Today, Weekend Edition

NBC News

April 24, 2004

Profile: 58 years after reported suicide authorities look into possibility man was murdered

LESTER HOLT, co-host:

Now to a son's quest to learn the truth about his father's death. Nearly 60 years after his dad reportedly committed suicide, Herb Vest's persistence has paid off. Authorities are now looking into the possibility his father was murdered. Here's NBC's Jim Cummins.

JIM CUMMINS reporting:

The body of Harold Buddy Vest was exhumed Friday in an attempt to solve a mystery that is 58 years old. The year was 1946 and authorities ruled Vest of Gainesville, Texas, committed suicide when his body was found hanging by the neck in his tool shop. His son, Herb, never believed his father was capable of suicide.

Mr. HERB VEST : He was excited about life. Everybody that knew him loved him and loved who he was. He wasn't involved in gambling. He wasn't involved in drinking. So there was just no motive there that I could think of that would cause him to commit suicide.

CUMMINS: So last September, the son hired a private investigator and placed this ad in the local newspaper offering a $10,000 reward for information about his father's death. Amazingly, he got a three-page, single-spaced reply signed by an M. Smith, suggesting it was murder, not suicide. He ran it by several forensic psychologists.

Mr. VEST: Whether or not everything in the letter is true or not, they--they don't know. But they do believe that it came from somebody that was a witness at the scene.

CUMMINS: In an interview provided by the family, justice of the peace Dorothy Lewis says she's convinced there's enough evidence to suggest Buddy Vest did not commit suicide, and that's why she ordered his body be exhumed to determine whether he was murdered.

Judge DOROTHY LEWIS : I have done a lot of inquests and looked at a lot of bodies and dug up a few old ones, but not anything this old and--and quite of this magnitude.

CUMMINS: Buddy Vest's widow, Ruth, says the possibility of murder in her husband's death never entered her mind.

Ms. RUTH VEST: I just accepted it because I had no other choice. I mean, this is what I was told, and I just accepted it as such.

CUMMINS: The local DA says there is a real possibility the criminal investigation of Buddy Vest's death could be re-opened after 58 years because there's no statute of limitations on murder in Texas . For TODAY, Jim Cummins, NBC News, Dallas .