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Graveside ceremony honors cold case homicide victim
Carla Bayron reports.
WINTER HAVEN, Fla. - Mack Proctor's murder had eluded Polk County detectives for decades, but thanks to science, his case was solved. Now Proctor is finally being laid to rest properly.
Proctor was buried at Lakeside Memorial Garden in Winter Haven in a pauper's grave. For 52 years, nobody knew who he was or who killed him until Polk County Sheriff's detectives solved his cold case in May.
Mack Proctor's burial at Lakeside Memorial Garden in Winter Haven.
Proctor was shot and killed on May 17, 1972, in unincorporated Eloise.
Two years later, a prison informant in Raiford revealed that another prisoner, Clarence Ingram, confessed that he and Edgar Todd met Proctor at a bar in Winter Haven and got into his car.
Ingram and Todd then shot and killed Proctor and dumped his body near a canal.
There wasn't enough evidence at the time to charge both men and Proctor's family never reported him missing.
READ MORE: 1970s prison inmate, DNA help crack Polk County cold case murder after 52 years
The case was solved after detectives used advanced forensic genealogy to identify Proctor and the two men who murdered him, who are no longer alive.
After all these years, the sheriff's office and Gentry-Morrison Funeral Home gave him a proper burial and ceremony at Lakeside Memorial Garden on Tuesday morning.
"We gather to lay to rest Mr. Mack Proctor, not as an unknown victim, but as someone who was always known to the creator," said Eric Holm, the Chaplain.
"When we identified him, we wanted to make sure the world knew, and his family knew, this is a person and a child of God who has an identity, and he's not buried in a nameless grave," said Sheriff Grady Judd.
Proctor's 77-year-old son is in Georgia and is sick, so he couldn't make the trip, but the sheriff says he is eternally thankful, and his family sent the detectives presents.
The sheriff hopes this gives other cold case victims' families hope, but this is also an example of detectives never giving up or forgetting their victims.
"It's good for their heart and soul to see that we're able to reunite our victim with his family if not any other way but memory alone," said Judd.
"We thank you for giving man and knowledge and understanding and resources to find answers to the mysteries of the past and bring closure to the families who have lived with so many questions," said Holm. "Thank you for those who don't give up for seeking justice for those who can't fight for themselves."
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