guy was anything but what he said he was.
  • At 8, he suggested that they load the computer into the car, so they did.
  • They made small talk for about 20 minutes before Jeremy asked “Tom” where the president of the company was with the check so they could close the deal.
  • Then, “Tom” pulled a gun on them and said, “I think we can close this deal right now.”
• “Tom” had Jeremy and Heather lie down on the ground before rolling them up in a blanket. 
• • He had Jeremy turn away from Heather, and then he suddenly heard a loud buzzing in his ear, and the room began to spin, because he’d just struck Jeremy in the back of the head with a claw hammer.
  • He then went over to Heather and hit her with the hammer, and Heather let out these horrible, bloodcurdling screams.
  • When Jeremy said “stop screaming, and he’ll leave,” “Tom” hit Jeremy over the head several more times before returning to Heather Uffelman.
  • Jeremy remained conscious throughout the whole ordeal and was able to see Tom dust the counter for fingerprints.
• As soon as “Tom” left, Jeremy freed himself and crawled over to Heather to tell her he would get help for them and that they would be all right.
• • What he saw would haunt him until his dying day.
• to get help for himself and Heather.
• They were rushed to the hospital, where Heather succumbed to her injuries around 12:30 PM that day. 
• • Jeremy was released from the hospital on Oct. 27.