- September 20, 2026
- 11:51 pm
Terry Allen “Bones-Stack” Surratt was shot to death during a burst of highway gunfire on August 16, 1975. Exactly three years later, Jimmy Wayne Edwards disappeared after what his family described as a dispute with a motorcycle gang. Later summaries associate both young men with the Outlaws, but the shared date and club connection are not evidence that the cases are linked.
ONE DATE, THREE YEARS APART
August 16 appears twice in Davidson County’s unresolved case history.
On August 16, 1975, 21-year-old Terry Allen Surratt was fatally shot during a confusing sequence of gunfire involving an overpass, a truck stop, a brown van and at least two other vehicles near Old 29-70 and Interstate 85. The Davidson County Sheriff’s Office identifies Surratt by his nickname, “Bones-Stack,” and lists his death as an unsolved homicide.
On August 16, 1978, 22-year-old Jimmy Wayne Edwards vanished from Lexington. The federal NamUs database records that date as his last known contact and says family members reported that he had previously been involved in a dispute with a motorcycle gang. A later missing-person summary identifies the group as the Outlaws and provides additional allegations about a robbery and beating.
The dates are exactly three years apart. Both cases involve young men associated in public case summaries with the same motorcycle club. Those parallels are striking enough to examine together.
They are not, by themselves, proof of a connection.
DC Alive found no public law-enforcement statement, court record or contemporaneous news report establishing that Surratt’s killing and Edwards’s disappearance arose from the same conflict, involved the same people or were ever formally linked by investigators.
THE FIRST GUNFIRE
The Davidson County Sheriff’s Office’s account of Surratt’s death begins at the Roadranger Truck Stop south of Lexington.
According to the agency’s current case summary, an Outlaws member said he had gone to the truck stop to eat. As he left, he reported that someone who appeared to be hiding in bushes near the Old 29-70 overpass fired at him. He also said a northbound vehicle fired several shots and that he returned fire in self-defense.
That description is a witness account reproduced by the sheriff’s office. The public summary does not say whether deputies recovered bullets or cartridge cases at the truck stop, found bullet damage, identified the vehicle or independently confirmed that the person in the bushes and the occupants of the northbound vehicle were acting together.
After the gunfire, the witness returned to the Outlaws clubhouse on Old 29-70 South and told other members what had happened.
Three men then left the clubhouse in a brown van. The sheriff’s summary identifies them as Paul Curry of Lexington, Michael Bishop of Wisconsin and Terry Surratt of Charlotte. The account says they were looking for the people who had fired at the club member.
The fact that these men are named in the official summary reflects their reported roles as occupants of the van. It does not identify either surviving man as a suspect in Surratt’s death.
THE BROWN VAN ON I-85
One of the surviving occupants told investigators that the van traveled north on Old 29-70 and entered I-85 North. As it did, he said, another vehicle pulled in front of the van while a car behind it began firing.
Surratt was struck in the head.
The men turned back toward the clubhouse and called for an ambulance. Surratt was transported to Lexington Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
The sheriff’s public account does not identify the occupants of the vehicles, describe either vehicle, state how many shots were fired or explain whether investigators believed the highway attack was a direct continuation of the earlier gunfire near the truck stop.
It also does not establish who was pursuing whom.
The van’s occupants reportedly left the clubhouse to search for the people involved in the first shooting. The account of the interstate gunfire then places one vehicle in front of the van and another behind it. That sequence may suggest a coordinated attack, but the available public record does not prove coordination. It does not say whether investigators concluded that the same people participated in both episodes or whether the vehicles were ever located.
What the record does establish is narrower: Surratt was riding in the van, a surviving occupant reported gunfire from behind, Surratt suffered a fatal head wound and the homicide remains on the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office cold-case list.
WHO WAS TERRY SURRATT?
The public case summary contains little biographical information beyond Surratt’s age, nickname, Charlotte connection and association with the Outlaws.
That leaves much of his life outside the case file unseen. He was 21 years old when he died. Whatever conflicts surrounded the clubhouse that night, Surratt was the person who did not return from the highway alive.
His nickname and club affiliation help identify him in the historical record. They do not explain why he was killed, establish that he knew who was in the other vehicles or prove that he was the intended target.
No person is publicly identified as Surratt’s killer on the sheriff’s case page. DC Alive found no reliable public record showing that anyone was charged with his death.
WHAT THE SURRATT RECORD DOES NOT ANSWER
The sheriff’s online narrative preserves the broad sequence of events but leaves important evidentiary questions unanswered:
Did investigators recover cartridge cases or bullets from the truck-stop area, Old 29-70, the interstate, the van or Surratt’s body?
Did ballistics show whether the shots in the first episode and the shot that killed Surratt came from the same firearm?
What descriptions did the witnesses give of the cars, their occupants and their direction of travel?
Was the brown van preserved, photographed or examined for bullet trajectories and other physical evidence?
Did investigators determine whether the vehicle in front of the van acted deliberately to slow or block it?
Was Surratt specifically targeted, or was he struck because of where he was seated?
Were other people at the clubhouse interviewed, and did their accounts agree on the timeline?
Did the earlier gunfire arise from a prior dispute that could identify the highway shooters?
These are questions prompted by gaps in the public summary. They are not evidence against any person.
EXACTLY THREE YEARS LATER
On Wednesday, August 16, 1978, Jimmy Wayne Edwards disappeared from Lexington.
NamUs lists him as 22 years old at the time, with brown hair, a height between 5 feet 6 inches and 6 feet, and a weight between 130 and 160 pounds. The federal record says Lexington was his last known location and identifies Davidson County as the county of disappearance.
The official circumstances field is brief: “Jimmy was last seen on 08/16/1978. He had been involved in a dispute previously with a motorcycle gang according to family members.”
That wording matters. It attributes the dispute to family members and does not identify the gang, describe the disagreement or state that investigators proved anyone harmed Edwards.
NamUs currently lists the Lexington Police Department as the case owner and gives agency case number 201302972.
THE LATER, MORE DETAILED ACCOUNT
The Charley Project, an independent missing-person database, provides a fuller narrative. It says Edwards was last seen at 2:45 p.m., lived with his wife and child on Laurel Avenue and worked at the Young Hinkle Furniture Company.
The site identifies Edwards as a member of the Outlaws and says he had fallen out with other members. It further reports that he had allegedly been robbed and beaten by members of the club shortly before he disappeared. According to that summary, Edwards told his wife he intended to recover his money, then vanished the following day. The site classifies him as endangered missing and says foul play is suspected.
Those details create a compelling narrative, but they require careful attribution. They do not all appear in the current NamUs entry. The federal record confirms only the date, location, age, identifying information and family-reported dispute with an unnamed motorcycle gang.
DC Alive did not locate a contemporaneous 1978 newspaper report, police incident report or publicly available witness statement independently confirming the alleged robbery, beating, time of last sighting or Edwards’s statement about recovering his money.
Accordingly, those details should be described as part of the later Charley Project case summary, not as established findings from the current official record.
A CASE THAT CHANGED HANDS, OR A RECORD THAT CHANGED?
The two current public summaries do not identify the same investigating agency.
NamUs lists the Lexington Police Department as the case owner and provides a Lexington police case number and contact information. The Charley Project page, last updated in 2013, lists the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office as the investigating agency.
That difference may reflect a transfer of responsibility, an older record, a jurisdictional distinction or a database correction. The available pages do not explain it. The current NamUs entry should be treated as the more authoritative source for present case ownership.
This discrepancy also cautions against assuming that Edwards is one of the four missing-person cases currently under review by the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office Cold Case Team. Edwards does not appear on the sheriff’s present public missing-person page, and NamUs assigns his case to Lexington police.
None of that means the case is closed. Edwards remains listed in NamUs as missing.
THE DATE AND THE CLUB
The central coincidence is real.
Surratt was killed on August 16, 1975. Edwards disappeared on August 16, 1978. The Charley Project associates Edwards with the Outlaws, while the sheriff’s office explicitly identifies Surratt as a club member.
But coincidence is not causation.
Three years separated the cases. Surratt was from Charlotte, according to the sheriff’s summary, and was killed during reported highway gunfire. Edwards lived in Lexington and disappeared after a family-reported dispute. The public sources do not identify the same witnesses, vehicles, weapons, locations or suspected participants.
They also do not say that Edwards witnessed Surratt’s shooting, knew anything about it or disappeared because of it. They do not establish that the dispute preceding Edwards’s disappearance arose from events in 1975.
The responsible conclusion is therefore limited: the shared date and reported club association justify asking whether investigators compared the files. They do not justify telling readers that the cases were connected.
WHY THE ORIGINAL FILES MATTER
The original investigative records could clarify whether the visible parallels have any significance.
In the Surratt case, reports may contain vehicle descriptions, witness interviews, radio traffic, scene diagrams, ballistics findings and names that were never released. If bullets or cartridge cases were preserved, a modern examiner could determine whether they are suitable for renewed comparison. The file may also show whether investigators connected the truck-stop gunfire to the interstate shooting or treated them as separate events.
In the Edwards case, the original missing-person report could establish the precise last-known time and place, who last saw him, whether he had transportation, what property he left behind and how police evaluated the allegations of robbery and assault. It could also identify the source of the Outlaws association repeated by the Charley Project.
Most important for the paired story, the files could show whether investigators in 1978 recognized the three-year anniversary, compared Edwards’s associates with the names in the Surratt investigation or found no factual overlap at all.
Without those records, the connection remains an unanswered research question rather than an investigative conclusion.
QUESTIONS THAT REMAIN
The two cases raise separate questions as well as one obvious shared question.
For the Surratt homicide:
Who fired into the van, and from what vehicle?
Were the truck-stop shooting and the interstate shooting carried out by the same people?
What physical evidence was recovered, and does any of it survive?
Why did a vehicle reportedly move in front of the van as the car behind it opened fire?
Was anyone else injured, and did the van contain evidence showing where each shot entered?
For the Edwards disappearance:
Who last saw Edwards, and where was he at 2:45 p.m.?
What evidence supported the later account that he had been robbed and beaten?
How much money was allegedly taken, and whom did Edwards believe had it?
Did he leave in a vehicle, on foot or with another person?
Were his home, workplace and known routes searched, and were his financial or employment records examined?
Why does the older secondary summary name the sheriff’s office while current NamUs data names Lexington police?
For both cases:
Did investigators ever compare the two files because of the date and reported Outlaws association?
If they did, did they find a meaningful overlap or rule one out?
These questions are not invitations to name suspects online. They identify what remains absent from the public record.
TWO YOUNG MEN, TWO UNFINISHED CASES
Motorcycle-club history can encourage sensational storytelling. The available facts demand something more disciplined.
Surratt’s death involved reported gunfire from multiple locations and vehicles, but the public record does not reveal who fired the fatal shot or why. Edwards reportedly had a serious dispute before he disappeared, but the official record does not establish what happened to him after August 16, 1978.
Neither young man should be reduced to a nickname, a club patch or an unresolved conflict.
Surratt was 21. Edwards was 22, a husband and father according to the later summary. One was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead. The other simply stopped appearing in the life he had built.
The date joins their stories in the public imagination. Evidence must determine whether anything else does.
SOMEONE MAY STILL KNOW
More than 51 years have passed since Terry Surratt was killed, and more than 48 years have passed since Jimmy Edwards disappeared.
Someone may remember the cars near Old 29-70 and I-85, damage to a vehicle, a weapon that changed hands or a statement made after the shooting. Someone may know where Edwards planned to go, whom he intended to meet or why he believed he could recover his money. Another person may have inherited letters, photographs or stories without realizing their significance.
Information about Surratt’s killing can be submitted through the Terry Surratt case page on the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office website. NamUs currently directs information about Edwards’s disappearance to the Lexington Police Department at 336-243-6704, agency case number 201302972.
Firsthand information belongs with investigators. Rumor and public accusation do not substitute for evidence.
Terry Surratt’s killer has not been publicly identified. Jimmy Edwards has never been found. Whether their cases share more than a date and a reported club connection remains unknown.
Both families still deserve answers.
EDITOR’S NOTE
This article is based on current public law-enforcement and missing-person records plus a later independent case summary. DC Alive did not have access to the original 1975 homicide file, the original 1978 missing-person report, autopsy and ballistics records, complete witness interviews or contemporaneous newspaper coverage of either case. Statements about gunfire in the Surratt case are attributed to the witnesses as summarized by the sheriff’s office. The allegation that Edwards was robbed and beaten, his reported Outlaws membership and his statement about recovering money come from the Charley Project and are identified as secondary-source claims. No reliable public source reviewed for this article establishes that the two cases are connected.
Steve is an entrepreneur, freelance writer, and super-geek tech nerd based in Lexington, NC. Steve specializes in social media platform development, website design, graphic design, and video production…and serving the one true creator of the universe, aka God.
REFERENCES AND SOURCES
Davidson County Sheriff’s Office, “Surratt.” Official public case summary describing the reported truck-stop gunfire, the trip in the brown van, the shooting near I-85, Surratt’s transport to Lexington Memorial Hospital and the agency’s tip form.
https://www.davidsoncountysheriffsnc.org/copy-of-wilson
Davidson County Sheriff’s Office, “Cold Case Investigations.” Official index listing Terry Allen Surratt’s death as a homicide dated August 16, 1975.
https://www.davidsoncountysheriffsnc.org/coldcase
National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, “Missing Person / NamUs #MP9165.” Federal missing-person record confirming Jimmy Wayne Edwards’s name, age, date and county of disappearance, physical description, family-reported dispute with a motorcycle gang, current case owner and agency case number.
https://namus.nij.ojp.gov/case/MP9165
The Charley Project, “Jimmy Wayne Edwards.” Independent missing-person summary providing the reported 2:45 p.m. last-seen time, Laurel Avenue residence, Young Hinkle Furniture Company employment, Outlaws association, alleged robbery and beating, statement about recovering money and foul-play assessment. These details were not all independently confirmed in the current NamUs entry.
https://charleyproject.org/case/jimmy-wayne-edwards
Davidson County Sheriff’s Office, “Missing Persons.” Current public missing-person index reviewed to determine whether Edwards is presently listed by the sheriff’s office.
https://www.davidsoncountysheriffsnc.org/missing
North Carolina Sheriffs’ Association, “NC Cold Case | Davidson County Sheriff’s Office’s Cold Case Unit,” September 10, 2026. Current overview stating that the sheriff’s Cold Case Team is reviewing seven homicide investigations and four missing-person investigations.
https://multibriefs.com/briefs/ncsa/NCSA091026.php
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