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Missing Pieces: Stolen dreams

Christie, 19, who dreamed of starting a family was murdered on her way home from work.

LIBERTY, Texas -- This week, we are shining a light on unsolved murders. We are sharing these stories with the hope that they could help families find justice.

Thursday, we featured the story of a young married woman with a bright future ahead of her murdered on her way home from work.

In the small town of Liberty, word travels fast.

"They were scared half to death, nobody understood, how could you?" said Angela Abernathy, Christie Wilson's sister.

Christie, 19, who dreamed of starting a family was murdered.

“Me and my family that's left, we don't have any closure still," Abernathy said.

She lost all faith her sister's killer would ever be found.

"I didn't have hope until Brandon called me," she said.

Brandon Bess is the Texas Ranger who picked up the case.

"I felt it was my duty and my duty to Christie, my duty to this beautiful 19-year-old girl that was senselessly killed and unsolved to find the person that did this,” Bess said.

It was August 1982. Christie left Snappy's Convenience Store around midnight, where she worked. Her drive home to Dayton should have only been 10 minutes, but Christie never made it.

"They were picking up beer cans to sell to recycle so that's how they found her,” Bess said.

She was stabbed to death, dumped off a rural road near the water's edge at what's called "Dead Man's Curve."

"I'll tell you the scene where her body was located, did not appear to be the scene where she was murdered,” Bess said.

Her red car found deserted off Highway 90, keys in the ignition and her purse inside.

"They didn't steal none of her jewelry, they didn't take nothing, it was just a savage thing, that somebody...it seemed like somebody that wanted her that couldn't have her," Abernathy said.

“I couldn't find one enemy in her life -- not one,” Bess said.

What about Christie's husband? Police questioned him, he even voluntarily took a polygraph test, which he passed. Detectives ruled him out and found themselves back at the beginning.

"I know the person who did this told somebody, I feel like that somebody is still there we just haven't reached that person yet,” Bess said.

A person this sister believes could solve the mystery and all these years later answer her biggest question: Why?

"She didn't make mistakes, she stayed at home, she was a good girl, she just wanted a family,” Abernathy said.

Dreams her sister says were stolen, before she even had a chance to live.

"They robbed her of the rest of her life...they took something you can't get back," Abernathy said.

If you have any information on Christie’s case, call Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-252-TIPS. You could be eligible for up to a $3,000 reward. For more information on the case or how to submit a tip to Texas Rangers online, tap/click here.

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