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All rights reserved. ************************************************************************************************ Archie M. Stewart, Sr. - Madison Parish, Louisiana From Tallulah Madison Journal, August 1, 1985 Services for Archie M. Stewart, Sr., 78, were at 2 p.m. Wednesday at the Crothers Funeral Home Chapel in Tallulah with the Rev. Raymond Warren officiating. Burial was in the Memorial Park Cemetery of Tallulah. Mr. Stewart was found dead Sunday. He was a native of Arkansas and had lived in Tallulah for 48 years. He was a retired hardware merchant and banker. He was a member of the Tallulah First United Methodist Church. Survivors include one son, Archie M. Stewart Jr. of Pineville; one daughter, Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Richardson of Franklinton; two sisters, Mrs. Ellorene Stewart Jones of Haynesville and Mrs. Clara Stewart Whorton of Springhill; and four grandchildren. Pallbearers were Harvey T. Mounger, Robert K. Laird, Walter M. Scott III, Jack H. Folk, John R. Ulmer and Billy Wayne Laird. Honorary pallbearers were Edgar H. Lancaster, Warren S. Patrick, Ralph Loe, J. I. Roberts, Malcolm C. Sevier, Edward M. Yerger, Jr., Jerry P. Beene, Herbert W. Massey, E. C. Woodyear and Lloyd Shelton. Suspect Questioned About Stewart Murder A suspect is being held for questioning in the death of a prominent businessman, Archie E Stewart, 78, who apparently was abducted from his home Saturday night, robbed, and hit on the head, according to the Madison Parish Sheriff's Department. Mr. Stewart's body was found in the woods about six miles west of Tallulah near Interstate 20 Sunday morning. Finding a strong lead on a suspect led to nothing ironclad according to deputy C. R. (BB) Harmon Tuesday. The suspect is being held in jail on a parole violation according to Sgt. Claude Xxxxx of the Louisiana State Police. Authorities are withholding the suspect's name at this time. Harmon said they also had been holding a woman as a material witness, but had released her Tuesday. He said the woman is a girlfriend of the suspect. Deputies began searching for Stewart, a widower who lived at 710 South Lincoln St., after his daughter, Mary Elizabeth Richardson, reported him missing Sunday morning, Harmon said. He was last seen about 10:30 p.m. Saturday by a neighbor with whom he was visiting. Mrs. Richardson, who was here for a class reunion, realized that her father was not home when she returned, but assumed he was just late. "We don't know yet, but we believe that Mr. Stewart returned home and interrupted a burglary at his house, because we found a broken window when we investigated," Harmon said. "We figure that he was then forced at gunpoint to get back in his car and drive west on I-20, where he was taken into the woods and shot," he explained. Harmon said deputies found the car, and later the body, after a deputy remembered seeing the vehicle fitting the description of Stewart's car. The deputy, Herman Welch, had noticed the car parked on the interstate while driving to work Sunday morning. Welch returned to the car after Stewart was reporting missing, and identified the locked Ford LTD as Stewart's by some mail on the front seat of the car. Harmon said Welch searched both sides of the highway, but reported that he could find no sign that Stewart had walked away from the car. Tommy Wixson was then dispatched in the sheriff's helicopter to search the area, and found a trail leading to a patch of woods. He landed the `copter and found Stewart's body. "From the evidence, they walked him out of his car, over a fence and alongside a soybean field to a patch of woods and shot him," Harmon said. He said officers believe Stewart was shot with a .38-cal. revolver, but are not certain at this point. An autopsy was performed in Shreveport, but the results were not in Tuesday. From Tallulah Madison Journal, August 8, 1985 No New Leads in Stewart Murder Amy Ouchley Staff Writer R. R. Mitchell of the Madison Parish Sheriff's Office told the Madison Journal Tuesday afternoon there were no new leads on the homicide of Archie Stewart. "Right now we don't know. We think a lot at but we're at the point in the investigation where we're looking for anything," said Mitchell. According to Mitchell, four of the best detectives in the state are working "round the clock trying to piece things together." Working on the case are investigator Sammy Byrd of the Madison Parish Sheriff's office and Louisiana State Police investigators Jackie Lott, Bob Buckley, and Donald French. Claude Mercer of LSP is also assisting on the case. Stewart's body was found in a patch of woods on July 28 on I-20 west of Tallulah after apparently being abducted from his home on the 27th. He had been robbed and shot in the head. As of Tuesday, Mitchell said his office did not have a case against anyone. There is a suspect being held in the Madison Parish jail for parole violations, but he has not been charged with any new crime, said Mitchell. The suspect had been jailed previously for burglary, theft, and auto theft. Mitchell said investigators were awaiting a report from the state crime lab on evidence they had submitted. "The case is still under investigation. Hopefully we can come up with something beneficial and I hope we can charge them and make it stick. If we come up with more evidence, we may have to call more experienced, specialized homicide investigators," said Mitchell. From Tallulah Madison Journal, October 10, 1985 Stewart Murderer Confesses After a massive two month investigation by the Investigation Section of the Louisiana State Police, Tallulah Police Department and Madison Parish Sheriff's Office, Sixth District Attorney said the case as wrapped up Xxxxday night with the arrest of Joe Smith, Jr., a black male, to the robbery and murder of Tallulah resident Archie M. Stewart burglary of his house on July 27. The 78-year-old Stewart was a retired hardware merchant in Madison Parish. Smith was charged with first degree murder, aggravated assault and aggravated theft. No trial date has been set. Smith been held by the police as a parole violator since the murder, and was a prime suspect from the beginning, according to Sheriff R. R. Mitchell of the Madison Parish Sheriff's office. Mitchell characterized Smith as a "loner'' and a chronic offender since the time he was a juvenile. Formerly he had been charged with theft and auto theft. Stewart's body was discovered in a patch of woods 6.4 miles west of the Tallulah interchange on the north side of I-20 after he had been reported missing on July 28. Pictures of the body revealed Stewart had been shot in the temple in an execution-style manner. His car was nearby and investigators noted a sprinkling of silver glitter near the victim's body and car, which became known as the "glitter connection." The glitter was the evidence that initially incriminated Smith, according to Mitchell, because he had silver glitter on his clothes and in his hair when they picked him up. At the beginning of the investigation police officials reported this evidence had been sent to the state crime lab for analysis. Mitchell said that Smith was working for Stewart in the demolition of an old building on Chestnut Street behind the jail and they think the motive for the murder was money. Apparently, said Mitchell, on the night of the murder Stewart came home while Smith was burglarizing it, and Smith ordered Stewart to drive to the scene of the murder. The police are under the impression that Smith used a weapon belonging to Stewart, said Mitchell, but the murder weapon has not been recovered. Sonny Broadway, chief investigator of the Sixth District Attorney's office, said,"Everyone is relieved that this case was solved. We've thought from the beginning that Smith was the man, and it was just a matter of time to prove it." Broadway praised Jackie Lott, of the CIS, and Sammy Byrd of the Madison Parish Sheriff's office for the work they had done on this case.