07/31/2026
If you have any information that could help solve this crime, please reach out to Auburn Public Safety - Police & Fire at 334-501-3100
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For decades, Charles R. “Dick” Salmon was the man behind the counter at a little Auburn service station. On the morning of July 22, 2005, someone walked through the front door and took his life.
Charles R. “Dick” Salmon was 72 years old when he was murdered.
Since 1962, his family had owned and operated the S**o Service Station at the corner of Dean Road and Opelika Road in Auburn. Generations of customers knew him as the man behind the counter. If you needed gas, an oil change, or a check cashed, there was a good chance Dick was the one helping you. Because the station regularly cashed checks for customers, he often kept a significant amount of cash on hand, and he routinely worked the early morning shift by himself.
That Friday morning began like countless others. At about 8:44 a.m., Jackie called the station to check on her husband. While they were talking, a customer walked in asking about motor oil. According to Jackie, Dick set the phone down to help him. She heard him tell the customer he needed 20W50, then raise his voice slightly, apparently letting the customer know he was on the phone with his wife.
Then the line went silent.
Jackie immediately called the station back, but no one answered. She called 911, got dressed, and drove to the station herself. By the time she arrived, the parking lot was filled with police cars, ambulances, and crime scene tape, so crowded she couldn’t get into the lot. Around that same time, Joe Carr had arrived to mow the grass. Instead, he found Dick inside the station. He had been shot once in the chest, and the bullet exited through his back.
Investigators quickly concluded they were likely dealing with a robbery.
It wasn’t the first time Dick’s station had been targeted. Records show it had been robbed three times during the previous three years. Less than a year before the murder, Dick had been beaten during a robbery by a man armed with a knife. That suspect was later arrested and convicted.
Even after that attack, Dick continued opening the station each morning.
Over the months that followed, detectives interviewed witnesses, chased down leads, reenacted the crime, and even brought in another investigator to review the case with fresh eyes. The reward for information eventually grew to more than $40,000, but no arrest came. On the first anniversary of the murder, Auburn Police Chief Frank deGraffenried told The Opelika-Auburn News investigators still believed someone knew who killed Dick. The department, he said, simply had not received the one piece of information needed to identify the person responsible.
For Jackie, the years have brought no answers. She has said the hardest part wasn’t only losing her husband. It was knowing the person responsible has never been held accountable. She has never stopped believing someone knows exactly what happened inside that service station on the morning of July 22, 2005.
One ordinary Friday morning, Dick Salmon answered the door for what should have been another customer and never made it home.
More than twenty years later, whoever walked into that service station that morning has never been brought to justice.
If you know what happened to Charles R. “Dick” Salmon, please contact the Auburn Police Department at (334) 501-3100.
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