New Charges in Missing Atheist Case
A U S T I N, Texas, Sept. 19 -- A federal grand jury today indicted a formeroffice manager for well-known Texas atheist Madalyn Murray O’Hairin the 1995 disappearances of O’Hair and her family.
David Roland Waters, 53, of Austin is accused in an abduction,kidnapping, extortion and robbery plot that resulted in the deathof another person.
Waters, now serving 60 years in prison on another charge, is thesecond suspect indicted in the disappearances of O’Hair, her sonJon Garth Murray and her granddaughter and adopted daughter, RobinMurray O’Hair.
The trio disappeared from San Antonio along with $500,000 ingold coins in September 1995. Their bodies have not been founddespite exhaustive searches by federal authorities in the TexasHill Country.
Madalyn Murray O’Hair is best known for a 1963 Supreme Courtdecision that, along with a ruling the previous year, struck downorganized prayer in public schools as unconstitutional. O’Hairreveled in calling herself the most hated woman in America.
Previous Case ConvictionWaters previously was convicted of stealing from O’Hair’satheist organizations and faces time in federal prison on weaponsconvictions.
The charges today also relate to the death of unindictedco-conspirator Danny Fry, whose headless and handless body wasfound in Dallas County shortly after the O’Hair disappearance.
Water’s attorney, Patrick Ganne of Austin, was on military dutyand unavailable for comment today. No one else in his law firmwould comment on the case.
Daryl Fields, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorneys office in SanAntonio, which oversees the Austin area, would not comment on theindictment.
In August, a federal judge sentenced Gary Paul Karr, 52, to lifein prison for extorting money from O’Hair and her family and forhis role in what prosecutors called and elaborate robbery andmurder scheme.
Karr was convicted of extorting more than $600,000 from thefamily.
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