Jerry Mitchell

The Clarion-Ledger

When serial killer suspect Felix Vail goes on trial next year for the 1962 death of his wife, Mary, his one-time friend, Isaac Abshire Jr., will testify against him — despite dying this week.

That's because prosecutors in Lake Charles, La., videotaped the 91-year-old man testifying last June. A diabetic, he had suffered kidney problems before dying Monday.

"As frail as he was, he was an solid as a rock when he testified," recalled Mary's brother, Will Horton.

At the hearing, Abshire talked of becoming friends with Vail — the last known person with three women: his wife, Mary; his common law wife, Sharon Hensley, who disappeared in 1973; and his wife, Annette, who disappeared in 1984.

Vail has insisted on his innocence, saying he is being railroaded by "slanderous lies from hearsay witnesses coached by people who want their 15 minutes of fame."

In the late 1950s, Vail moved from his home in Montpelier, Miss., to Sulphur, La., working side by side with Abshire at the Cities Service plant, where they helped refrigerate the chemical butadiene, used to produce tires.

"Felix was my helper," Abshire told The Clarion-Ledger. "He was a good worker. I liked him."

Needing cash, he offered Vail a room for rent at his home in nearby Lake Charles.

Vail accepted, and his girlfriend, Mary Horton, a former homecoming queen, was a frequent visitor, he said. "I was kind of like a big brother to her. She was a sweet little girl."

After the pair married, Vail moved out. On the Friday before her drowning on Oct. 28, 1962, Abshire said the couple visited, bringing their baby son.

That night on the graveyard shift, Abshire said Vail told him his wife was mad at him. Two nights later, Abshire got a call with the news that Mary had drowned.

Abshire said deputies contacted his father, who had a boat at a nearby camp on the Calcasieu River.

He and two fellow workers from Cities Service went out the next day to drag the river, he said.

The day after, he returned with one of them, Jimmy May, to continue dragging.

While they were talking, "something popped up," he said. "A guy with binoculars asked, 'Does she have blonde hair?' I said, 'Yes, that's her.'"

At last June's hearing, Abshire identified photographs of her body being recovered— pictures he had gotten from a deputy and saved for more than a half century.

One shows her mouth completely covered by her scarf, which was found 4 inches into her mouth.

"It had a big ol' knot in it," Abshire testified. "It was not like a dainty knot."

He also recalled her body being rigid — a sign of rigor mortis.

In that same hearing, Calcasieu Parish's coroner concluded after examining the autopsy and photographs that the death of Vail's wife was a homicide, not an accidental drowning.

Vail's public defender, Andrew Casanave, confronted Abshire, suggesting that the truth was he didn't like Vail.

"I liked Felix," Abshire replied. "I liked Mary, too."

Casanave asked Abshire about the coroner in 1962, Dr. Harry Snatic, who had ruled Mary Vail's death an accidental drowning. "Was he a good guy?" the defense lawyer asked.

"He was coroner," Abshire replied.

The audience laughed.

When Abshire and May returned to work, they shared news of what they had seen. Word spread, and Abshire said his boss hauled him in and told him to stop telling others what he saw.

Eventually, Abshire faced Vail at work across a tall table. "He said he had lawyers that were ready to sue me for everything I had for all I was saying about him," Abshire recalled.

He said he told Vail, "Get your lawyers ready. I want to get on the (witness) stand and tell everybody what happened."

A half century after that conversation, Abshire told The Clarion-Ledger he was still ready to tell everybody what he saw that day in 1962.

When Vail goes on trial next year, Abshire will finally get his chance — by way of videotape.