After nearly 50 years, a cold case murder from 1977 has been solved. Indiana State Police (ISP) confirmed the resolution of the mysterious death of Everett Armstrong, an 84-year-old World War I veteran and local banjo player, who was found with a fatal gunshot wound in his Geneva mobile home on August 19, 1977. FOX59 reported that a fuel oil delivery driver discovered Armstrong's body.
Initially, four witnesses in October 1977 provided leads pointing to a suspect, but the trail went cold after three unrelated people were mistakenly arrested and later released in 1981, as detailed by 21AliveNews. The case was revitalized in 2013 when ISP confirmed that James McBride II had confessed to four people within hours of the crime, a detail that had been overlooked over time.
The long-standing investigation culminated in 2025, identifying McBride, who had died in June 2024, as the perpetrator. Authorities matched confessions made by McBride to evidence at the crime scene, which involved very specific details "only the suspect and law enforcement would have known," according to information by ISP cited in a WTHR article. Witnesses also noted McBride exhibited "extremely erratic behavior" subsequent to the killing.
Adams County Prosecutor Jeremy Brown was presented with the case findings, and ISP stated that if McBride were alive, he would face murder charges. "Overwhelmingly, the circumstantial evidence showed that James A. McBride II committed the murder of Everett Armstrong in 1977," said ISP. The collaborative efforts of the ISP, Adams County Sheriff's Department, Adams County Coroner’s Office, and Adams County Prosecutor’s Office were acknowledged in closing this decades-old case, as they maintained a consistency while pursuing justice, despite the assailant died last year, as conveyed by 21AliveNews.
