The killer behind the “execution style” murder of a beloved WWII veteran turned Florida milkman has finally been unmasked more than five decades after the case was first opened.
Hiram “Ross” Grayam was delivering milk in April 1968 and failed to return home after work.
Deputies later found his bullet-riddled body and milk truck deep in the woods in the Vero Beach region, police say.
Grayam’s killer Thomas Williams was identified with the help of those who knew him — but were too afraid to tell investigators what they knew while he was alive.
“Through determination and the cooperation of witnesses, new leads emerged: Thomas J. Williams, now deceased, had confessed to Grayam’s murder, his guilt echoing from beyond the grave,” Indian River County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement to ABC.
At the time of the murder, a witness told deputies that she’d seen Grayam talking to two men before announcing that he would be “back shortly.”
Family of the decorated WWII veteran — who received a Purple Heart — told WPEC-TV at the time that they hadn’t realized anything had happened.
“Except my father was a little late in coming home and then a sheriff’s deputy, an investigator showed up,” Grayam’s son Larry, who was 16 at the time, told the broadcaster.
The area was searched by ground and air until Grayam’s body was finally discovered in the woods by airplane.
“When they arrived at the initial scene, Mr. Grayam was laying next to the milk truck with bullet wounds, killed execution style,” Indian River County Sheriff Eric Flowers told ABC.
The two men he’d been talking to — considered prime suspects in his slaughter — had been nowhere to be found and the case went cold for 56 years.
Rumors started to swirl in 2006 that Williams may have been involved in the murder. To allegedly cover his tracks, he wrote into a local paper saying he “denied knowledge” of Grayam’s murder and that he “wasn’t involved” despite being accused.
The case went cold again —- that is — until Williams died in 2016.
Williams’ ex-wife and a friend of his sister came forward telling investigators what they knew about the case.
Neither witness knew one another but had corroborating statements leading to the huge break.
“These folks said, ‘I would have never said anything to you before, as long as he was alive, he was a threat to me and my family, we would have never told you,’ but the fact that he is now dead gave them the courage to come forward,” Flowers said.
Detectives have also identified a second suspect involved in the callous murder, but have not disclosed the name, the sheriff told NBC.
It remains unclear why Grayam was murdered.