Hide Article Text (OCR)
By MIKE HALL Staff WriterIT*A Lanaric man was arrested Wednesday night and charged in the 1972 rape - slaying of Miss Anne Flora Cole, 72, of Lanark. Company D state tpr. P.B. Gooden said Bernard Campbell, 26, was picked up along a road to the Lanark landfill and offered no resistance. He was arrested by Gooden and tpr. J.O. Cole.IiCampbell is unemployed and has been in Lanark since the murder, police said. They said rape was the main motive in Miss Cole’s death.Autopsy reports from the State Medical Examiner's office showed that Miss Cole had been raped and manually strangled. Also four stab wounds in the stomach were on the body, but were not the cause of death, the report said.The body was discovered Sunday Dec. 10, 1972 in a wooded area between a cemetery and the Church of Christ at Stanaford, about 35 to 40 yards off a dirt road. The autopsy report said that Miss Cole was killed either that Saturday or early Sunday morning. Police suspect that her death occured Saturday evening.Miss Cole was a member of the church and cleaned it on Saturdays. At the time of the murder police suspected sheifwas abducted on her way to or from her Saturday cleaningchores.The search for Miss Cole began after she missed her ride to church Sunday morning. After services the Rev. Ray Bailey called a neighbor to check Miss Cole’s home. Whenit was found she wasn’t home, police were called.Later that week, state police released an artist’s sketch taken from two women who had seen a stranger in the area Saturday. He was described as a middle aged white man, about 40, with broad shoulders, 6 feet 2 inches tall with greyish black hair and a red complextion. Campbell does not fit the description.The arrest of Campbell brings to two the number of years old murder cases that have culminated in arrest in the past two weeks. On June 15 Mary Etta Derringer, 22, of Beaver was arrested and charged with murder in the 1974 strangulation death of Mrs. Lillian Ann Cochran, 18. of Ec-cies.In a confession, Mrs. Derringer told police she stangled her neighbor with a hand towel after suspecting an affair between her husband and Mrs.Cochran. She remains in Raleigh County jail in lieu of a $15,000 bond.Campbell will appear before Circuit Court Judge Kermit A. Locke today for arraignment and a bond hearing.
Newspaper Details
Post Herald
Beckley, West Virginia, US
Thu, Jun 30, 1977
Page 16
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
FL, USA 14 Oct 2020
Other Publications Near Beckley, West Virginia
Messenger
Beckley Messenger
Beckley Post Report
Daily News Digest
Post Herald and Register
