Source: Indiana State Police
JACKSON COUNTY, Ind.–An arrest was made in a 41-year-old Jackson County cold case on Tuesday.
State police say they arrested 61-year-old Ronald Anderson of Seymour at his home. Anderson was transported to the Jackson County Jail. He is accused of killing 24-year-old Clifford Smith in Jackson County on October 31, 1982.
Smith’s body was found by two animal trappers on December 1, 1982 in an area along the White River near two county roads by Rockford, which is just north of Seymour. Smith’s wife reported him missing on November 4, 1982. It was determined at the time that Clifford Smith died from a gunshot wound to the head.
Over the years, the case was passed down to new investigators to examine the case. Sergeant Kip Main has been investigating the case since September 2015.
Main concluded that Anderson was at a home on East 13th street with Smith and some other people in the late hours of October 30, 1982. Main believes Anderson got a shotgun from the home and loaded it. Smith wasn’t seen alive after they left the home that night.
Anderson is also accused of returning the murder weapon back to the home on 13th street and to the crime scene to hide other evidence.
The arrest warrant was issued “as a result of the investigation by Indiana State Police Detectives in cooperation with the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office,” according to a news release Tuesday afternoon.
