ST. PAUL -- Jeffrey Hammill started out for his Buffalo home on foot one night in 1979 after leaving a Rockford bar, but he never made it. Hours later, a motorist found his beaten body by the side of a road in a case that went unsolved.
Twenty-six years later, Wright County authorities have charged three men in the slaying of Hammill, a 21-year-old machinist who worked in Plymouth.
Ronald Joseph Michaels, 51, of Blaine; Terry Lynn Olson, 46, of Andover; and Dale Lawrence Todd, 45, of Winsted appeared Monday in Wright County District Court in St. Cloud. Michaels and Olson are charged with first-degree murder, among several other charges, while Todd is charged with aiding and abetting second- and third-degree murder.
"Our wish is that justice will be realized for Jeff 's death," Hammill's family said in a prepared statement.
The Wright County Sheriff 's Department, with help from the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension's cold case unit in St. Paul, opened the case two years ago. Lt. Joe Hagerty, a lead investigator for the sheriff 's department, said investigators became interested in the case again after Hammill's daughter called to ask about how her father had died.
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Spotlight on Crime, a fund that provides money for rewards to solve old cases, publicized the case and offered a $50,000 reward for information leading to a conviction.
Hagerty said investigators have since interviewed dozens of people, including 27 who had seen Hammill at the bar before he went to the party. There was not one single tip that led to the indictments, he said.
Investigators believe Hammill, while walking home from the Rockford bar on Aug. 10, 1979, was picked up by people who knew him and taken to a party in Montrose, where a fight broke out between Hammill and the suspects. Hammill left the party on foot but didn't make it very far, Hagerty said.
"He made it 2.2 miles when the suspects went looking for him and found him," he said.
Hammill's body was found in the early morning hours of Aug. 11 on a Wright County road.
County Attorney Tom Kelly described the death as a "savage beating."
Michaels and Olson are being held in the Wright County jail with bail set at $750,000. Todd is also in the jail with bail set at $500,000. Their next court appearances are slated for Thursday.
