Even if it’s only a snowball’s chance that the two are connected, this is a good way to get some nationwide exposure for your small-town cold case. The news loves stories like this, so they’ll get a bunch of PR and maybe some leads that are worthwhile from the people reading about it and remembering something.
At the time, there were numerous suspects she had associated with or dated from the Seafarers Union school she was attending who were investigated but police didn't have any evidence.
In 1997, the murderer was found in the Polk County jail in Florida where he was serving time for an unrelated crime. He had admitted to another inmate that he had killed a girl and when the inmated asked him who, he said it was the girl on Unsolved Mysteries.
The guy likely would never have been caught since he had only met Nancy in a bar that night she was killed.........