Thanks to the 1963 arrest of Ernesto Miranda and the subsequent Supreme Court ruling that enshrined the eponymous set of rights the police are required to inform you of when you’re taken into custody, pretty much everyone knows the opener: “You have the right to remain silent.”
Loril Harp probably should have realized this right applied when cops weren’t in the interrogation room, too. Now, thanks to his loose lips, police believe the late Harp is responsible for an unsolved murder.
According to KTVI-TV, Harp is accused of killing liquor store owner Steve Weltig in a 1993 shooting in Arnold, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis.
The cold case was warmed occasionally — but it wasn’t until 2020 that the Arnold Police Department got its big break.
It turned out the evidence that led to Harp’s downfall had been sitting right under police’s noses for five years.
In 2015, Harp — who KTVI reported was known to authorities as a local debt enforcer and drug dealer — was interrogated by cops.
Cpl. Brett Ackermann and Detective Corporal Josh Wineinger reviewed evidence from the interrogation and found that what Harp said when detectives were out of the room was the key to cracking the case, according to Fox News.
For instance, in one phone conversation with detectives out of the room and the door closed, Harp told whoever was on the other end of the line, “I’m not under arrest, but I probably will be before I leave here.”
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“In another, he’s yelling at himself, saying he didn’t kill Weltig,” Fox News reported. “He was constantly twitching, shuffling in his chair, tapping his feet.”
“The very important part of the interview is the time when nobody is in the room but the suspect. Watching that dead time helped us. I was 100 percent convinced at that point,” Ackermann told KTVI.
“He was on the phone, saying I’m going to jail, stuff that would indicate he’s guilty.”
That’s when the pair knew they had to interrogate Harp again.
“We looked at each other like, we’ve got to go talk to him,” Wineinger said.
The two interrogated Harp in 2020 in an assisted-living center, where the then-68-year-old resided due to poor health. He was evasive during the three-hour interview, but did say some incriminating things during the pressing.
“So how did it happen? How did it happen that he got a bullet hole in his head? And you’re the only other person there, Loril?“ Ackermann asked during the interview.
“I’m telling you, I didn’t shoot him,” Harp replied. “I did not shoot Steve Weltig.”
When Ackermann asked him to “keep going,” Harp responded, “I hit him, until he dropped the gun. And then I hit him again, and then I took off out the door.”
Harp also allegedly told police that when he got home, “I showered, I had a bunch of blood on me,” and other remarks indicating he did it.
“You had blood on you?” one of the detectives repeated.
“I must have if I shot him. Or he shot me,” Harp said.
“You weren’t shot,” one of the detectives replied.
“Harp tried to backtrack and said the blood was from a fist fight. But it was too late. The detectives had him,” Fox News reported.
He was subsequently charged with the murder of Weltig — but died a year later at age 69. Now, videos that cracked the case are being released by the police department:
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Obviously, the lack of a trial means a lack of closure for those hoping to hold Harp accountable for the murder he allegedly committed.
However, the fact he went to his grave knowing the cops had finally caught up to him in a crime he’d all but admitted to committing is, at least, somewhat satisfying. Thanks to an alleged murderer and noted thug forgetting that he was on tape and still could have chosen to remain silent, police have likely solved a 30-year-old crime.
Our hats are off to the officers whose tenacious sleuthing made this possible — and can only hope more officers are able to follow their lead in similar cold cases.
