Kriti Mehrotra
When 76-year-old Byron Paul Griffy was found dead inside his farmhouse in the small town of Fowler, Colorado, on October 12, 2012, it truly left the entire community shaken to the core. That’s because the situation was macabrely ironic, considering he was the one they called to care for their loved ones after they had passed away, as explored in ID’s ‘The Rocky Mountain Mortician Murder.’ What followed was an extensive inquiry helmed by the Otero County Sheriff’s Department and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, yet it wasn’t until 2015 that the case came to a close.
Byron Griffy’s Remains Were Discovered By His Daughter and Her Wife
Born on October 13, 1935, in Ninaview, Colorado, to Gay Vanderpool Griffy and Paul Lester Griffy, as the youngest of their five children, Byron Griffy reportedly grew up surrounded by love. His elder siblings – Otis Lester Griffy, Theodore “Bud” Hamilton Griffy, Alma Maxine Griffy Hollyman, and Leah Gay Griffy Martin – seemingly adored him too, so they all shared a very tight-knit bond. They thus supported his ambitions and were by his side when he enrolled at the Dallas Institute of Mortuary Science upon graduating from Las Animas High School and Otero Junior College.
Byron earned his degree in 1958, following which he served at several mortuaries before taking over the local Crist Funeral Homes in Fowler and Manzanola right in his home state of Colorado. He even served on the Fowler School Board for more than 13 years during this period, all the while building a family and welcoming three daughters into the world – Lindalin, Linette, and Amy. However, by the time the early 2010s had rolled around, he was long divorced and simply doing his best to maintain his business as well as his personal relationships with his kind, loving family. Byron was always his kids’ biggest supporter, so when Linette decided to move back to her hometown alongside her three kids and new wife, Gina Griffy, he welcomed them with open arms.
In fact, he gave them his farmhouse to reside in, hoping their blended unit could make it into a true home, which led to them having a very close bond that persisted even after they moved out. Therefore, it was not surprising when Gina and Linette planned to visit him at the farmhouse on the evening of October 12, 2012 – the eve of his 77th birthday – but he suddenly stopped responding. Worried, the couple still decided to go to the farmhouse and see if he was there, only to find his remains lying face-up in an empty room with his arms across his chest as if he were in a coffin. According to records, it was apparent the scene was staged, and although there were no shell casings or any evidence, Byron’s autopsy confirmed he had been shot to the back of the head.
The Investigation Into Byron Griffy’s Homicide Led to 4 Possible Suspects
With the crime scene as well as Byron’s autopsy making it clear his death was a homicide, the Otero County Sheriff’s Department and Colorado Bureau of Investigation immediately opened a case. They contained the scene before beginning interviews, just to learn from Gina and Linette that the 76-year-old had plans to meet fellow morticians Anthony Wright and Charles Giebler during the day. The two men themselves approached officials the next morning, claiming they had heard the news and were there to help in any way they could, before adding they never really did meet Byron. According to their accounts, they had traveled to his farmhouse from their base in Florence to take him out for a birthday lunch, but he never picked up his phone or came outside, so they left.
Anthony and Charles stated they had arrived at around 12:30 pm, and Byron’s cell records showed two missed calls from them between 12:30 and 12:50 pm, when they claimed to have left. They were hence not questioned much further at the time, as statements from friends and family of the late mortician helped investigators zero in on two other individuals as their suspects. The first was his own step-grandson, Cory Higgs, who had a very troubled history and had been placed in his step-grandfather’s care at the age of 16 until he accused him of sexual assault.
Detectives hypothesized Cory had the financial and personal motive to harm his once-guardian, even after his accusations had led to the latter pleading guilty to sexual abuse earlier in 2012.
However, when he provided his alibi and passed his polygraph without any signs of deception regarding his connection to Byron’s death or the case in general, he was cleared as a suspect. The other suspect officials honed in on was a local man named Tommy Tomlin, whom the 76-year-old reportedly often employed to do odd jobs at his farm when he claimed he needed money. His motive was also considered financial, yet when more details about their situation came to light and investigations revealed discrepancies in others’ past statements, he was ruled out, too. It turned out that Anthony and Charles had lied not only about being stepbrothers for decades when they were actually in a relationship, but also about the car they had driven on that fateful day.
Anthony Wright and Charles Giebler Reportedly Had a Financial Motive
As per police records, Anthony and Charles had both claimed they had taken their black Mercedes to Byron’s farmhouse, following which they went to a buffet lunch and then a local store. However, the surveillance footage from the store caught them in a lie, as they were actually seen getting out of their two-seater white van. Their receipt from the restaurant didn’t help them either, since it showed they had paid for before eating at around 2:30 pm, when it was only half an hour or so away from the farmhouse. In other words, they were unaccounted for for an hour, which led officials to hypothesize that they were the killers and had spent that time cleaning up and staging the crime scene. The fact that they were gun collectors was also taken into account.
Coming to Anthony and Charles’ motive, detectives believed they were driven by financial greed, considering Byron had entrusted them with his collection of coins, silver, and gold months prior. His farmhouse had been broken into several times in the couple of years preceding, so he feared he was being targeted and decided it would be best if he parted ways with his collection for a while. So, the speculation was that the co-owners of the Charles Anthony Funeral Home had ended up spending the 76-year-old’s hard-earned money and then killed him to cover up the entire ordeal.
While Charles Giebler Passed Away in Early 2013, Anthony Wright is a Convicted Felon Currently on Probation
According to records, by the time January 2013 rolled around, Anthony and Charles had parted ways for good because the former had fallen in love with a local woman named Laura Anderson. He had even moved out of their home to start afresh with his girlfriend, but was aware that his ex-boyfriend had invited Linette and Gina over on the evening of January 24, 2013, to return their father’s collection. As per the couple, they were given almost half of what they believed Byron had given the duo because they never saw the gold, and the coin collection was not as extensive as they remembered.
Officials were admittedly building a case to get arrest warrants against Anthony and Charles at the time, but everything changed on January 25, 2013, as the latter was found dead inside his home. The Bishop in the Ecumenical Catholic Church of Christ, Pastor of the Parish of Saint Jude the Apostle, President of the Florence Chamber of Commerce, and town Mayor had died of a heart attack stemming from his coronary artery disease at the age of 52. In the ensuing months, though, Anthony was still arrested on the charge of first-degree murder, to which he pleaded not guilty before being let out on a $250,000 bail.
He stood trial in July 2015, yet it ended in a mistrial as the evidence did not sway the jury to come to a unanimous decision about whether he had a hand in Byron’s murder or not. Anthony was thus scheduled to face a retrial, but he eventually pleaded guilty to accessory to first-degree murder in January 2017, for which he was given 10 years of probation. As a result, he is still based in Colorado, where he prefers to lead a quiet life alongside his wife, Laura Anderson Wright, whom he tied the knot with in 2013. From what we can tell, as per the stipulations of his probation, Anthony can not leave Colorado until his sentence concludes.
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