Indiana State Police solve 1977 cold case murder in Adams County
Indiana State Police said they have solved a cold case murder from 1977.
Police said on Aug. 9, 1977, 84-year-old Everett Armstrong of rural Geneva, Ind., was found dead in his mobile home in Adams County around 4 p.m. by a fuel oil delivery driver.
Armstrong, a World War I veteran and well-known local banjo player, had been shot and his death ruled a murder.
Police said their initial investigation found witnesses who said they heard a single gunshot just before dark the day before he was found. Beyond that, the case went cold. In October 1977, several witnesses came forward to name a suspect but that lead went nowhere.
The case went cold for three years until in 1981 three people were arrested by the Adams County Sherif's Department for the murder. It soon became clear they had nothing to do with Armstrong's death and charges were dropped.
The case went cold for decades until the Indiana State Police reopened it in 2013. Over the next few years, they were able to corroborate information from the initial witnesses who came forward in 1977 to name James A. McBride II as a suspect. The witnesses told police at that time McBride had confessed to them that he had shot and killed Armstrong, and even showed one witness the gun he used.
Police said the confessions McBride made to the witnesses were extremely specific and contained details not publicly known; they also came before an Bluffton Banner newspaper article published on Aug. 20, 1977, detailing the crime.
McBridge died in his home in Adams County in 2024, Indiana State Police said. State police said they presented the circumstantial evidence to the Adams County prosecutor, who agreed that if McBride were alive, he would be charged with Armstrong's murder.
Indiana State Police said they now consider the case to be solved and closed.
