Unsolved McVey murder may be closer to resolution than ever

Monday, August 30, 2021
Essie McVey

Ten years ago this week 85-year-old Essie McVey was shot to death in her condominium home on Greencastle’s northeast side.

Nobody saw anything. Nobody heard anything. Nobody knows what really happened on Aug 30, 2011 to a woman living alone in a quiet neighborhood with no apparent enemies.

However, authorities today believe they are closer than ever to solving the 10-year-old case, Greencastle Police Det. Capt. Michael Collins says.

“We are a lot closer today than 10 years ago,” Collins told the Banner Graphic. “We’re just a few pieces from being solved.

“Do I think we’re on the right track? Absolutely. I believe we’re on the right track of who did this.”

That is thanks to some new information that has come authorities’ way, reportedly thanks to David Meadows, former Putnam County Prosecutor’s Officer investigator.

“Dave Meadows came across some information,” Collins continued, “that’s been essential to the path we’ve gone down.

“It’s not so much physical evidence,” the veteran detective shared in choosing his words carefully, “as it is ... new knowledge.”

Authorities are not saying that several people were involved but believe that several people with knowledge of the scene and what happened have talked to others. Now police hope they will talk to them.

Investigators have been able to test old evidence and some new evidence collected from the crime scene via newly existing technology that wasn’t available to them in 2011.

“Further DNA testing is being done,” Putnam County Prosecutor Tim Bookwalter said, suggesting that the COVID issue has slowed down the return on that with the Indiana State Police lab running a skeleton crew in processing evidence for 92 counties.

Bookwalter said he has also contemplated sending the evidence to federal authorities in Washington, D.C., after hearing that Elkhart and Shelby counties have had cold cases solved via such a manner.

McVey was fatally wounded by a single, small-caliber shot to the back of her head in the front room of her condo in a quiet Autumn Glen Village neighborhood on a hot August morning.

Det. Collins, who was the first detective on the scene that fateful morning, believes it was a burglary gone bad since nothing was taken, the condo was not ransacked and nothing appeared even to have been gone through. The crime was likely committed in a quickly aborted search for money or valuables.

“It’s like the perfect crime,” he suggested. “No physical evidence was left, no hairs, no fingerprints.”

For a while there was a theory that prescription drugs might have been the target of the intruder or intruders. But Collins said after talking with family members all medications were accounted for and that idea was debunked.

The thought now is that the intruder or intruders didn’t think the elderly woman was going to be home, and when they were surprised to find her there, acted in a swift and fatal manner.

“They shot her and skedaddled out of there,” Collins theorized.

“It may have been a small caliber (handgun) but it’s still a loud gunshot,” he continued. “They said, ‘Crap, let’s get out of here.’”

Unfortunately no neighbors heard the gunshot on that warm morning with windows shut and air conditioners likely in use. No one saw anyone leave the McVey residence or saw any vehicle parked outside.

“You know how many calls a day we get about a suspicious person?” Collins said, recalling the scene.

That day, however, there were none.

The victim was home alone, waiting on her home health care worker to make a scheduled visit. The health care nurse called her at 9:01 a.m. to verify she was coming but got behind with other stops and called back at 10:17 a.m. to advise she would be late. So there were 76 minutes that remain unaccounted for.

There was no answer to the second call, and the health care nurse arrived at the condo at 10:35 a.m., finding the front door unlocked but not open. Inside she discovered the victim, barely alive, on the floor of the living room-dining room area. She died two days later.

Collins said he and Det. Sgt. Matt Huffman discuss the case several times a week and have even had outside investigators take a look at their findings just to be sure they are not missing something. “It’s always good to have new eyes on it.”

“We’ve got 80 percent of the puzzle complete,” Collins said. “It’s like you can tell what it is but you just don’t have the pieces to put it all together.

“We’re close to solving it,” he said, “It’s definitely a lot closer to being solved than it was five years ago. We can definitely say people know about it.”

At this point, Collins said he is hoping for the public’s help, being reactive and dependent on eye witnesses and evidence to put the case together at last.

“I don’t think it’s going to be solved tomorrow,” he added. “It’s not like we can just go and make an arrest.”

It may be a cold case by strict definition, but “it’s not an inactive one,” Collins assured.

“I am Essie’s voice,” the detective says today, confident that a solution is near. “Not a day goes by that we don’t think about it.”

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  • I pray this horrible murder gets solved. So sad for something like this to happen to an elderly woman living where she thought she was safe. These assisted living facilities need to hire full time security. The people living there deserve someone on grounds 24/7.

    -- Posted by Queen53 on Tue, Aug 31, 2021, at 12:02 PM
  • *

    No physical evidence was left, but they are testing DNA?

    If they want to shrink the circle a bit, why don't they send their DNA sample to 23&me?

    I have read stories of them helping in several cases where they can narrow it down enough to give the police a thread to follow.

    -- Posted by dreadpirateroberts on Wed, Sep 1, 2021, at 7:01 PM
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