Dave Ward was 8 years old the last time he saw his mother alive.
June Ward dropped him off at a Cleburne YMCA for a boxing tournament around 7 p.m. on Feb. 17, 1977. Sometime after midnight, the 25-year-old nurse was strangled by an unknown assailant in south Fort Worth.
Police speculated at the time that June Ward may have had car trouble, according to the Star-Telegram’s archives. Her white Chevrolet Laguna was abandoned on an Interstate 35W service road, not far from where her body was found…