Henry County Sheriff’s Office
Joshua Verscheure, Sheriff
311 W. Center St., Cambridge, IL 61238
The Henry County Sheriff’s Office, in coordination with the Henry County State’s Attorney’s Office, announces a suspect in a cold case homicide. Following the recent positive identification of skeletal remains discovered in rural Henry County in 1966, investigators have named David Arthur LaFever (deceased) as the sole suspect in the murder of Ronald J. Cole.
Nineteen-year-old “Ronnie” went missing in May 1965. He was last known to be visiting his half-brother, David LaFever, in Fillmore, California. The Ventura County Sheriff’s Office originally handled the missing person investigation, during which family members reported that LaFever had confessed on multiple occasions to killing Cole. Admissions were never made by LaFever to law enforcement. No charges were filed due to insufficient corroborating evidence, and the case remained open for decades.
On October 27, 1966, skeletal remains were discovered in rural Henry County, Illinois. The remains were classified as a homicide but went unidentified for nearly 60 years. In 2024, Henry County Sheriff’s Office Detective Haars reopened the investigation into the unidentified remains, partnering with the DNA Doe Project. Through investigative genetic genealogy and advanced DNA analysis, the remains were positively identified on January 10, 2026, as those of Ronald J. Cole. This breakthrough linked directly to the 1965 California disappearance.
David Arthur LaFever, of Anchorage, Alaska, died August 12, 2007. LaFever was named as a primary suspect in other homicides during the 1960s and 1970s across the United States, including the 1977 murder of his brother-in-law, John Skaggs, whose remains were discovered in 1984 buried in the yard of LaFever’s former residence in Galt, California, with a bullet wound.
Given the identification of the homicide victim, the historical admissions reported by family members, LaFever’s pattern of criminal behavior, his status as being one of the last people to have seen Cole, and recent interviews with living witnesses, authorities have established that David Arthur LaFever is the sole suspect in the murder of Ronald J. Cole. All suspects are presumed innocent until proven guilty in court.