Dateline NBC: Was Scott Horn's murder solved?

The murder of Scott Horn has been a confounding case since 2017 as Laurel Police continue to fight an uphill battle. Scott Horn was reportedly found shot in the neck and beaten to death outside his home in March 2017.

However, the investigators never found a murder weapon or DNA evidence to link the crime to a possible suspect. While Scott's wife, Anne Reed Allen, was acquitted of the charges due to lack of evidence, Scott Horn's murder remains unsolved to date.

The Dateline NBC episode titled The House focuses on the mysterious murder of Scott Horn. The episode originally aired on April 17, 2020, and was re-aired on June 9, 2024, at 10 p.m. EST on NBC exclusively. The official synopsis of the episode reads:

"A daughter finds her father, a former FBI agent, murdered at his house; police dig into the man's past and begin to think the key to the mystery might be quite close to home."

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How was Scott Horn killed? Details explored

Scott Horn was found dead outside his home on the 200 block of Patuxent Road on March 16, 2017. According to the Washington Post, Scott's children had called the police to request a welfare check after they noticed his car outside his home with him nowhere to be found.

Scott's son, Riley, visited the premises two hours later with a GoPro to record everything. However, he made the horrific discovery of his father's dead body near the furnace shed in their yard. Scott had been shot in the neck and had been beaten brutally with what the authorities determined to be a piece of firewood.

According to Oxygen, the Laurel Police further deduced that the piece of wood had been thrown into the wood-burning stove which heated the house to get rid of the murder weapon. There were no traces of foreign DNA or other evidence that could help the police gain a lead in the case.

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Who was suspected in Scott Horn's murder?

The Laurel Police came up with multiple theories behind his murder which included the disadvantages of his profession as a real estate agent. Horn had bought properties in the neighborhood after retiring as an FBI agent and had evicted a few residents before his death.

However, the evidence of a troubled marriage and his wife's alleged boyfriend being seen in the house after the police visit drew more attention. Eventually, Anne Reed Allen was charged with first and second-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and use of a handgun in the commission of a crime.

Scott had filed for divorce in December 2016 and their four-bedroom Maryland property was a big reason for fights between the couple. While Anne had been home the entire day on March 16, she denied knowledge of Scott's whereabouts and shared when interrogated,

“He doesn’t talk to me. I mean, he won’t tell me anything. I hardly ever see him. He’s gone most of the day, every day.”

Anne Reed Allen also alleged that Scott spent a lot of his time gambling. While the detectives found no concrete reason behind the claim, they took in Anne and her boyfriend, Jason Allen Byrd.

The jury found both Anne Allen Reed not guilty of all charges due to lack of evidence in 2018, per The Baltimore Sun. The charges against Jason Allen Byrd were dropped and he never faced trial, according to CBS News.

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Catch all the details of Scott Horn's murder on the latest Dateline episode The House which is currently available for streaming on Peacock.