TEXAS ROUNDUP

County officials reopen 1946 hanging case

April 23, 2004

DENTON — Herb Vest said he never believed his father, a Gainesville cabinet maker, committed suicide nearly 58 years ago by hanging himself at his business.

But even at 11, when he found his father's death certificate in the family's attic, the cause of death - listed as suicide - didn't ring true.

"I never bought the suicide story," said Vest of Dallas. "He had a baby, a wife; he was happy. He wasn't drinking or gambling. There was nothing in the family history to suggest he would do this. Everybody knew him as an up and happy man."

Vest may finally discover what really happened to his father, Harold "Buddy" Vest, thanks to a mysterious letter that has led Cooke County officials to reopen his father's case.

Today, authorities will exhume Harold Vest's body from Hope Cemetery in Henrietta, 20 miles southeast of Wichita Falls in Clay County .

Justice of the Peace Dorothy Lewis determined there was sufficient probable cause to reopen the case after hearing evidence that suggested the 1946 death was not a suicide.

"There was quite a bit of evidence that it was not a suicide," Lewis said. "At this point, I don't have any answers. It's just not quite right."