Times Record News

Quest leads to gravesite

Man hopes exhumation of father's body will bring answers in death

By Lee B. Weaver/Times Record News
April 24, 2004

HENRIETTA - Herb Vest grew up wondering what life would have been like if his father had lived.

Now, the 59-year-old wants to know how his dad died.

Vest's search for answers to the questions surrounding the June 1946 death of Howard "Buddy" Vest led to a court-ordered exhumation of his remains from a Henrietta cemetery Friday.

Cooke County officials will now proceed with an investigation into Vest's death, ruled a suicide in 1946.

Harold Vest was only 25, with a young wife and 22-month-old son Herb, when he was found dead in his Gainesville cabinet shop nearly 58 years ago. Around his neck was a thin leather belt, suspended from a woodworking machine and nailed to the door, according to the justice of the peace report.

A rope was tied around his waist, pinning one arm to his side, and another rope around his legs was fastened to a wall, according to the report. The justice of the peace made the suicide ruling.

"It just never made sense that he committed suicide," said Herb Vest, in a graveside interview in Henrietta's Hope Cemetery on Friday. "I was only 2 years old when he died, so naturally I didn't know him. But I've always wondered what would my life have been with him alive. That's the question."

Last fall, Vest hired private investigator Danny Williams, who discovered inconsistencies in the death certificate and other records. The men then placed an ad in a Gainesville newspaper offering a reward for information.

The ad netted a three-page letter, signed "M. Smith," from someone saying she had been infatuated with Harold Vest and had gone to his shop to flirt with him that summer night in 1946. According to the letter, "M. Smith's" boyfriend and two other men burst into the shop a few minutes later, erupting in a jealous rage.

Gary Lawson/Times Record News
A photo of Harold Vest lies next to his headstone, as his body is being exhumed next Friday in Henrietta.

Gary Lawson/Times Record News
Herb Vest is comforted by his wife, Kerensa, as cemetery workers exhume the body of his father, Harold Vest, from a plot at Hope Cemetery in Henrietta Friday morning. Vest is attempting to discover the truth behind the 1946 death of his father, which was ruled as a suicide. A mysterious letter received by Vest stated that his father was murdered.

Cemetery workers exhume the body of Harold Vest from a plot at Hope Cemetery in Henrietta Friday morning.

The boyfriend took Smith home and threatened to kill his two friends if they let Vest escape, and when he almost did the pair tied him up in the bathroom, according to the letter.

Smith wrote that she heard of Vest's death the next day and that one of the men later told her what happened. Her boyfriend said that if they told anyone, they would be executed, according to the letter. She believes authorities covered up the crime because her boyfriend had ties to the police department, according to the letter.

Vest said the person who wrote the letter knew some intimate details, and that a forensic psychologist has deemed it authentic. But Williams has not heard from Smith again, Vest said.

The new evidence in hand, Cooke County Justice of the Peace Dorothy Lewis conferred with the district attorney and found probable cause to reopen the case.

That process began with Friday's exhumation.

With a gallery of media, law enforcement and film crews surrounding the job site, a backhoe operator pulled the earth away from Howard Vest's coffin. The metallic scrape of the shovel's teeth combined with the low drone of the backhoe's diesel engine to fill the muggy spring air.

As the job continued, suit jackets came off and foreheads beaded with sweat. A handful of men, some down in the pit, carefully looped straps around the coffin.

Howard Vest's widow, Ruth Vest, waited out most of the excavation in a sedan parked a distance from the expanding pit, while Herb Vest and his wife, Kerensa, stayed close, arm in arm.

Ruth Vest is a native of Henrietta. Her father, Gus Blakely, was mayor of Henrietta when Howard Vest died. He is buried next to Vest. Ruth Vest's second husband, H.W. Powers, is buried on the other side of Blakely in the family plot.

Just after noon , Howard Vest's coffin, caked with rust and sandy soil, emerged from the ground. Later in the day, officials confirmed the presence of human remains inside. An autopsy will be performed in the coming days, they said.

Herb Vest's quest continues, which doesn't mean he's looking for vengeance, he said.

"All is forgiven. I have no hatred," Vest said. "I would like for 'M. Smith' to come forward and talk to us. I just want to talk to her."