The Sentinel-Record 5-19-1977
Late last summer, during the hot weekend of August 21-23, a blonde-haired mother of two from Hot Springs was brutally murdered in or near Hot Springs. By now the killer is probably feeling pretty secure in the belief that he or she has committed the perfect crime.
Linda Edwards, who was a deputy sheriff for Garland County, had her skull crushed by a murderer who very likely is still living among us.
Prosecutor John Cole, of Sheridan, who is handling the case, has skillfully weaved and skipped among our questions, refusing to commit himself to definite action with the circumstantial evidence he’s collected thus far.
Mr. Cole, who roared into the case like an enthusiastic tiger, has evoluted into a soft-spoken lamb. He now contends the best approach to solving the crime is to sit back and wait a long time in hopes new facts might turn up.
The statute of limitations on murder, as far as we know, is a very long time. We’d much rather see him bring forth the evidence gathered to this community and let the story develop from there.
This stale mate has led many in Hot Springs to believe there’s some kind of hush-up in the air… that nothing like justice will ever come in Linda Edwards murder and that we should all be content to shrug and mumble something like “too bad” and go on about our business.
But we are not going to forget, not this month, or next year, or the next. And we hope there are enough concerned and indignant citizens in our community to feel the same way.
Regardless of any shortcomings she might have had while she was alive, Linda Edwards was a human being and the mother of two small children.
And no one had the right to bash her head in with a rock.
There’s been talk in the city about fear of possibly violating a suspect’s rights in this case. A valid point if not taken to ridiculous extremes. After all, didn’t Ms. Edwards have the right to live?
On another related point, it’s frightening to realize we have a person in town capable of killing someone so brutally. Might not they do the same thing again to someone else if the time and place are right?
