Texas Digest Briefs

By The Associated Press
570 words
23 April 2004
18:48
Associated Press Newswires
English
(c) 2004. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

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Body of man who died in 1946 exhumed

FORT WORTH , Texas (AP) -- After recently receiving a mysterious letter indicating that a man's 1946 death was murder rather than suicide, authorities on Friday exhumed the body for forensic testing.

Harold "Buddy" Vest was only 25, with a loving wife and baby son, 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 ruled it a suicide.

"It just never made sense that he committed suicide," his son Herb Vest told The Associated Press on Friday. "I am happy that we're able to finally get to the truth here."

He said the body was exhumed Friday from Hope Cemetery in Henrietta, about 110 miles north of Fort Worth , and that a forensic scientist will examine it in the next few weeks.