GUILTY LA - Mary Horton Vail, 22, murdered, Lake Charles, 28 Oct 1962

They may have pulled that article. I get a page that says it is no longer there. And when I run Mary Vail's name, no new articles show.
 
WOW!
More than a half century after his wife drowned in a Louisiana lake, Mississippi native Felix Vail is now facing a murder charge in her death -- making his case the oldest prosecution of a serial killer suspect in U.S. history.

Much more!
 
Glad to see it happening and it is about time! He would have been what about 23 (?) when she died. He is 73 now.

Prosecuting him then may have saved the lives of the two other missing women connected to him.

Some may see it as useless to prosecute him now, because of his age. But IMO no matter how old the suspect when the evidence is found they need prosecution. If they find that he did kill his wife, I hope he hates prison and that that is the last sight he sees.
 
I tried to pull up the original Clarion Ledger article and found this instead:

Suspected serial killer Felix Vail arrested in death of wife
5/18/13

http://www.clarionledger.com/articl...-serial-killer-Felix-Vail-arrested-death-wife

CANYON LAKE, TEXAS — More than a half century after his wife drowned in a Louisiana river, Mississippi native Felix Vail is now facing a murder charge in her death — making his case the oldest prosecution of a serial killer suspect in U.S. history.

Authorities arrested Vail Friday in Canyon Lake, Texas. He waived extradiction to Calcasieu Parish, La., where Mary Horton Vail drowned on Oct. 28, 1962, and was being transported directly there.

The Clarion-Ledger, following an investigation that began in May 2012, detailed in an eight-page special report the peculiar circumstances surrounding Mary Vail’s drowning and the fate of other women who crossed Vail’s path. The Nov. 11 report, titled “Gone,” prompted authorities to reopen the investigation.

More at link.....
 
Starting in spring 2012, The Clarion-Ledger left Vail repeated voice-mail messages asking about the women, but Vail did not respond.

In fall 2012, he sold his property in Montpelier in Clay County and disappeared. The newspaper tracked him down to Canyon Lake.

In January, Calcasieu Parish deputies questioned Vail, who refused to talk about the women.

Wesley Turnage, Vail’s former neighbor in Clay County, told The Clarion-Ledger that, in a conversation months after he graduated from high school in 1963, Vail became angry as he discussed his drowned wife.

He said Vail told him that his wife, Mary “wanted to have another kid. I didn’t want the one I got. I fixed that sorry *****. She will never have another one.”

http://www.clarionledger.com/articl...Felix-Vail-arrested-death-wife?nclick_check=1
 
Despite collecting on his drowned wife’s life insurance policies in 1962, Mississippi native and serial killer suspect Felix Vail, who was arrested Friday on a murder charge, didn’t pay for her funeral, burial, plot or marker, according to records and interviews by The Clarion-Ledger.
Prosecutors could seek to introduce that evidence at his trial, said former federal prosecutor Don Cochran, a professor at Belmont University College of Law. “It would all be part of his scheme to make money.”

http://www.clarionledger.com/articl...l-collected-insurance-didn-t-pay-burial-costs
 
http://www.star-telegram.com/2014/01/20/5499578/vail-denied-change-of-venue.html

The trial for 74-year-old William Felix Vail on a second-degree murder charge in the death of his wife, Mary Horton Vail, 50 years ago will be held in Calcasieu Parish.

The American Press reports that Judge Robert Wyatt denied this past week a defense motion for a change of venue. Wyatt said he believed unbiased jurors could be found in the parish and that media coverage has not been overly extensive...

Wyatt has not ruled a motion to exclude evidence pertaining to the other missing women. One of the pieces of evidence was a suitcase found in a room of a house in Tulsa, Okla., that Vail sold.
 
http://www.whlt.com/story/25767749/can-2-missing-women-be-evidence-in-murder-trial

A Louisiana appeal court has halted proceedings against a 74-year-old man accused of killing his first wife in Louisiana while it considers whether to allow evidence about other missing women.

Prosecutor Hugo Holland says the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal in Lake Charles has scheduled a hearing Sept. 24 on whether prosecutors may use testimony about two other missing women. They were another wife and a common-law wife of Mississippi native Felix Vail.
 
holy crap - his longtime friend's wife drowned too ...
 
An attorney for serial killer suspect Felix Vail told a three-judge panel for the Louisiana Court of Appeal on Wednesday that two other women's disappearances should be barred from evidence...

Assistant District Attorney Carla Sigler responded that it does not, explaining that the doctrine of chances applies in this case because the two women disappeared under similar circumstances and were last known to be in Vail's presence...

The Mississippi native is charged with the murder of Mary Horton Vail, whose 1962 death in Lake Charles, La., was originally ruled an accidental drowning.

He is the last known person to be with her and two other women: his common-law wife, Sharon Hensley, who disappeared in 1973; and his wife, Annette, who disappeared in 1984...

The murder trial is expected to take place some time next year.
http://www.clarionledger.com/story/...elix-vail-louisiana-court-of-appeal/16174405/
 
http://www.clarionledger.com/story/...ls-court-rules-families-can-testify/18534719/

An appeals court ruled Wednesday that families are able to testify about the disappearances of two women that alleged serial killer Felix Vail considered his wives.

Louisiana's 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that the trial court "did not abuse its vast discretion" when it ruled in March that prosecutors could introduce evidence of the disappearances of Sharon Hensley and Vail's wife, Annette.

Vail, a 75-year-old native of Montpelier in Clay County, is expected to go on trial next year for murder in the 1962 death of his first wife, Mary. Experts say it is the oldest prosecution of an alleged serial killer case in U.S. history.
 
The trial was pushed back from August 17th to November 16th and now it will probably be delayed until next year.

Delay expected in Felix Vail trial

http://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/journeytojustice/2015/10/08/felix-vail-trial-delay/73615570/

Prosecutors expect the murder trial of Felix Vail to be delayed until next year because his lawyer has stepped down.

The trial of the Mississippi native had been set for Nov. 16 in Lake Charles, but Vail’s lawyer, Ben Cormier, moved to withdraw from the case.

The judge has granted his request, and Vail will now be represented by the public defender’s office.

With the change in lawyers coming so close to the start of the trial, prosecutors expect the trial to be delayed.

Cormier recently approached prosecutors, seeing if there were any possibility of a plea bargain in the case.

The families balked at the request for such a deal in which Vail would tell what he did with both Sharon Hensley and Annette Vail.

Mary Horton Vail’s brother, Will, told authorities in an email, “We want you to prosecute and convict the *advertiser censored*! No exception!!!”
 
A hearing has been tentatively set for late January. When that happens, hopefully a trial date will be made.

http://www.recorder.com/news/townbytown/greenfield/19313620-95/local-woman-still-waiting-for-justice

Mary Newton Rose of Newell Court said the trial of Felix Vail, who she believes is responsible for the disappearance of her daughter 31 years ago, was supposed to start later this month, but has been postponed.

According to reports from Jerry Mitchell, an investigative reporter with the Clarion-Ledger in Mississippi who has followed developments of the case for years, prosecutors expect the murder trial will be delayed until next year because Vail’s lawyer has stepped down.

Newton Rose said a hearing is set for late January. She said she hopes a new trial date is set then.

A Mississippi native, Vail is considered the nation’s oldest serial killer suspect to be prosecuted.
 

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