Man Charged with Murder of Navy Veteran 39 Years Later [Video]

A Navy veteran’s murder has been solved nearly four decades later, Maryville, Tenn., police said on Wednesday, Nov. 6.

Billy Wayne Hearon died on Jan. 4, 1985, at 28, in the Shady Acres Trailer Park in Maryville, Tenn. On Monday, Nov. 4, Roger Oody, now 62, who is currently serving a life sentence for an unrelated 1987 murder, was charged with first-degree murder, the Maryville Police Department announced in a Nov. 6 press conference.

Oody, who was 22 at the time of the murder, was “acquaintances” with Hearon, Maryville Police Chief Tony Crisp said at a Nov. 6 press conference.

Hearon was fatally stabbed around 70 times and found dead with blunt force trauma to his head in the Tennessee trailer park. Before his death, Hearon served in the U.S. Navy until he suffered a career-ending injury that prohibited him from working again. He was the 11th of 15 children in his …