Posted on 06/27/2009 3:51:48 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Fort Payne authorities say they have solved a murder committed 23 years ago and the killer was a man who has since died of cancer.
On April 19, 1986 at 7:40pm, the police got a call that a man had been shot at his home on Scenic Drive. Paramedics rushed 25 year old Mark Allen Phillips to Dekalb Hospital in Fort Payne where he was pronounced dead.
Police say facts came to light recently. Certain facts of the case were not released to the public in 1986 and those facts have helped to verify that the person that we have concluded committed the murder is in fact the correct person. Police Detective Lt. Andy Hairston worked with Dekalb District Attorney Mike Odell to close the case.
Police say the erson who committed the murder has been identified as Larry Lavon Dyar who lived in Dekalb County at the time of the murder. Police say Dyar murdered Mark Phillips because he was allegedly involved in the 1979 rape of a 16 year old girl who would later become the wife of Larry Dyar.
On April 19, 1986, Larry Dyar went to the home of Mark Phillips. Family members of Phillips said a noise was heard on the front porch. When Phillips opened the door to check, police say he was shot by Dyar. Dyar died of cancer in 2008.
Fort Payne police say the closure of this murder case is bittersweet to both the family of the victim and to law enforcement. It will not bring a man back, nor was the killer prosecuted by a court of law before his own death.
The Fort Payne Police department and the Dekalb County District Attorney's Office wish to express their sympathy to the families of the victim and the defendants as violent crimes of this nature touch people far reaching for many years.
Police solve 23-year-old murder
Police solve 23-year-old murder
By Mark Harrison
The Times-Journal
Published June 26, 2009
Authorities finally closed the book Friday on a 23-year-old Fort Payne murder case.
DeKalb County District Attorney Mike O’Dell said evidence shows Larrry Lavon Dyar was responsible for the 1986 shooting death of Mark Allen Phillips. Dyar died in August 2008 from complications associated with cancer.
O’Dell cited revenge as the motive for the murder. He said Phillips, along with two other men, were allegedly involved in the gang rape of Dyar’s wife, Glenna Annette.
Fort Payne Police Commissioner Ron Ogletree said that rape happened near the Billy Ford’s area of DeKalb County in 1979, before Dyar actually met her. She was 16 years old at the time.
O’Dell said the rape was never prosecuted because the victim suffered an emotional collapse after a preliminary hearing and “could not go forward” with testimony.
“Our educated guess is that after she married Dyar, she told him about what happened,” Ogletree said. “He decided to take matters into his own hands, and this was a revenge killing.”
O’Dell said Dyar did not emerge as a suspect in the case until 2004. Before then, investigators had operated under the false belief that the murder was drug-related.
He said it’s believed Phillips was heavily involved in the local drug culture at the time of his murder.
“It’s one of those cases where we had a lot of people say ‘I didn’t kill [Phillips], but I wish I had,’” O’Dell said. “We even had several people confess to the murder just because they wanted credit for killing him, but we were able to eliminate them as suspects.”
O’Dell said even after Dyar emerged as a suspect in the case, investigators “could not corroborate” his involvement. Ogletree credited Fort Payne Detective Lt. Andy Hairston for eventually gathering enough evidence to do so. O’Dell also said Capt. Gary Bell, the initial investigator on the case, Chief of Detectives Mike Grant and Assistant Chief Randy Bynum helped to close the case.
O’Dell said that on April 19, 1986, Dyar went to Phillps’ home on Scenic Drive in Fort Payne. When Phillips answered the front door, Dyar shot Phillips in the chest area with a 16-guage shotgun. Phillips died a short time later.
Phillips then-8-year-old daughter was present at the time of the shooting, and O’Dell said she saw Dyar flee into nearby woods after the murder, and get into a white van. Dyar’s wife also saw the van, being driven by a second man.
“Dyar ran backwards through the woods, keeping his eyes locked with Phillips’ daughter the entire time,” O’Dell said. “So, it made an impression, but back then we couldn’t’ get enough information to make a positive identification. Plus, there were numerous people around at the time involved in the drug trade who were driving white vans.”
After Dyar died, O’Dell said several people came forward with additional information, including a man who drove the van that night, who was given immunity in exchange for information.
“The driver helped fill in the missing pieces of the puzzle. The agreement was that he would be immune to prosecution, and his identity would not be released, as long as we had no reason to believe he was actually involved in the shooting,” O’Dell said. “It turns out he wasn’t. In fact, we’re not sure he even fully knew what was happening that night.”
After Dyar’s death, several of Dyar’s family members also told investigators that he frequently confessed to the murder while intoxicated, O’Dell said.
“Unfortunately, in cases like this one, people don’t want to talk while the killer is still alive because they are afraid of what will happen to them,” O’Dell said. “Closing files like this can be difficult as there’s an element of satisfaction missing. However, we will never close a case until we can confirm, beyond a shadow of a doubt, who is responsible for the crime that has been committed.”
All’s well that ends well.
Too bad he died of cancer, he should be commended for his actions.
Funny how they make a rapist out to be a victim.
Sounds like a win-win to me.
Should he have killed the guy with his 8 year old daughter there?
Doesn’t sound like Phillips left much of a vacancy when he exited this life.
In a perverse way, this qualifies as a happy ending.
“Should he have killed the guy with his 8 year old daughter there?”
Would have been better not too. As hard as it sounds he probably did her a favor.
Our legal system is broken. Unless you have money and a good lawyer you don’t have any rights.
Understandable.
“could not corroborate” his involvement? How about a 40-year-old murder where the authorities will not corroborate the involvement of someone who, some believe, was one of the murderers -- and his wife too!
.. and this case has a strange twist. Another man with the same name is accused of a heinous crime almost as bad as murder.
Thus the suspected murderer's name is in the news -- surely people will be asking, "Is that the Bill Ayers?"
Naw, Obama's friend is suspected of murdering a cop.
Redwood City, CA: William Ayers is charged with molesting six boys from 1988 to 1996.
No! it's not the Bill Ayers.
This Redwood City, CA guy is innocent until proved guilty.
Here's the point IMO.. Redwood City is just south of San Francisco.
For literally decades some have been trying to get the authorities to take a hard look at the 1960s street rabble terrorist William Ayers and his wife Ms Dohrn for the murder of a San Francisco police officer, Sgt. McDonnell.
Nothing much has happened.. someone is protecting those two. We know about the university crowd, and the MSM.. but who else?
Obviously some people in government are protecting him -- and guess what? Their buddy is now the president of the United States of America! They're almost entirely home free!
.. yet fate would have it that a man with the same name would be on trial in San Francisco area for a crime that is almost as heinous as murder!
Now, about that murder 40 years ago, Mr. and Mrs. Ayers . . . .
The rapist didn't give a crap about his daughter, why should the guy who rid the world of the scumbag for us?
Thank you for posting the second version of the story because the first one made my head hurt.
Are you serious? We should treat children however their parents treat them?
That once was a person, but the rape of the daughter bugged the "p" clear out of him.
Where did you get that? By your logic the State could never impose the death penalty on a perp with kids.
In this case the legal system failed and the emergency backup system kicked in.
One child rapist got what was coming to him at the hands of a good guy.
If the rapist didn't want his kid traumatized he should have left that 16 year old girl alone. Actions have consequences.
L
I said no such thing. The only conclusion you could draw from what I said is that the 8 year old daughter should not witness the father's execution. Is that unreasonable?
That's a ridiculous statement. No person deserves to be punished for another's crime. The child of a rapist (or any other criminal) doesn't forfeit their rights in this country.
I have heard of ‘unpopular’ but when
“We even had several people confess to the murder just because they wanted credit for killing him,”
you gotta know you need more than a Dale Carnagie couse.....
I missed the part where the victim of the murder got a trial by jury before he was summarily executed on the basis of hearsay.
Would have been better not too. As hard as it sounds he probably did her a favor.
Our legal system is broken. Unless you have money and a good lawyer you don’t have any rights.
And with OBAMA CARE you won't have your health either.
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