Columbus police have arrested a suspect in a more than 20-year-old capital murder case, city officials confirmed today.
David Murray, 52, of Jackson is being held without bond in Lowndes County Adult Detention Center in connection with the July 1996 murder of 78-year-old Mack Fowler, who was stabbed to death in his home.
Officers with the U.S. Marshal’s Fugitive Task Force arrested Murray in Jackson Tuesday. Lowndes County Circuit Court Judge Jim Kitchens issued a warrant for Murray’s arrest based on DNA evidence investigators collected in 1996 from Fowler’s murder matching a sample collected from a crime scene last fall in Jackson, officials said at a press conference at the Columbus Municipal Complex Wednesday.
The murder occurred at Fowler’s home on Third Avenue North either late on July 8 or early in the morning on July 9. CPD Capt. Brent Swan said evidence suggests Fowler invited Murray into his home where an altercation occurred, though Swan declined to comment what started the fight. When Fowler’s body was discovered the next day, he had been stabbed and beaten, Swan said.
At the press conference, authorities from CPD, Columbus and Mississippi crime labs and the District Attorney’s Office all said Murray’s arrest was possible only because of the CPD investigators who collected and processed evidence from Fowler’s home in 1996.
“A lot of these guys have retired,” Columbus Crime Lab Director Austin Shepherd said. “But I know they’re celebrating today.”
Originally from Arkansas, Murray lived in Columbus from 1986 until 2005 when he moved to the Jackson area, Swan said. Jackson Police Department arrested Murray on Oct. 27, 2016, during which investigators took a DNA buccal swab and submitted it to the Mississippi Forensics Laboratory for examination. The swab matched a DNA profile for the suspect from Fowler’s murder, which Shepherd submitted to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Combined DNA Index System in 2006.
“I think the cooperation and the hard work between the different agencies is a sign that in Lowndes County and the state of Mississippi, it doesn’t matter how old the case is, we’re going to do what we can to make an arrest and to bring the victim and their family justice,” District Attorney Scott Colom said at the press conference.
Swan and other CPD officials declined to comment on what Murray has told investigators about the case.
The Clarion Ledger reported Tuesday that Columbus Mayor Robert Smith said it was his understanding Murray confessed to the murder. Smith later told The Dispatch the report was incorrect.
“I never said he confessed,” Smith said. “I said it was confirmed (Murray was involved in the Fowler case).”
Fowler was one of five elderly victims reported murdered between 1996 and 1998. The five murder victims were all 60 or older and found strangled or stabbed — and sometimes both — in their homes. Swan said at the press conference Murray has not been connected to the other murders and that each case will be treated as individual and unconnected.
“If forensics tie these cases together, then so be it,” Swan said. “But we don’t want to do that from an investigator standpoint.”
In February 2012, CPD arrested Earnest Talley, then 44, for the murder of 70-year-old George Wilbanks in 1997, one of the five victims. A grand jury failed to indict Talley for the murder in August of that year.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 36 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.