Volume 12 · Chapter 12
Missing in Mississippi
Newton Alfred Winn
Victim: Annie Laurie Hearin
Case at a glance
- When
- July 26, 1988
- Where
- Jackson, Mississippi
- Perpetrator
- Newton Alfred Winn
- Victim
- Annie Laurie Hearin
- Outcome
- Convicted in 1990 of conspiracy to kidnap, sending a threatening communication and perjury; sentenced to 235 months; released in 2006; Annie Laurie Hearin never found
The case
Annie Laurie Hearin was 72 and married to Robert Hearin, one of the wealthiest businessmen in Jackson, Mississippi. Among his interests was School Pictures, Inc., which had fought legal battles with some of its franchise holders. One was Newton Alfred Winn, a St. Petersburg, Florida, lawyer who owed the company money; after a 1984 judgment, marshals seized his property, sports car included.
On July 26, 1988, after hosting her bridge club, Annie Laurie disappeared from her home. Investigators found drops of blood and a typed ransom note demanding that Robert compensate 12 people the company had supposedly wronged. Robert paid close to $1 million to the franchisees on the list. A later letter in Annie Laurie’s handwriting was mailed from Atlanta. Winn’s name was on the list, witnesses had seen a white van near the house, and his former girlfriend, Marilyn Taylor, testified that he sent her to Atlanta under a false name to mail that letter.
On February 7, 1990, a federal jury convicted Winn of conspiracy to kidnap, sending a threatening communication and perjury. He was sentenced to 235 months in prison, and the conviction was upheld on appeal in 1991. Annie Laurie was declared legally dead that year, and her body has never been found. Winn was released in 2006 and never admitted any role.
Read the full story
This case is told in full in True Crime Case Histories, Volume 12 by Jason Neal.
Get Volume 12 on AmazonCase photographs
2 photos
Where it happened
Why this case
“No one has ever explained what happened to Annie Laurie Hearin or who physically took her from her home. Winn was convicted of the plot around the kidnapping, not of killing her. I think the case shows how far a paper trail can take investigators, and where it runs out.”
— Jason Neal, author of True Crime Case Histories
