A Florida milkman’s killing has been solved after 56 years, bringing an end to the oldest cold case in Indian River County Sheriff’s Office history.
The Indian River County Sheriff’s Office in southeast Florida claims to have solved the oldest cold case in its history—the 1968 murder of WWII veteran Hiram “Ross” Grayam.
Before becoming a “beloved milkman” in the county, the Purple Heart recipient “had faced the horrors of the Battle of the Bulge and the liberation of two concentration camps,” according to a Facebook post by the department.
He was murdered while making deliveries on April 11, 1968, and the sheriff’s office has finally identified the killer as Thomas J. Williams, who was 21 at the time and died in 2016, according to CBS News.
According to Indian River County Sheriff Eric Flowers, Grayam was riding in his milk truck with two men when he went missing. The truck was eventually discovered in a forest area, and Grayam was “killed execution style,” according to Flowers.
He’d been robbed of approximately $70. According to the sheriff, Williams initially became a person of interest in 2006 when Grayam’s son, Larry Grayam, spoke to the media about the case, and Williams responded by writing to a local newspaper to deny any involvement. “At that point, he wasn’t on anybody’s radar, but he kind of interjected himself into the crime and became a suspect,” Larry Grayam said on Thursday.
According to the sheriff, when Williams, a career criminal, died, his ex-wife and a friend of his sister came forward to say he confessed to them, CBS12 says.
The sheriff stated that they “were willing to speak with us only because this guy was so violent, he is now dead.”
Flowers stated that investigators have identified the second suspect and are hopeful that members of the community will come forward with more information.
Larry Grayam, who was 16 years old when his father was murdered, said the loss crushed his family, and his mother died of a “broken heart” three years later. In a press conference with the sheriff on Thursday, he stated that he is “very pleased that we’ve come to the point that we can now close the case.”
