Family Seeks Justice After 34 years for Franklin's Only Unsolved Homicide

The Franklin Police Department is highlighting its only unsolved homicide, the 1991 shooting of Peggy Cox, in hopes that someone can bring justice and healing to the Cox family.

Cox was shot and killed while working a late-night shift at the Murfreesboro Road Hardees around 11:45 p.m. on February 1, 1991 – her 49th birthday. Police believe it was a random shooting. They do not know of a motive or have any evidence for one.

Cox was a mother of three who could always be found at St. Philip Catholic Church’s 8:30 a.m. mass each Sunday.

“It's been a hard 34 years,” Cox's eldest daughter, Desiree Cox said from behind a podium, next to a poster bearing her mother's image.

“She's been gone longer than I had her,” Desiree told the Williamson Scene. “It just changes everything about your life, where you're headed, and what's going on. It's something that's always there in the back of your mind … You have to keep bringing it up in hopes of getting answers.”

Cox was working alongside her son Jude when the shooting occurred moments after the unidentified male shooter ordered a meal in the drive-through. Jude made his way to his mother after two shots rang out, but she later died at Williamson Medical Center.

The shooter fled the scene in the car, traveling down Murfreesboro Road and then onto Interstate 65.

Police described the suspect vehicle as a light-colored compact car, possibly a late 80’s model Nissan Sentra, with a front-end personalized vanity license plate, which they believe read “Liz” or “Lisa.”

Police didn't find any shell casing or DNA evidence at the scene, but did recover a deformed small pistol-caliber bullet. Due to the damage to the round, they were not able to determine the caliber.

“Our purpose today is two-fold, to ask for the public's help to solve this murder and to tell Peggy Cox's story, because she deserves it, and so does her family,” FPD Chief Deb Faulkner said. “The day she was murdered was her birthday and her day off, but she came to work that night because the restaurant needed her on the late shift. They were just about to close when this tragedy took place, even though it's been 34 years ago, the men and women of the Franklin Police Department have never forgotten Peggy Cox. We don't want the public to forget her either.”

All three of Cox's children and one of her grandchildren attended Tuesday's press conference at FPD Headquarters.

Every year, Cox's daughter, Rachel, lights a candle on their mother's birthday to help keep her memory alive, especially for the grandchildren who Cox never got the chance to meet.

While the homicide is technically classified as a cold case, FPD Detective Matthew Thompson told the Williamson Scene that he regularly reviews the three boxes of evidence and still receives tips about the case.

Much of that evidence is in the form of hundreds of witness interviews, some of which exist on cassette tapes and now in digital audio files.

Over the past 34 years, FPD has received help from both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, and a $26,000 reward remains offered for information that leads to an arrest and conviction in the case.

“So much time has passed that witnesses, evidence, all those things are degrading, and every day that that passes, we lose a little bit more of the ability to solve this case,” Thompson told reporters.

Thompson was just a child when the shooting occurred, and the lack of physical evidence means that most of the technological advancements in law enforcement, especially in forensics and ballistics, have had little to no impact to this point.

“You kind of have to go back to a time where police work was more interviews, forensic collections,” Thompson said. “In this case, forensic collections of these pieces of evidence are almost non-existent because that car drove away. I think there's forensic evidence in that car. Whether or not the car still exists or is in a junkyard somewhere, I don't know, and I don't know what we'd be able to get out of it at this point, but I'd like to know who may have owned it at that time.”

FPD and the Cox family ask that anyone with information about the shooting, the car or the potential suspect, call FPD's non-emergency number at 615-794-2513.

Anonymous tips can also be made by calling Williamson County Crime Stoppers at (615) 794-4000 or by submitting an online tip here.

“A lot of people don't realize that what they know, the police may not know, so don't assume that they've already checked it out,” Desiree Cox told the Williamson Scene. “If you know something, say something.”