GREENFIELD — Thirty-two years after her daughter’s disappearance, a local woman is finally getting to see the man who she believes killed her daughter spend the rest of his life behind bars.
Mary Rose, 68, of Newell Court, returned to Greenfield this week after traveling to Louisiana to testify as a material witness against Felix Vail, the country’s oldest suspected serial killer. Vail, 76, has been convicted of the 1962 murder of his first wife, Mary Horton Vail. Rose believes Vail also killed her daughter, Annette Craver, in 1984 and another woman, Sharon Hensley, 11 years earlier.
All three women were romantically involved with Vail at the time of their deaths or disappearances. Horton Vail’s brother, Will Horton, and Hensley’s brother, Brian Hensley, also testified during the trial, which began Aug. 8 and ended four days later.
Rose has been pursuing justice for her missing daughter for decades, ever since she learned that Vail’s first wife died while boating with him in the Calcasieu River in 1962. Vail claimed his wife fell out of the boat while fishing; her death was ruled an accidental drowning. However, authorities revisited the case when, nearly 50 years later, a newspaper reporter unearthed the autopsy report that showed Mary Horton Vail had a 4-inch bruise on the back of her neck and a scarf stuffed 4 inches into her mouth. Vail had also purchased a life insurance policy on his wife just months earlier.
It was Rose’s dogged pursuit of Vail that brought the case to the reporter’s attention, and ultimately, to criminal investigators.
After the trial’s closing arguments, Rose said the jury deliberated for less than 45 minutes before handing down a guilty verdict.
“We were all pleasantly surprised how rapidly it happened,” she said. “When the verdict was read, both myself, my partner and the two brothers of the other women were sitting on the same row and we held hands. We’ve become very close.”
Rose said she felt a great sense of relief at the guilty finding. Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 26, but Vail will get a life sentence without parole, The Clarion-Ledger, a local newspaper, reported. The state has some of the toughest mandatory sentencing laws in the country.
Because she was one of the last people to testify, Rose was sequestered for most of the trial, meaning she couldn’t enter the courtroom and watch the proceedings, which she said was challenging. When she took the stand for about half an hour late in the afternoon of Aug. 11, she said the prosecuting attorney asked her questions that allowed her to tell some of her daughter’s story, and the defense attorney went relatively easy on her.
“I felt worn out from all the waiting — and a little nervous — but I just answered the questions and I didn’t get defensive; I didn’t get angry,” she said. “The questions that came from the defense attorney were really rather mundane.”
Rose added that while she was on the stand, Vail kept his head down and didn’t look up for at least five minutes. Prior to the trial, she hadn’t seen him since the late 1980s.
“I was the only one that he did that to, so that was striking,” she said.
She also noticed Vail teared up when a photo was shown on a big screen of him with Craver. Rose said there’s no way to know what was going through his head that caused him to get emotional, but she said she pities him because he’s a sick man.
After the trial was over, Rose traveled to Houston to celebrate with a dozen of her high school friends and also spent time with family in the area. Before returning to Greenfield, she also went to North Dakota for a memorial service Brian Hensley held for his sister.
With Vail finally behind bars, Rose said she’s going to spend time relaxing and traveling, and looking within to figure out what the next step in her life will be.
“I’ve put so much energy into making this conviction happen, and so now I feel like it’s time for me to look at the direction in terms of how I can serve and how I can turn this tragedy into something that my daughter and I can be remembered by,” she said.