Suspects Released in Murder Case
After two weeks of investigation, Sheriff McGraw and the Prosecuting Attorney release three men accused of murder due to a lack of evidence.
After two weeks of investigation made by Sheriff McGraw and Prosecuting Attorney Ronald, they failed to find sufficient evidence against Miller and his two sons, accused of the murder of J. Manning Colman and Wilbor Fatten, to longer hold them in confinement, and they were accordingly released. Mr. McGraw, in pursuance of his instructions by the Board of County Commissioners, publishes this morning the official offer of $1000 reward for the arrest and conviction of the actual murderers.
“They failed to find sufficient evidence against Miller and his two sons... and they were accordingly released.”
This story highlights the rudimentary state of forensic investigation and the pressure on law enforcement in the 1880s to make an arrest during high-profile violent crimes, a dynamic that often led to the false imprisonment of innocent parties.
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