The murder of Everett Delano
Andover, Merrimack County, New Hampshire · 1966
Overview
On the morning of September 1, 1966, Everett Delano, a 49-year-old retired Navy veteran who worked part time at Sanborn's Garage on Route 4 in Andover, New Hampshire, was found shot in the garage office. He died the next day at Mary Hitchcock Hospital. Money was missing from the cash drawer, and a bathroom sink faucet had been left running. Investigators lifted fingerprints from the sink and sent photographs of them to the FBI, but the case stalled and no one was charged. The prints were never entered into the FBI's Automated Fingerprint Identification System, which was not fully operational in 1966. New Hampshire's Cold Case Unit, formed in 2009, reopened the case in 2013 after Delano's daughter contacted it. When the prints were finally run, they matched Thomas Cass, then 67, of Orleans, Vermont, who had been 20 at the time of the killing. Investigators visited Cass in the fall of 2013, when he denied knowing anything about the case, and again in February 2014, when they told him that forensic evidence linked him to it. Four days later, on February 24, 2014, he died by suicide. On February 20, 2019, the attorney general announced that the evidence established beyond a reasonable doubt that Cass shot Delano during a robbery. Because Cass was dead, no charges were brought, and no court ever heard the case.
How it was solved
This case was solved by a fingerprint that waited 47 years to be searched. In 1966, investigators found the bathroom sink next to the garage office running and tested it for prints. They collected prints from the sink and sent photographs of them to the FBI, but the case stalled by the end of the year. The New Hampshire Attorney General's report, as described by the press, said the prints had never been entered into the FBI's Automated Fingerprint Identification System, which was not fully operational in 1966. The New Hampshire State Police forensic laboratory began using the system in 1998. The state's Cold Case Unit opened in 2009 without Delano's case, which, according to the report, was not filed with it, likely because of its age. In 2013 Delano's daughter contacted the unit, and it reopened the investigation. Reviewing the evidence, investigators found that the prints had never been searched. They ran them, and the match was Thomas Cass, 67, of Orleans, Vermont, who had a long criminal record and was 20 in 1966. Investigators visited him in the fall of 2013. He denied any knowledge of the killing, said he had been in New Hampshire only once, and voluntarily gave a DNA sample. The Associated Press reported that in February 2014 they told him forensic evidence linked him to the murder, and that he said he had never been to the garage and asked for a lawyer. Police searched his home and found no weapons. Four days later he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The woman he lived with told police he had said that you never talk about something that has no statute of limitations, and that he would not return to prison. On February 20, 2019, Attorney General Gordon MacDonald announced the case as solved. Because Cass was dead, no charges were filed.
Sources
- Closure and Resolution of the 1966 Homicide of Everett Delano in Andover, New Hampshire as Solved (February 20, 2019)
“The investigation has determined that Mr. Thomas Cass, now deceased, of Orleans, Vermont, shot and killed Mr. Delano in 1966, while engaged in a robbery of Sanborn's Garage.”
- Finally, after more than five decades, killer in 1966 cold case is named (February 21, 2019, by Ray Duckler)
“He was found by several customers in the garage’s office, lying in a pool of blood, still alive.”
- Cold case unit solves 52-year-old Andover, N.H., killing, the state's oldest crime (February 20, 2019, by Kathy McCormack)
“The cold case unit reopened the Delano case in 2013 after being contacted by his daughter”
- N.H. cold case solved after 5 decades (February 22, 2019)
“The prints identified a match in 2013: Thomas Cass, 67, of Orleans, Vermont.”
- New Hampshire cold case solved (February 20, 2019, by Arianna MacNeill)
“Delano’s watch was struck by a bullet, its time forever stopped at 9:35 a.m.”
- Police solve 1966 New Hampshire cold case murder (February 20, 2019, by Taylor Young)
“Fingerprints found on a sink at the scene were collected by investigators back in 1966 and sent to the FBI.”
- New Hampshire Assistant AG Explains How Cold Case Homicide From 1966 Was Solved (March 27, 2019)
“After more than half a century, New Hampshire’s oldest cold case homicide has been solved.”
- New Hampshire cold case unit solves 5 decade old murder (February 20, 2019)
“Four days later, investigators learned that Cass had died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.”