A suspect in the murder of a Maryland sheriff 51 years ago was arrested in New York, officials confirmed Wednesday.
Larry David Smith, 71, also known as Larry David Becker, was arrested by Montgomery police last week, though it was only announced today, according to a press release from the Montgomery Police Department. Smith was found after detectives decided to reexamine the bureau’s only unsolved case involving law enforcement on the murder’s 50th anniversary. After a thorough investigation, detectives honed in on Smith, who had since changed his name and moved from Maryland, where the murder took place, to New York, the press release said. He confessed to the murder on Thursday during an interrogation, after which he was arrested, the statement added.
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Montgomery County Special Deputy Sheriff Cpt. James Tappen Hall was found mortally wounded from a gunshot wound in the parking lot of a country club on Oct. 23, 1971. Investigators theorized that he was shot after interrupting a burglary. He died of his injuries in a local hospital three days later.
Becker was interviewed in 1973, but he was dismissed as a suspect. Around 1975, he changed his name from Larry David Becker to Larry David Smith and moved to Little Falls, New York, where he lived quietly until his arrest last week, investigators claim.
Police didn’t name any breakthroughs in technology that helped them crack the half-century-old murder, saying it was just a thorough examination of old evidence, as well as a number of new interviews.
The Montgomery Police Department labeled the case closed in a news conference on Wednesday, during which several family members of Hall were present, according to CBS News. To date, it is the oldest cold case solved by the department.
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Smith is expected to be extradited to New York by the end of the week.
