On a gray July morning in 1996, strangers found a dead man beaten and half-naked in a parking lot in Knoxville, Tennessee. Scattered around his body was German, Canadian, and U.S. currency totaling nearly $4,000. The contents of the man’s wallet identified him as 31-year-old Blair Adams of Surrey, British Columbia. Lieutenant Jim Jones was the Chief of Detectives for the Knox County Sheriff’s Department at the time Blair’s body was discovered:
“Every aspect of this case is mysterious… there’s no explanation for it.”
No one knows why Blair Adams left his home in British Columbia or how he ended up in Knoxville, Tennessee. Could he have been running away from a killer, or just running away from himself?
Blair driving a white car down a road with a sign tha reads 'Welcome to Tennessee
Why did Blair go to Tennessee?
Before his mysterious death, Blair was a foreman with a construction company in Surrey, British Columbia. Those who knew him say he liked his work and did it well. However, in the summer of 1996, Blair’s cheery demeanor began to change. According to his mother, Sandra Edwards, Blair began having wild mood swings:
“Something was obviously very much the matter. He hadn’t been sleeping well. Something was wrong. I asked him numerous times what was wrong. And he said, I don’t think I should tell you about ‘it.’ And to this day I don’t know what ‘it’ is.”
Blair’s strange behavior came to a head on Friday, July 5, 1996. He withdrew his savings and emptied his safe deposit box of more than $6,000 in cash and thousands more in merchantelry, gold, and platinum. It was the first stop on his dead-end run to Tennessee.
Security cam footage of blair leaning on the counter in a hotel lobby
Hotel security camera
The next stop was the Canadian-American border. On Sunday, Blair tried to enter the United States. But as an unmarried young man carrying a large amount of cash, Blair fit the profile of a drug trafficker. He was refused entry. The next day Blair showed up at his job. But he wasn’t there to work. He asked his boss for his check and quit.
Blair’s erratic behavior continued. That afternoon, he spent $1,600 on a round trip airline ticket to Frankfurt, Germany. His flight would leave the following day, but just hours after buying the ticket, Blair was again desperate to get into the United States. He showed up at a friend’s house in a panic, terrified that someone was trying to kill him. But his friend was unable to take him over the border.