The Brass Key: How One Odd Clue Broke a Cold Murder

The Brass Key: How One Odd Clue Broke a Cold Murder

A dead woman found with a brass key standing upright between her fingers - a detail so precise it froze a passerby and haunted investigators for nearly twenty years. The key matched no lock, the car had a punctured tire with an intact valve stem, and the time of death placed her alive hours after her last normal phone call; who put the key there and why did the case stall for decades?

In this episode, we tell the story of Amanda Foster’s disappearance and death, the early leads and missteps, and the one overlooked clue that changed everything - could a pawn receipt and a dusty evidence box finally answer what happened between May 9 and May 14, 2001?

Person: Amanda Foster Date: May 14, 2001 (body discovered); May 9, 2001 (last phone call) Location: Perch Creek Greenway, Vance Mills, North Carolina Cause: Strangulation Investigator: Detective Sergeant Frank Odle

- Amanda Foster was 46 years old and had worked at Kellner Fabric for 19 years. - Her mustard-colored Buick was found abandoned on County Road Seven with a completely flat right rear tire on May 11, 2001, about 4 miles from the greenway. - Time of death was estimated 10 to 14 hours before discovery, placing it on the evening of May 9, 2001. - A brass hardware-store key was balanced upright between Amanda’s index and middle fingers and matched no known lock after canvassing three of four county hardware stores. - Eddie Pruitt, seen near Kellner Fabric on May 8, was arrested May 22 but held 11 days then released due to no DNA, fibers, or fingerprints linking him to the body.

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