On this very day, 41 years ago, there was an arrest in Indiana that involved a tragic incident. A man was accused of shooting another man in the head with a shotgun, and the details of the story have been quite unclear over the years.
Ronald Jack Anderson, who is now 61 years old, has given various accounts of what happened that fateful night. It all began when two animal trappers stumbled upon the lifeless body of Clifford Smith, a 24-year-old man, along the White River on December 1, 1982.
He was found lying face-up in a small pool of water with a significant part of his head missing, and there were several pieces of buckshot in his head. The initial assumption was that it might have been a suicide, but things took a different turn when they discovered Smith's ID on his body, and it turned out that his wife had reported him missing a month earlier on November 4.
As the investigation unfolded, it was revealed that Anderson and Smith had visited a home on 13th Street late on October 30, 1982, with stolen items. Smith wanted to leave with his wife, but she refused due to his drunken state, leading to a heated argument. Smith allegedly made a disturbing comment about his own demise, and tensions escalated.
Anderson claimed that Smith had been physically aggressive towards him all day and threatened to kill him if it happened again. He placed a shotgun in Smith's vehicle, and when Smith emerged from the house, Anderson pestered him to leave. Smith, in his anger, removed his wedding ring and threw it on the floor, insisting that his wife return home with him. Anderson then picked him up, and they left together.
Later, Anderson told his sister that Smith's car was parked at Shields Park and instructed her not to touch it for several days. He also claimed to have returned the shotgun after wiping his fingerprints off. Throughout the years, he provided different versions of the story to investigators, constantly changing key details, including who killed Smith, the number of people involved, whether he witnessed it, and the presence of others.
In 2021, an investigator attempted to revisit the crime scene with Anderson, but he refused, citing overwhelming stress and a desire to disassociate from the case. Anderson remains incarcerated at the Jackson County Jail.
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