Times Record News

Reward Increased in Search for Killer

Son continues efforts to find truth about dad's death

By Trish Choate/Times Record News
June 25, 2005

A rising reward for information, an inquest record and the re-airing of a "48 Hours" segment today will keep alive efforts to solve a decades-old mystery surrounding the death of a man buried in Henrietta's Hope Cemetery.

Early one morning in the 1940s, two men reported "that a person had been discovered dead and the circumstances surrounding it strange," according to the inquest record on Harold "Buddy" Vest's death, posted Friday on www.murderingainesville.com.

Dallas millionaire Herb Vest has upped the reward to $100,000 for relevant information about the murder of his father, Herb Vest's spokeswoman, Taylor L. Cole, said.

A "48-Hours Mystery" on the June 1946 death of Harold Vest in Gainesville, Texas, will air again at 7 p.m. today, according to CBS.com. "Postmarked for Death: The Ghosts of Gainesville" probes the case.

The reward for relevant information, given out solely at Herb Vest's discretion, has been as low as $10,000, but it was $25,000 when he increased it to $100,000, Cole said.

Harold Vest was found hanging by a thin leather strap looped around his neck in a bathroom at his Gainesville cabinet shop, according to the Times Record News archives. He was wearing women's panties and a girdle when he was discovered. A letter from the mysterious "M. Smith," received after a 2003 ad soliciting information, offered an explanation for the garb and for the death.

Herb Vest's death was first ruled a suicide, but years later his son began a quest to find out what really happened. Herb Vest's mother, Ruth Vest, is a Henrietta native, and she supports her son's efforts.

On April 23, 2004, the father's body was exhumed. The Cooke County justice of the peace subsequently changed the manner of death to homicide.

Projects Reporter Trish Choate can be reached at (940) 763-7533, (800) 627-1646, Ext. 533, or via e-mail at choate@)TimesRecordNews.com.