ISP solves 1977 cold case of 84-year-old’s murder

ADAMS COUNTY, Ind. (WANE) – Nearly five decades after the murder of an 84-year-old man in rural Adams County, the case has finally been solved.

On the afternoon of Aug. 19, 1977, Everett Armstrong was found dead at his home in Geneva, according to Indiana State Police. Armstrong was a World War I veteran and a well-known local banjo player.

A fuel oil delivery driver found the man in his mobile home on CR 300 west, just north of SR 116. During the initial investigation, witnesses told police they heard one gunshot the night before. In October, four witnesses identified a potential suspect.

It wasn’t until 1981 that three people were arrested, but charges were dropped six months later when investigators determined the suspects “had nothing to do with the murder,” according to ISP.

In 2013, ISP reopened the case and worked to corroborate the initial information from the four witnesses who came forward in October 1977. Within 24 hours of the crime, a man had confessed to the murder to those four separate people, including specific details that only the killer and investigators would know. The man even showed one person the gun he used. The witnesses had also described the man’s “extremely erratic behavior” following the homicide.

In 2025, investigators determined James McBride II, a Decatur man who died in June 2024, committed the murder. It’s unclear why the investigation lasted as long as it did.

The Indiana State Police Cold Case Team presented the evidence to Adams County Prosecutor Jeremy Brown, pointing to the late McBride as the suspect based on circumstantial evidence. The Adams County Prosecutor said if McBride were still alive, he would have been charged with Armstrong’s murder.