Year Later Detectives Still Struggling To Find Clues In Grandmother's Murder

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) - A little more than a year ago, a local woman had car trouble and ended up murdered. It's a crime that remains unsolved.

Her body was found in south Sacramento on Florin Road and Highway 99, a very busy intersection.

Detectives believe she was simply trying to get back on the road. After her car broke down, she went for help but never returned. Now detectives are at a dead end.

"Thursday, it was September 1, 2011, the call came in around 7 o'clock," said Det. Jeff Wallace.

More than a year later, we still don't know who killed 59-year-old Marilyn Nash.

"We did discover evidence that she was having vehicle problems at the time," said Wallace.

Wallace has worked the case since day one. He walked CBS13 through Nash's final steps, from her broken down car on Sixth Parkway to Florin Road.

"She was last seen alive, walking out of the Chevron," said Wallace.

Detectives would even catch her on surveillance, buying car fluid. Two women also seen on tape would end up being strangers yielding no leads.

"We're lacking witnesses; we're lacking suspects," said Wallace.

From the Chevron, detectives believe Nash walked back down Florin Road toward her car, but she'd be violently stopped crossing over Highway 99.

"Either by force, or by the result of fighting, yes, she somehow ended up down here," said Wallace.

Nash was found the next morning face down, choked and beaten to death, sticking out of a drainage ditch.

Wallace says she was not sexually assaulted or robbed. There was no one with a motive that they could find. It's a brutal case turned cold.

"It doesn't get any more brutal than that, to have her, a 59-year-old grandmother, more likely than not, looking in the eyes of the killer," said Wallace.

They are the eyes of a killer detectives want to look into themselves, but they're going to need help to do it.

"She was completely a true victim in every sense of the word," said Wallace.

Investigators are still waiting for possible DNA, but admit the evidence they sent out may not even have DNA on it.