Laura Salmon

Investigation Discovery will profile the 1984 murder of MTSU student Laura Salmon through the victim’s perspective during its “Stolen Voices, Buried Secrets” show Feb. 13.

Salmon, an Oakland High School graduate, was murdered May 31, 1984. Salmon’s murder remained unsolved but the case was reopened in 2000 by Rutherford County Sheriff’s Detectives Lt. Bill Sharp and Sgt. Dan Goodwin. They charged her former boyfriend, David Kyle Gilley, with first-degree murder in 2001 after DNA evidence linked him to the murder scene.

Jurors convicted Gilley in 2006. Circuit Court Judge Don Ash sentenced him to life in prison.

The show about Salmon entitled “Twisted Love” will air at 9 p.m. Monday, Feb. 13. The episode depicts the murder from the victim’s view. The show’s promotion described Salmon as a “pretty girl-next-door” who was found dead in a quarry.

Sharp said the production crew interviewed Salmon’s mother, Lorene Hamontree, a friend of Salmon’s, a prosecutor from the district attorney’s office, Goodwin and Sharp last summer. Detectives Steve Brown and Bryant Gregory and patrol Cpl. Tyler Morten and Deputy Katy Black were filmed as part of the show.

Goodwin said he’s seen other episodes of the show, including the “Hunting Season” where the 1982 murder of Lynn Orrand was depicted. Sheriff’s Detectives Sgt. Mark Di Nardo and Detective Jim Tramel reopened the case and charged Orrand’s widow, Candance Bush, and her second husband, Gary Bush, with murder. They are serving a life sentence.

“It seems like they make a good effort,” Goodwin said of the show. “They put a more human perspective on the murder cases with the victim’s voice.”

The episode about Orrand’s case will air at 1:30 a.m. Monday on Investigation Discovery. It debuted in January.