Is No One Saw A Thing A True Story? The Real-Life Murder Case Revealed

No One Saw A Thing is a true-crime documentary series that tells the tale of a small-town murder, but how much of it is a true story? Over the past few years, there has been a surge in true crime docs with Netflix pumping out shows like Making A Murderer, Tiger King and American Murder: The Family Next Door, while HBO upped the ante with docuseries like The Jinx or I’ll Be Gone In The Dark. Lately, Sundance TV has been getting in on the act too with shows including The Preppy Murder: Death In Central Park and Jonestown: Terror In The Jungle.

No One Saw A Thing is another recent Sundance TV true-crime offering that first aired in 2019. Directed by Israeli filmmaker Avi Belkin, the docuseries explores the unsolved murder of Skidmore, Missouri resident and town bully Ken Rex McElroy, who was shot dead in broad daylight in the middle of the tiny community in 1981. Despite the fact McElroy was killed in plain view of dozens of townsfolk, witnesses to the crime denied that they saw anything.

It might sound like the plot of a movie, but No One Saw A Thing is indeed a true story. On July 10, 1981, McElroy was sitting in his truck with his wife Trena McElroy on Skidmore’s main drag when a crowd of residents surrounded his vehicle and shot at him several times. McElroy was hit twice by two different guns and died from injuries to his head and neck. Although Trena identified a local man as one of the shooters, every other eyewitness claimed they didn’t see who fired the fatal shots and 40 years later the murder remains unsolved. The reason for their silence was McElroy’s decades-long reign of terror over Skidmore which saw him commit crimes including rape, arson and theft without facing punishment.

The docuseries doesn’t just explore Ken Rex McElroy’s murder, however. No One Saw A Thing dives into other crimes that have occurred in Skidmore, Missouri including the disappearance of Branson Perry, the murder of pregnant woman Bobbie Jo Stinnett whose baby survived the ordeal and the case of Wendy Gillenwater who was found brutally beaten to death.

It also explores the historical violence of Skidmore’s surrounding areas including the 1931 lynching of Raymond Gunn in neighboring Marysville. Moreover, No One Saw A Thing examines how the town embraced mob justice on the fateful day of Ken Rex McElroy’s death and how that act of vigilantism may have helped foster the culture of violence the small town of Skidmore seems afflicted with.