he inquest record was conducted by Cooke County Justice of the Peace L. V. Henry. The report indicated that Vest's neck was in a loop suspended by a thin leather belt, from a woodworking machine in his shop, attached to three nails hammered to the door frame. Vest had a small rope tied around his waist, with the left arm pinioned to his side. A small rope tied around the legs was fastened to the wall by a small "eye" screw. Henry ruled the death as "asphyxiation by strangulation, produced by suicidal hanging." The inquest record was found to have been removed at some time in the past and re-stapled. The bottom half of the document that contained Judge Henry's signature had been torn off. There were no police records kept at the time.

This inquest record differs markedly from another eyewitness account that describes the scene as a torture board. Vest's hands were described as being held in place by ropes looped through holes drilled in the bathroom wall.

The body was discovered by Vest's wife, Ruth Blakely Vest, of Henrietta, a small town 60 miles west of Gainesville. Vest was survived by his wife, his 22-month-old son, Herb; his father and mother, Lloyd and Helen Vest, of Chicago; his brother, Earl; and his sister, Virginia, also of Chicago. Vest's wife, Ruth, never received his billfold or other personal effects.

Vest's body was exhumed in the spring of 2004. Two board-certified anthropologists and a board-certified forensic pathologist examined the skeletal remains. They found three perimortem fractures: 1) a green-stick fracture to the L2 vertebrae (lower back), 2) a fracture at the bridge of the nose, and 3) a broken front tooth. The examiners believe that it is extremely unlikely that the injuries occurred after the body was taken down. Combined with expert opinion that the circumstances surrounding the death do not correspond with those typical in suicide or autoerotic asphyxiation, the autopsy reveals, with a high degree of certainty, that the manner of death was homicide.