The Murdered Orville Albert Gibson

The Murdered 
Orville Albert Gibson
Newbury, Vermont

🚜 Orville Gibson: Decades Old Unsolved Homicide 🔍

Orville Gibson, a 47 year old dairy farmer, lived with his wife Evelyn on their successful farm in Newbury, Vermont, a small town along the New Hampshire border. Though respected by some for his hard work and generosity, Orville was also rumored to be disliked by others, seen as a bully. Days before his disappearance, Orville brutally assaulted his longtime hired hand, 57 year old Eri Martin, after two 85 pound containers of milk were spilled during his daily chores. He suffered from a bruised kidney, and two cracked ribs, resulting in criminal charges being pressed, and widespread community outrage. Threatening phone calls began harassing the Gibson home, and public rumors of vigilante justice spread. 
In the early hours of December 31, 1957, Gibson left his home to milk his cows but never returned. His wife reported him missing within hours, and investigators found signs of a struggle in the barn, including a dented milk pail and a trail of straw leading toward a bridge over the Connecticut River. Then in March, after months of searching, his bound body was recovered 7.5 miles downstream and identified by dental records. An autopsy ruled the death a homicide by asphyxiation, noting no water in his lungs and his ankles and wrists tied tightly behind him. A cut on Orville’s face seemed to match the dented pail found in his barn. Despite hundreds of interviews, widespread rumors of a drunken vigilante group, and the arrests of two local men, Robert “Ozzie” Welch and Frank Carpenter, both were acquitted, leaving the case officially unsolved. His murder remains one of Vermont’s most haunting cold cases. 

If you have any information, please contact the Vermont State Police Major Crimes Unit at 802-244-8727. 🕊️

Sources:

https://vsp.vermont.gov/unsolved/homicide/gibson
https://newengland.com/yankee/magazine/the-haunting-case-of-orville-gibson/ 

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-twist-in-vermont-farmers-mysterious-1957-death/

https://transom.org/2014/murder-memory-in-a-new-england-village-the-story-of-orville-gibson/

https://researchworks.oclc.org/archivegrid/archiveComponent/903405411

https://www.vermontpublic.org/vpr-news/2015-03-26/suicide-or-murder-orvilles-revenge-reopens-infamous-case-in-newbury

At 3:00 am on 31 December 1957, Orville Gibson left to milk the cows on his Vermont farm. He never arrived. Three months later, his bound body washed up in the Connecticut River. Suicide? Or a murder over, literal, spilled milk? Mass-drugging of suspects and two trails later, the case is unsolved.
by inUnresolvedMysteries