Ex-friends: Vail said he killed wife

LAKE CHARLES, La. — Three one-time friends of Felix Vail testified Wednesday that he talked about killing his first wife, Mary.

Vail, a 76-year-old Mississippi native, is on trial this week, accused of murdering his wife, Mary, in 1962. He is the last known person with her, with his “wife” Sharon Hensley, who disappeared in 1973, and with his wife Annette who disappeared in 1984.

In a 1974 letter, Vail told the Hensley family that she wanted to “forget me, her family, and everybody else that she knew so she could become a person, clean and free from memory associations.”

Vail sent Annette’s mother, Mary Rose, a similar letter after Annette disappeared. Vail told police in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that Annette had left on a bus, heading for Mexico.

GONE: Read the full Felix Vail saga

In the courtroom Wednesday evening, private investigator Gina Frenzel testified that she took pictures inside his house of Annette’s birth certificate, which she had previously used to travel to Mexico, and a letter Vail wrote about Sharon Hensley after he “divorced” her.

In videotaped testimony, Rob Fremont said that while riding bicycles with Vail across California in 1969, Vail mentioned killing his wife.

Later, in a trip across Mexico, he gave more details, Fremont said. “He said he hit her on the head.”

Those words “really freaked me out,” he said. “I thought, ‘Whoa, this is too much for me.’”

He said he had nothing to do with Vail after that.

Bruce Biedebach, wearing a Hawaiian shirt, said in videotaped testimony that Vail told him out of the blue that he killed his wife.

He said he asked Vail if she was a “bitch” and that Vail said yes.

Vail could be seen laughing in the courtroom.

Under cross-examination, Public Defender Andrew Casanave asked Biedebach if he had been married before, and Biedebach replied yes.

“Was she a bitch?” Casanave asked.

“My first wife was,” Biedebach replied.

“Did you kill her?”

“No.”

Wesley Turnage, who grew up with Vail in the Montpelier community in Mississippi, a half hour north of Starkville, said Vail talked in a 1964 conversation about his first wife, Mary.

"He was talking about his wife and said, 'The bitch and I were having problems,'" Turnage testified.

He said Vail talked about his wife wanting a second child. "He said, 'I didn't want another one. I fixed that damn bitch. She won't ever have another one.'"

Turnage said he thought to himself, "You’re sitting beside a murderer."

Wesley Turnage said he promised his mother that he’d never speak of Felix Vail, and he didn’t, until he read a 2012 article on Vail written by The Clarion-Ledger’s Jerry Mitchell.

Casanave accused Turnage of wanting to be famous since he called Mitchell, instead of calling law enforcement.

Turnage replied that he didn’t call to be famous, saying he only spoke out because “I’m doing what I think is the right thing.”

In videotaped testimony from Isaac Abshire Jr., who has since died, he said Mary Vail's body was stiff and facing up when she was recovered from the Calcasieu River.

Calcasieu Parish Coroner Dr. Terry Welke, a forensic pathologist, testified that he is "100 percent certain" Mary Horton Vail’s death — originally ruled an accidental drowning — was actually a homicide.

In most drownings, he said, the body floats to the surface like a "dead man's float,” with the back of the head surfacing first.

The autopsy conducted at the time by Dr. Avery Cook also revealed she had a 4-inch bruise on the back of her head and a 4-inch bruise on her right calf, plus a 2-inch bruise above her left knee. She also had a scarf 4 inches into her mouth.

The defense plans to call its own expert to say Mary Vail’s death was an accident.

In one objection, Casanave said no one could have seen where Mary Horton Vail went into the Calcasieu River.

Felix Vail pointed at himself and said, “I can.”

Contact Jerry Mitchell at jmitchell@gannett.com. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter. Contact Royce Swayze at rswayze@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter.

How to follow the Felix Vail murder trial:

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