Kansas City Star

Sat, Apr. 24, 2004

'46 suicide now a murder mystery

Victim's son thinks ‘M. Smith' letter tells the real story

The Associated Press

FORT WORTH , Texas — When Harold Vest was found dead in his cabinet shop in 1946, a belt around his neck and ropes binding an arm and his legs, officials called it suicide.

His body was exhumed Friday after his family received a mysterious letter indicating that he had been murdered.

“It just never made sense that he committed suicide,” said his son, Herb Vest. “I am happy that we're able to finally get to the truth here.”

Harold Vest, known as Buddy, was 25, with a loving wife and baby son, when he died 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 1946 report by the justice of the peace who ruled the death a suicide.

HIROYUKI KOMAE/The Associated Press

For decades Herb Vest of Texas , shown with a photo of Harold Vest, doubted the suicide ruling in his father's death. Vest now has a letter from “M. Smith,” who said that the victim had been murdered.

A rope tied around his waist pinned one arm to his side, and another rope around his legs was fastened to the wall, according to the report.

Herb Vest said that the body was exhumed from the cemetery Friday, and that a forensic scientist would examine it in the next few weeks.

Throughout his life, Vest had nagging doubts about how his father died. Last fall, he hired a private investigator, who discovered inconsistencies with the death certificate and other records. The men then placed a newspaper ad offering a reward for information.

Vest said they received a three-page letter, signed “M. Smith,” from someone saying she was infatuated with Harold Vest and went to his shop to flirt with him that night in 1946. According to the letter, her boyfriend burst into the shop a few minutes later with two other men and erupted in a rage.

Smith, who left the shop with her boyfriend, wrote that she learned of Vest's death the next day, and that one of the men later told her what had happened. Her boyfriend said that if they told anyone, they would be executed, according to the letter.

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

Vest said his mother, Ruth Vest, rarely discussed his father's death, although something unusual happened a few weeks after the body was found. She read in a newspaper that someone named Harold Vest was admitted to a hospital in a nearby town.

His mother, now 80, had never received Vest's personal items. Herb Vest said he now suspected that someone stole his father's wallet and used the identification.