LEXINGTON, Ky. (FOX 56) — After nearly three decades of unanswered questions, the 1998 homicide of Linda Rutledge has finally been solved, bringing long-awaited closure to her family.
Rutledge was found dead on Nov. 7, 1998, inside her mother’s hearing aid business on Malabu Drive in Lexington. Firefighters were initially called to the building after a passerby noticed smoke coming from the back of the business. While extinguishing the fire, crews discovered 43-year-old Rutledge inside. She was shot multiple times, and for decades, what happened that November weekend remained a mystery.
“They interviewed, I would say, probably hundreds of people in relation to this,” Lexington homicide detective John Davis said. “People who were close to her, people who knew her, family members, friends, anybody and everybody that they could find. And, unfortunately, they got to a point where just kind of all of those leads had hit a dead end. The case went several years with no movement on it.”
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