News

Actions

80-year-old Nebraska cold case solved

Posted

The Nebraska Attorney General's Office says an 80-year-old cold case, where a sheriff and constable were shot and killed, has been solved.

 

On June 17, 1937 Boone County Sheriff Lawrence Smoyer and Bonne County Constable William Wathen were shot and killed northwest of Albion. They were investigating a suspicious vehicle and trespassing in a cattle field.

 

The Nebraska Attorney General's Office says they've identified the murderers as Charles Orville Doody and Marion Armstrong Cooley. Their identities were discovered within three days of the crimes but Cooley was serving an armed robbery sentence in Colorado and Doody's whereabouts were unknown.

 

Officials say the original investigation into the murders would've resulted in prosecution of the suspects 80 years ago if it were not of numerous circumstances which included witnesses who were either dead, living at an unknown location, or still stationed in the military during World War II.