GRANBURY, Texas — November 27, with the historic courthouse square decked out for the holidays, looked like just any other Monday in Granbury in Hood County.
But for the Palmer family, as it has been for each of the last 35 years, it was a painful day -- in this case, the 12,775th day that they have continued searching for justice.
"It's a small town, and you just don't expect things like this to happen here," said Kelli Martin, Ph.D., as she read a passage from her book "Homicide in the Hood." "When were we going to learn things like this do happen in Granbury? Holly's murder affected Granbury like nothing I had I've ever seen."
Holly Palmer was 23 years old when she was beaten death while working alone at a bus station that once stood at the corner of Stone and W. Pearl. Her family has always suspected it was a crime of passion.
But, over the course of three decades and several prosecutors, no one has ever been charged with the crime.
That's why her big sister Dolly Palmer Spinner keeps shouting.
"We are strong women and we're not gonna let it stop," she said in an interview from her current home in Green River, Wyoming. "We're not letting anybody stop us from what we're doing."
With her sister buried in a northwest corner of Holly Hills Memorial Park just north of town, Spinner has pushed all these 35 years for answers.
"I'm not going to ever stop fighting trying to get justice for Holly," she said.
She would like to believe that, at the new headquarters for Granbury Police -- just two miles away from where her sister was killed -- justice will finally come.
"It weighs very heavily on me, it does," said Lt. Russell Grizzard, who has had the case on his desk for more than 20 years. "It's very difficult, and it gets more difficult every year. It's just tragic beyond words."
While Grizzard said there are specific details of the case that he still cannot talk about publicly, he did confirm that additional DNA tests -- more advanced DNA tests -- are underway. He said their person of interest is still a Granbury resident. And, even at the 35-year mark, he said he believes the case can be solved.
"I'm very hopeful that we can," Grizzard said.
He refused, however, to offer a timeframe on when that day might come.
"My confidence is pretty low," said Palmer's younger sister, Mary Palmer Ellis. "We just feel like we've gotten the runaround."
She was 20 years old when Holly was killed.
"As far as my confidence in Granbury PD, I really don't have much, just to be honest," Ellis said.
Grizzard said he still gets frequent calls from the Palmer family, looking for updates.
"I really can't tell her to be patient anymore," he said. "I think that's just understood. And there's nothing I can say at this point to console her."
But a big sister, on this 35th year, said she promises to keep pushing while she clings to what hope they might have left.
"I will go to my grave knowing who killed my sister," Spinner said. "And I will never stop -- ever -- until her case is solved. If I'm in heaven, I've got people behind me -- Kelli, my other sister -- they will take the reins, they will take the reins. We don't stop. They won't stop, if something ever happens to me."
Palmer's death is one of an estimated 200,000 unsolved murders in the United States. Kelli Martin said she hoped her new book, which is set to be published next year and features several cold Hood County cases, will draw more attention to at least this one.
"Maybe we can get other people in the community to care and keep pressure on to solve these cases," Martin said.
Grizzard said he's plenty committed as is.
"We are very committed to trying to get the family some kind of resolution," Grizzard said. "We feel like we owe them that. And we're going to do everything we can do to get that."
As for Holly's sisters, they each deal differently with this difficult 35th year.
"I can break a lot of people's hearts," Spinner of her constant cajoling of investigators assigned to the case. "I can hurt their feelings. I don't care. I don't."
Ellis takes a different tact
"When I'm feeling a certain way, I say, 'Lord, would you just tell Holly that I love her would you give her a hug for me?'" Ellis said.
"There is evil among us," Kelli Martin said as she continued reading a passage from her book. "There always has been. It still is."
So an author keeps writing.
And sisters keep shouting for that evil to finally pay.
"We just want justice," said Spinner. "We want what's right. That's all we want. All we want."