GRANBURY, Texas — Southwest of Fort Worth, in the small town of Granbury, Texas, there are only two cold cases.
One of them is the murder of Dolly Spinner's sister.
Holly Palmer was killed almost 31 years ago, and police have never made an arrest in her death.
Like so many people who have lost someone close, Dolly Spinner clings to mementos, memories, and moments with Holly.
All she has left of her sister is a binder full of news clippings, notes and photos, as well as a diary.
"My sister was Holly Palmer," Spinner said. "She was born in July. Out of all of us girls, she was the only one with blue eyes and blonde hair."
Palmer two years older than Spinner and they shared a room growing up.
"She loved to read. And she’d keep me up all night long, all night with a flashlight, reading," Spinner recalled.
A murder upends a community
Their incomparable closeness that came crumbling right after Thanksgiving 1988.
"My husband went to the door at the time and he said, 'Hey, baby, there’s police officers at the door and they're saying there's an emergency in Granbury,'" she said.
Palmer had been murdered.
"I literally fell on the sidewalk, screaming and just crying," Spinner said.
Her murder was all anyone could talk about in Granbury and Hood County at the time. Police say her boyfriend discovered her bludgeoned body at the bus depot where she worked.
"Things like that didn’t happen here," said family friend Kelli Martin. She grew up in Granbury and has carried the case with her all her life.
"It really affected a lot of people," she said. "I remember my mom worrying about me being out late at night."
New push for information
In the nearly 31 years that have passed, no one has been arrested for the crime, even though police believe it wasn't random and they've had a suspect.
Palmer's murder is one of only two cold cases in Granbury.
"Some of the things were not done right, properly," Spinner said.
Spinner said she's been disappointed by the police response to her sister's murder over the decades, but she refuses to stop demanding answers. Spinner said she saw blood under her sister's fingernails at Holly's viewing, and she wants that to be tested for DNA.
"Yes. I want to have her body exhumed and have that tested, I sure do," Spinner said.
Martin, a career criminal justice researcher, is helping with this new push for information.
"I feel a connection with this family, especially growing up here, and I just felt like I had a responsibility for whatever reason to help," said Martin.
She's been calling investigators and doing research to drum up new information.
"What I'm doing for my sister, I know Holly would do the same for me. She’d go to the ends of the earth," Spinner said.
Her love for her sister, she said, will never end.
If you'd like to help the family raise money for DNA testing and exhumation, donate here.
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