Surry Sheriff’s Office announces Blaylock cold case cracked, makes arrest
By Jeff Linville
The Mount Airy News
August 2, 2019
DOBSON, N.C. — The Surry County Sheriff’s Office has announced a resolution to one of the most famous cold cases in local history.
”The Surry County Sheriff’s Office with the assistance of the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation made an arrest in the 1980 murder of Ronda Mechelle Blaylock,” a press released stated this afternoon.
Earlier today, deputies picked up Robert James Adkins, 62, of 1547 Fisher Valley Road, Dobson, without incident.
Adkins was charged with first-degree murder and first-degree forcible rape of Blaylock. He is being held in the Surry County Detention Center without bond.
Sheriff Steve Hiatt says that this case is finally being brought to a close through the collective work of many present and retired agents and officers from his office, the SBI, N.C. State Crime Lab, N.C. State Bureau Cold Case Unit, Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office, S.C. Law Enforcement Division and Stokes County Sheriff’s Office.
A press conference “involving the arrest of Robert James Adkins will be held at the Lt. Wayne M. Davis Training Room located at the Surry County Judicial Center, 201 E. Kapp St., Dobson,” stated Capt. Scott Hudson.
“The training room is located on the bottom floor of the judicial center. The press conference will be held on Wednesday Aug. 7, 2019 at 10 a.m. Any and all questions related to the just-released press statement, will be answered at that time.”
Revived
This arrest comes almost four years to the day since The News published an article Aug. 4, 2015, about an increased effort to solve the case over the previous four months under then-Sheriff Graham Atkinson.
Investigators fielded hundreds of responses since that stepped-up effort began in March 2015 to solve the cold-case murder of the 14-year-old girl found dead in Surry County, including the formation of a multi-agency Ronda Blaylock Homicide Task Force.
“We’ve made some pretty good progress on it,” Atkinson said at the time, even making mention of a “fairly critical” stage.
When the task force was formed, it was hoped modern crime-solving technology, including DNA testing — coupled with old evidence in the case being in “excellent” condition — would serve to bring the killer to justice.
Atkinson added that Blaylock’s friends were just minors themselves and might have been reluctant to talk to cops, especially if they were worried it might get them in hot water with their own parents.
History
Ronda was a student at Atkins High School in Winston-Salem when she disappeared on Aug. 26, 1980. Witness statements say she was walking a friend home after school near Rural Hall Bowling Lanes when they accepted a ride from a stranger driving a blue Chevrolet pickup. Ronda’s friend was dropped off unharmed at the railroad tracks near the intersection of Tuddle Road and Priddy Road and without any indication Ronda was in any danger.
The girl’s parents, Rebecca and Charles Blaylock, desperately attempted to find her when she failed to return home. That evening they reported to the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office that their only child was missing.
Three days later, passersby discovered her partially clothed body in a heavily wooded area near Sechrist Loop Road in Surry County, 18 miles from where numerous witnesses in Rural Hall saw Ronda and her friend voluntarily get into the pickup.
A medical examiner indicated that she was viciously assaulted and stabbed to death. However, the charge of rape made today is the first time the sheriff’s office has specifically admitted to sexual assault.
Eyewitnesses described the driver of the blue pickup 39 years ago as a white male with a tan, possibly in his late teens or early 20s, tall and weighing 165 pounds. The suspect Adkins would have been 23 years old at the time.
He had straight brownish hair feathered on the sides and light facial hair. The suspect listened to a rock radio station, and smoked cigarettes. He wore a black T-shirt, faded jeans, white tennis shoes, aviator-style sunglasses and a baseball cap.
Witnesses also gave many details about the pickup the driver had, which could have narrowed down the suspects.
As for the suspect, Adkins only has three entries with the N.C. Department of Public Safety.
In 1983, he was convicted of driving under the influence in Stokes County.
And in 1988 he was convicted of driving while impaired and failure to stop for an accident in Iredell County. Adkins received probation and a suspended sentence.
He has no other charges pending on upcoming court dockets.
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