VERO BEACH, Florida — More than five decades after a World War II veteran was killed while working as a milkman in Florida, investigators say they solved the case thanks to two people who came forward after the killer’s death.
Hiram “Ross” Grayam was delivering milk in April 1968 and did not return home after work. Officers later found his body and milk truck deep in the woods in the Vero Beach area, the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release. He had been shot several times.
The case went unprosecuted and no arrests were made for the next 56 years.
“Through the determination and cooperation of witnesses, new leads emerged: Thomas J. Williams, now deceased, had confessed to Grayam’s murder, his guilt resonating beyond the grave,” the office said of the sheriff in a press release.
Grayam, a decorated World War II veteran who received a Purple Heart, had become “a beloved milkman” after settling in Indian River County after the war, authorities said.
A witness told deputies she saw Grayam talking to two men who were walking on the side of the road, WPEC-TV reported.
“She said Mr. Grayam struck up a conversation with them and said he would be back shortly,” Indian River County Sheriff Eric Flowers said. The two unidentified men and Grayam all left in the milk truck, he said.
Grayam’s family didn’t realize anything had happened, “except my dad came home a little late, and then a sheriff’s deputy, an investigator showed up,” the station told the outlet. television show Grayam’s son, Larry, who was 16 at the time.
During a search of the area by land and air, the milk truck and Graham’s body were spotted by an aircraft.
“When they arrived at the initial scene, Mr. Grayam was lying next to the milk truck with gunshot wounds, killed execution style,” Flowers said.
In 2006, rumors swirled that Williams may have been involved. So he wrote a letter to the editor of the local newspaper “saying that he had been accused of the murder, but that he denied knowledge of it and that he was not involved in it,” the sheriff said.
The case went cold again, and Williams died in 2016.
With Williams now dead, detectives have made huge progress in the case over the past two years: Williams’ ex-wife and a friend of his sister have come forward and told investigators what they know , reported the Florida television station.
Flowers said the witnesses — none of whom knew each other — told investigators that Williams had previously confessed to them that he killed Grayam.
“These people said, ‘I would never have told you anything before, as long as he was alive he was a threat to me and my family, we would never have told you,’ but the fact that he is now dead gave them the courage to come forward,” Flowers said.
Now detectives are hoping anyone who knows the second man seen with Grayam before his death will contact them.
ABC News
