It’s described as one of the most brutal murders to happen in Hamblen County history.
“I think about it every day of my life. Every day of my life,” said survivor Mitzi Sizemore.
Exactly 38 years to the day Randy May killed 16-year-old Mary Jones and savagely attacked 15-year-old Mitzi Sizemore, May could walk a free man, leaving the city of Morristown on edge.
“I keep thinking of the family and what they keep going through and if this person gets out what are they going to do?” asked Morristown resident and protestor, Bruce Steffen. “How are they going to feel? Safe even in a locked home? I don’t think so.”
In their demand for justice, friends and family of Jones and Sizemore took to the Hamblen County Courthouse in protest of May’s upcoming parole hearing.
“The board of parole they need to hear from us the people who don’t want a monster like this back on the streets,” said Steffen. “He has nothing to lose when he gets out.”
Back on July 20, 1980 armed with a badge and handcuffs, May pretended to be a cop. Coaxing the two teens into his car and then the woods, where he stabbed Sizemore in the chest three times, slashed her throat and handcuffed her to a tree… before moving on to murder Jones.
May left both the girls cuffed to a tree to die, only for Sizemore to cling to life and escape her handcuffs.
“We were promised from the courts he would never be out of prison,” said Sizemore. “Just to see him… I mean everything comes back. It’s with me every day of my life you know, I’ve got scars.
Thirty-eight years to the day she almost died in the woods, Sizemore stood outside the courthouse too – in protest of giving the man from haunting her all these years a chance at freedom.
“He’s destroyed my life,” Sizemore says. “When I was going to school, I planned on being somebody in my life and I didn’t get to finish school. I didn’t get to do nothing with my life.”
In response to Randy May having a chance at freedom, more than 800 people have signed a Change.org petition against his release.
The Tennessee State Board of Parole accepts letters of support, as well as letters of opposition from the public about offenders who are eligible for parole. Those letters are added to the offender’s file.
All letters are confidential and can be sent to the Board’s Victim Services Division at victim.witness@tn.gov or the following address:
Tennessee Board of Parole
Victim Services Division
404 James Robertson Parkway, #1300
Nashville, TN 37243
