A suspicious death

A few weeks ago, the McCook Gazette reported of a ‘suspicious death’ being discovered in Hitchcock County. To my knowledge, nothing further about this case has been reported by the local media. I say to my knowledge because the Gazette is the only local media I read or listen to. I don’t listen to local radio stations or watch regional television stations so if it’s not printed in the Gazette, I usually don’t know about it.

It turns out that most of my friends do the same thing because this suspicious death of a few weeks ago has been the major topic of our discussions since the day it occurred and they’ve yet to read an official report of what happened.

As a former police officer, I’ve told them that specific details of the case most likely won’t be reported publicly because there are things or knowledge law enforcement has that could lead to a conviction that they don’t want the suspect to know about. But even considering that, no further public statement by law enforcement has been made.

Because it hasn’t, people are left to come up with their own conclusions. It happens in every situation where full disclosure isn’t made and it’s happening in this one too. The rumor mill becomes very active, very soon and there are all kinds of rumors circulating about this particular suspicious death. I talked to a man the other day who was a good friend of the man who died and he told me without question the man who died was murdered and he believed law enforcement would make an arrest in short order because of the rough crowd the guy hung out with. But no arrest has been made.

The person who found the body spent the night with other good friends of mine the very next night, was questioned by the police and has evidently left the state. His association with the crime, if any, is left once again to our speculation.

Everyone believes this was a cold-blooded murder, carried out either by elements of organized crime from Denver or from a person or people who are members of the ‘rough crowd’ earlier described by his good friend. But nobody knows because we haven’t been given further information.

One thing my particular group of friends believe in common is that there is a one or more killers walking free in either our community or some other community and no one knows who they are or what to look for because a suspect has never been identified. In fact, as far as my friends and I know, the case has never been officially called a murder.

Most people associated with law enforcement know that if a definite suspect is not developed in a case 48 hours after it has occurred, the trail goes cold quickly after that. We haven’t had much luck in solving murders in this part of the state lately because of that very fact and now this case has moved far beyond the initial 48 hours too.

I don’t like to spread rumors or even listen to them, but when you have no facts presented by either legitimate media outlets or the different arms of law enforcement, rumors are going to occur and that’s what’s happening here. I’ve heard some stories about the death that seem outrageous to me and won’t be printed here but the person who told me the rumor believes it to be true so he’s telling others with the same conviction he told me.

Typically what happens with an unattended death is that the cause of death is determined and if foul play was involved, any evidence available is possessed and cataloged, a list of suspects is developed as quickly as possible and law enforcement goes to work trying to solve the crime and arrest the perpetrators of it.

I’m sure that’s what law enforcement is also doing with this case, except in a free and open society, it is supposed to be done in the light of day rather than the cover of night and because of the secrecy surrounding this event, it makes people extremely skeptical of the process.