Felix Vail Found Guilty of Murder in Wife’s 1962 Death, While Disappearances of 2 Other Women Remain a Mystery

By ASTRID RODRIGUES, CAT RAKOWSKI, GLENN RUPPEL, ALEXA VALIENTE and LAUREN EFFRON Aug 12, 2016, 4:41 PM ET

A Louisiana jury today voted unanimously to find Felix Vail guilty of murder for the 1962 death of his first wife, Mary Horton Vail.

Vail, now 76, was accused of killing his 22-year-old wife while the two were aboard his small boat in Louisiana’s Calcasieu River after dark on the evening of Oct. 28, 1962. Vail had pleaded not guilty.

The defense only called one witness during the trial and their closing arguments lasted less than 15 minutes, compared to the prosecution’s roughly 40 minutes for closing. Vail’s defense attorney Andrew Casanave argued that Mary Vail’s death was an accident, whereas prosecutor Hugo Holland argued that Vail was "either the most unlucky human being who has lived since Job, or he's a killer that learned from his mistakes."

It took the jury just 33 minutes to deliberate the verdict. Vail is scheduled to be sentenced at a hearing on Sept. 26.

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