Vanessa Lynn Buss (Dec 1, 1960 – Oct 7, 1985) was shot to death in Houston, Texas. She was twenty-four years old. There is hardly anything online about her murder so it is fitting to make hers the Case of the Month for March 2020.
UPDATE: Her brother Rance contacted me and gave his sister’s date of birth. Vanessa was born in Baytown, Texas. He wrote the family was told that Vanessa stumbled across people trying to steal cars which apparently happened frequently in that area. Nothing was stolen from her purse.
Thank you, Rance, for contacting me. The database will be updated as well with this information.
The Case
The shooting happened on Monday night (Oct 7, 1985) outside the Cattle Guard Restaurant on 2800 Milam Street, Houston, Texas. It no longer exists.
Vanessa worked as a sales assistant at Kidder Peabody & Co.. She was with a colleague at the Cattle Guard Restaurant. They started to leave around 740pm. Vanessa had parked in the back. Her colleague parked in the front. They did leave together but then split up.
Just a few moments later, Vanessa was shot in the right side of her chest as she walked towards her car. Her handbag and her take-out were next to her body. I am not sure whether anything was stolen. There is hardly any information online so I don’t know from what range she was shot, what caliber was used, whether she had been attacked before she was shot, etc.
Her colleague did see two men running away from the parking lot but she didn’t realize that Vanessa had been shot. This could have been random violence or Vanessa disturbed them. Houston police have not been able to find a motive for this homicide.
Vanessa graduated from Texas A&M university in May 1985. Her parents are Karen Lynn Everhard and Everett Leon Buss. She has a brother, Ranee Lee Buss. And this is all I could find. There is no exact date of birth in her obituary, no story follow-up on the case in the papers, no photographs of either Vanessa or her grave stone. I am still working on that.
On the website of Texas A&M I did find 
the Silver Tap of Vanessa’s death. But no further details are available there either.
I will update this post when I find more information. So for now I leave the statute of a grieving angel on her post. If you have any newspaper clippings or memories about Vanessa, please let me know.
Rest in peace, Vanessa Lynn Buss.
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In the series “Case of the Month” I highlight old cold cases. These posts are not an in-depth analysis and of course, often more information can be found online and in newspaper archives.
The goal of these posts is to get the cases back in the spotlights, to get people talking again, and if anything to make sure that we do not forget the victims. Just because their cases are unsolved does not mean that we can forget about them.
If you have any thoughts about this case I encourage you to post them on your own social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, etc. Every time that we mention Vanessa Lynn Buss’ name online we enhance her digital footprint.
We must make sure that she keeps her web presence if we ever wish to find answers in her case. You can help by linking to or sharing this post.
Thank you for remembering Vanessa Lynn Buss with us.