Terry Alvin Hyatt was born on March 28, 1957, in Asheville, North Carolina, the second of five children. Raised in a seemingly normal family, he struggled academically due to a learning disability and had difficulty forming emotional connections. Despite being known as friendly and helpful, often fixing and reselling old cars, Hyatt had a penchant for petty theft. 

In 1975, he was sentenced to four years in prison for larceny after stealing a woman's purse, violating his parole from a previous conviction. He briefly escaped from prison in May 1976 but was recaptured the following day.

On April 15, 1979, 40-year-old Harriet Delaney Simmons disappeared while traveling from Raleigh to Nashville, Tennessee. Her car was later found abandoned at an I-40 rest stop near Statesville. Nearly a year later, her skeletal remains were discovered in Pisgah National Forest, with evidence indicating she had been stabbed four times in the chest.

Just months later, on August 25, 1979, 21-year-old Betty Sue McConnell vanished en route to meet a friend in Asheville. She was found mortally wounded near the French Broad River, having been stabbed multiple times. Her car was discovered partially submerged five miles away.

Hyatt's criminal activities continued with an attempted kidnapping on October 19, 1979, when he abducted Carolyn Brigman at knifepoint. She managed to persuade him to release her, leading to his arrest and a 25-year prison sentence for armed robbery and kidnapping.

On July 9, 1987, 19-year-old Jerri Ann Jones disappeared after leaving her job in Charlotte. Her body was found the next day in a wooded area, with her throat slit. The case remained unsolved until 2005, when DNA evidence linked Hyatt to the crime. He pleaded guilty and received a life sentence to run consecutively with his existing sentences.

Hyatt was apprehended on November 19, 1998, and convicted for the 1979 murders of Simmons and McConnell, receiving death sentences for both. He remains on death row at Central Prison in Raleigh, North Carolina.