Posted on 05/03/2014 5:53:31 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A badly decomposed body that was grotesquely pumped out of a Nevada septic tank has been identified as that of a Vietnam veteran with two medals for heroism who vanished 34 years ago, authorities said Thursday.
A septic tank company was servicing a tank in the Virginia City Highlands area of Storey County, south of Reno, when parts of "what was very evidently a human body" emerged last August, Storey County Sheriff Gerald Antinoro said at a news conference.
Recent DNA evidence from a relative confirmed that the body was that of George Benson Webster, who was 32 when he was reported missing in 1980, Washoe County Undersheriff Tim Kuzanek said. Kuzanek's department has primary jurisdiction because Sun Valley, where Webster is last known to have resided, is in Washoe County.
George Benson Webster, who earned two Bronze Stars for bravery in a combat zone in Vietnam, vanished in 1980.
Antinoro said the DNA evidence confirmed Webster's identity, which had been preliminarily established by a partial serial number on a medallion found with his body.
Webster was most likely killed by blunt-force trauma to his skull, Antinoro said.
"We knew this was a homicide since nobody innocently ends up in a septic tank," he said.
Authorities were seeking anyone who may have known Webster or a second man, Calvin "Cowboy" Green, identified as a Sun Valley resident who knew Webster. Green has since died.
Webster served with distinction in Vietnam, earning two Bronze Stars, the military's fourth-highest individual honor for bravery in a combat zone. Other details of his military career weren't immediately available.
While Virginia City Highlands is now a bustling bedroom community, it was remote and sparsely populated in the early 1980s, Antinoro said, which would have made it easy for Webster's killer or killers to avoid detection as they dumped his body in the septic tank.
The home where Webster was found was vacant in 1980, and its current owners aren't considered suspects, he said.
Crossed up with the wrong people, somehow. Not many would even think of disposing of a body in a septic tank, that says to me that his killer or killers had done it before. Killed and body disposed in that manner in Nevada, I think mob, rightly or wrongly.
No one had pumped this septic tank in 34 years?????
Maybe it was a weekend place.
Not really. There was a story out of Africa a few years ago about one or more people drowning in a latrine/septic tank trying to retrieve a cell phone for a reward.
I was curious about that myself.
Sounds like what happened to Cleo Epps, (Queen of the bootleggers) down in Oklahoma 42 years ago.
I find it hard to believe a body can be in a septic tank for 34 years and not be just a pile of bones...
"badly decomposed body" implies it still had flesh and muscle attached...
Someone correct me if I am wrong or have watched too many episodes of the TV show "Bones" ....
I'm surprised bones would be left. The tank was probably being emptied and bones got stuck in the vacuum nozzle.
Remaining bones would not be surprising , anything else would be....
drowning in a latrine/septic tank trying to retrieve a cell phone for a reward.
That would have to be one helluva cell phone for someone to want it back!
Oh the names of people I remember when I lived in Tulsa. One man I worked with was worried about the case because Cleo was his aunt.
Somehow the Mullendore (Cross Bell Ranch) case keeps popping up. After that killing I went to the sale of the Mullendore cattle. It was crowded! Also raining.
hmmm, the lake seems to have moved a lot west since Hoss Cartwright’s day..
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