News analysis: Is it really over?

For almost a third of a century, and for longer than many of you reading this story have been in Nashville, the unsolved rape and strangulation of 9-year-old Marcia Trimble in 1975 has been an ever-present fact of life.

As recounted in today's history column, many Nashvillians say the Trimble case changed forever the sense of security they felt in a city that previously had still felt in many ways like a small town. And the cloud it cast over the lives of several men who grew up with Marcia as a neighbor has lasted for decades. Police repeatedly floated their names as potential suspects, and to this day the authorities have said nothing to allay they suspicions they raised.

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