Twenty-seven years ago, someone murdered Gretchen White.

On a rainy March morning in 1981, Corona del Sol High School groundskeepers found her dead, clad only in a bathrobe, in the school's parking lot.

Tempe police detectives determined the 23-year-old Arizona State University senior had been strangled, raped and then run over by her own brown and blue Mercury.

But almost three decades after White's death on March 20, 1981, her killer hasn't been arrested.

White's parents, who lived in Livonia, Mich., have died. Her fellow ASU sorority sisters must now be mothers and aunts.

"She had a future ahead of her and it was all gone," said Larry Rodriguez, a former Tempe police detective who worked the case. "It was such a waste."

For years, the case stuck with Rodriguez, now Tolleson police chief. Friends described the textiles major as a reserved college student, someone who didn't take risks or associate with those who did.

She didn't seem to have any known enemies, they said.

Former Tempe Detective Mike Palmer recalls pouring hundreds of hours into the case.

He and others interviewed countless friends, went to a Tempe fabric store White visited before her death and scoured Tempe to find where she may have been killed.

Detectives searched desperately for someone who may have seen White leave her apartment at 1330 W. Broadway Road.

What could've been hours or minutes before her death, someone reported suspicious activity at White's apartment. When officers arrived at about 2 a.m., she was gone.

Detectives would later go to the apartment to see if the call was related to the murder. Using fingerprints on dirty dishes, police determined White was the victim, Palmer said.

An elderly woman would later say she saw someone leave White's apartment but couldn't provide any descriptions. The woman hadn't been wearing her glasses, Palmer said.

Though the case quickly went cold, occasional leads and new technologies kept police hopeful.

But when Palmer retired from the Police Department in 1999, the case remained unsolved.

"In the back of my mind, I always thought sooner or later that someone would come forward but it hasn't happened yet," Palmer said.

Det. Tom Magazzeni, who began investigating White's murder as a cold case in 2002, hasn't given up.

"This is just a call away from being solved," he said.

Over the years, Magazzeni and others have examined new angles. They've kept evidence seized after her death and they hope to use it.

"(White's murder) was so horrendous and I think there is a possibility that somebody knows something," Magazzeni said.

Anyone with any information can call Tempe police at 480-350-8311 or Silent Witness at 480-WITNESS. Callers can remain anonymous.