Finding Larry Shelby
When Larry Shelby’s mother died in May 1985, his family believed the loss might finally bring him home.
Larry had been missing from Fairfield, Illinois, since the previous November. His mother had been ill before he disappeared, and he had visited her in March 1984. Even if Larry had chosen to leave Fairfield without telling anyone, his relatives believed he would return when the time came to distribute her estate.
They waited, but Larry never appeared.
His family continued contacting police departments and veterans hospitals, hoping someone had encountered him. Months passed without a confirmed sighting, and then the months became years.
On April 17, 1988, Larry’s relatives gathered at property belonging to his brother, James Shelby. They were spreading grass seed around the yard when James left to purchase more. While waiting for him to return, Larry’s cousin, Bill Shelby, looked inside an abandoned Chevrolet sitting among the weeds and vines.
At first, Bill thought someone had thrown old clothing and a blanket into the car. Then he noticed a boot extending from a pair of jeans and, closer to the floorboard, a human skull.
The Chevrolet was approximately 150 yards from James’s house.
Personal identification found with the remains pointed to Larry, but dental records would be needed to confirm it. After more than three years of searching, his family was close to learning where Larry had been found, although the larger question of what happened to him would prove much harder to answer.
Before Larry Disappeared
Larry was about 40 years old in 1984 and had lived in Fairfield for most, if not all, of his life. He worked in the oil fields and served for two years in Vietnam during the mid-1960s.
His family said his military service left him with a nervous disorder. By 1984, he was receiving Veterans Administration benefits and had been assessed as approximately 90 percent disabled.
Larry and his former wife, Janet Shelby, divorced in June 1984 after ten years of marriage. Their son, Alan, was 13 when Larry vanished.
Janet later told the Evansville Press that Larry’s mental condition had changed for the worse after he visited his sick mother in March 1984. She also recalled that he had been drinking heavily during the months before his disappearance, although relatives otherwise considered him to be in relatively good physical health.
The available newspaper coverage places Larry’s disappearance generally in November 1984, but it provides no specific account of his last confirmed sighting. It does not identify where he was, who last saw him or what he may have been doing at the time.
Larry was not formally reported missing until late 1985. By then, he had been gone for close to a year, leaving investigators with a long period for which little reliable information appears to have been available.
His relatives had not simply forgotten about him. They made calls to police departments and veterans hospitals, and they expected his mother’s death to draw him back to Fairfield. Larry’s sister, Cathy Faircloth, later said the family’s efforts produced little information.
Meanwhile, some of the financial obligations connected to Larry stopped while others continued. The child-support payments Janet had been receiving came to an end after his disappearance, but Larry’s VA disability checks reportedly kept arriving.
Those checks, along with the title to Larry’s truck, eventually became part of the investigation into what happened after he vanished.
Questions About Larry’s Checks and Truck
In February 1988, authorities arrested Ralph M. Feather, a 63-year-old Fairfield-area resident, in connection with an application for the title to Larry’s truck.
According to court records described by the Evansville Courier and Press, Feather stated that he had purchased the truck directly from Larry. Authorities said he had actually acquired it from Larry’s former landlady, Ruth Edna Caudle.
Investigators alleged that Caudle applied for a duplicate title after Larry disappeared and then transferred it to Feather. Feather was charged with making a materially false statement on a title application.
The duplicate title had changed hands, but surprisingly enough, the original had never left Larry’s possession. It would later be found in his pocket.
Authorities were also investigating allegations that Caudle cashed Larry’s VA checks without his permission after he vanished. The Veterans Administration and federal investigators completed an inquiry into the payments and forwarded their findings to federal officials in East St. Louis for consideration of possible charges.
These investigations gave authorities reason to examine what others had done with Larry’s property and benefits, but they did not reveal where he was. That answer came only two months after Feather’s arrest, during what began as an ordinary Sunday morning of yard work at James Shelby’s home.
The Chevrolet Near James Shelby’s House
On April 17, 1988, James Shelby, his uncle Leo Shelby and Leo’s son Bill planned to spend the day spreading grass seed and straw around James’s property. The land was approximately two miles northeast of Fairfield.
A 1959 Chevrolet had been sitting on the property for years. One newspaper described it as having been abandoned for approximately a decade, while other reports simply called it an old junked car. By 1988, weeds, vines and brush had grown around it, making the interior difficult to see.
James left the property to purchase more grass seed, and while he was gone, Bill looked through one of the Chevrolet’s windows. He noticed what appeared to be pants, a jacket and a blanket inside, but initially assumed they were old clothes someone had discarded.
The clothing looked unusual enough that he continued looking. Bill then saw a boot extending from a pair of jeans, followed by a skull near the floorboard.
Bill and Leo waited for James to return before making certain that they were looking at human remains. Police were called, and Fairfield officer Jimmie Joe McCleary arrived at approximately 9:30 that morning.
Wayne County Sheriff Thomas Cannon Jr., Coroner Bob Johnson, State’s Attorney Steve Swofford and an Illinois State Police crime-scene technician were subsequently called to the property.
The remains were badly decomposed and sitting inside the Chevrolet. Initial reporting described the body as lying in the front seat, while later coverage referred more specifically to the driver’s seat.
The person inside the car had been dressed in several layers of clothing. Newspaper reports described two pairs of pants, long underwear, an insulated coat and boots, while an earlier account referred to overalls and boots. With no surviving tissue available to examine, the clothing became one of the few physical details preserved from the scene.
A billfold containing Larry Shelby’s identification was found with the remains. Authorities also recovered his driver’s license, vehicle registration, more than $200 in cash and the original title to his truck.
Several empty cans of Mello Yello were inside the Chevrolet as well. Janet later told reporters that it had been one of Larry’s preferred drinks. Their presence offered a small, familiar connection to Larry, although investigators could not determine from the cans when he came to be inside the vehicle or who had left them there.
The location was particularly difficult for his family to understand. The Chevrolet was obscured by vegetation, but it was sitting only about 150 yards from James’s house.
Leo remembered helping tear down a house on the same property the previous fall. During that project, debris had been pushed into a pit approximately ten feet from the Chevrolet.
Family members had been working only a few steps away without realizing what was inside.
They also questioned why Larry would have slept in the abandoned car if he had entered it voluntarily. He maintained an apartment in Fairfield, and James’s house was nearby. The surviving newspaper coverage never established whether Larry went to the Chevrolet himself or whether his body was placed there by someone else.
His Identity Was Clearer Than His Cause of Death
The identification, cash and documents found inside the car made Larry the likely identity of the deceased, but the condition of the remains required a forensic comparison.
Investigators obtained Larry’s dental records from the Veterans Administration and sent them for examination. In early May 1988, Coroner Bob Johnson announced that a St. Louis odontologist had positively identified the remains as Larry Shelby.
The confirmation gave his family the answer they had been seeking for more than three years, but unfortunately, it did little to explain how Larry died.
An Illinois State Police anthropologist examined the remains and collected core soil samples from several locations around Fairfield. Those searches were connected to statements claiming that Larry had been killed and that his body had originally been left somewhere else.
Investigators found nothing unusual at the locations they examined.
Caudle reportedly gave authorities several different accounts involving Larry’s death. In one version, she claimed that Larry had been killed with a shotgun and that she had been present when he was shot.
State’s Attorney Swofford described her accounts as inconsistent and said her statements were the only evidence then supporting a murder theory. The location and condition of Larry’s remains also appeared to conflict with the story she had provided.
Investigators found no bullet, knife or physical evidence showing that outside force had been used against Larry. They also reported finding no pill bottle or suicide note, but the lack of soft tissue made many possible causes of death difficult or impossible to identify.
Janet did not believe suicide readily explained what happened, although she acknowledged that the available evidence could not settle the question. Someone at the Fairfield dress factory where she worked suggested that Larry might have been bitten by a venomous snake while inside the car. The newspapers included the suggestion, but no medical evidence was reported to support it.
Coroner Johnson intended to convene a jury after receiving the final pathology report. The inquest was expected to consider whether Larry died as the result of homicide, suicide, an accident or natural causes.
None of the available newspaper clippings provides the jury’s final finding. A search for later reporting also produced no reliable record identifying Larry’s official cause or manner of death.
The Answer His Family Never Received
Larry’s family had spent years contacting police departments and veterans hospitals, hoping someone could tell them where he had gone. In the end, he was found on his brother’s property, inside a car that had been sitting within walking distance of the house.
The vegetation surrounding the Chevrolet helps explain why no one could see inside, but it cannot establish when Larry came to be there. The evidence described publicly does not show whether he died in the car or whether his remains were placed inside afterward.
The investigations involving his truck and VA checks documented serious allegations about what happened to Larry’s property and benefits after he disappeared. The surviving coverage, however, does not connect those alleged actions to his death.
Caudle’s changing statements introduced the possibility of violence, but investigators found no physical evidence supporting the shooting she described. Her account of where Larry’s body had been left also appeared inconsistent with its eventual discovery.
One of the most troubling details remains the car’s proximity to the family. Leo had worked approximately ten feet away the previous fall, and on the morning of the discovery, the family had been spreading grass seed nearby. It was only when James left to purchase more seed that Bill took a closer look through the window.
What initially appeared to be discarded clothing led Larry’s family to the answer they had been seeking since 1984.
They finally knew where Larry was, but they never received a documented explanation for how he died.
Larry Shelby was a father, an oil-field worker, a lifelong Fairfield resident and a Vietnam veteran. His identification ended one part of his family’s search while leaving the circumstances of his final days unresolved.
The complete Larry Shelby CaseDive file contains the available timeline, original newspaper coverage and supporting materials.
Sources: Body Found Near Fairfield, Carmi Times, April 18, 1988, page 1. ; Remains Could Be Viet Vet, Evansville Courier and Press, April 19, 1988, page 1. ; Mystery of Missing Vet Deepens as Charges Filed, Evansville Courier and Press, April 21, 1988, page 25. ; Missing Man, Skeleton in Junk Lot Still a Mystery, Evansville Press, April 29, 1988, page 1 and page 3. ; Dental Records Lead to Identity, Evansville Press, May 4, 1988, page 16.
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