Case of dead student to be re-opened

In his quest to find the truth about his dead son, 86-year-old Bill Plume, a Colorado resident, visited Bloomington recently to meet with with the Monroe County coroner.\nPlume's 18-year-old son, Michael, was an airman with the U.S. Air Force and a Russian language student at IU 43 years ago. Michael's body was discovered February 15, 1960 by construction workers, lifelessly hanging from a rope at the construction site of the IU Memorial Stadium. \nNeal Baxter, Monroe County coroner at the time, concluded he inflicted it upon himself. Plume's firm belief that Michael would never take his own life has led him through more than four decades of heartache and frustrating dead ends. \nSince his son's death, Plume has been begging and pleading with politicians and city officers to take multiple looks at the case and possibly overturn the ruling from suicide to homicide. \n"Plume won't give up until he himself is dead," said local counselor and former Monroe County Prosecutor Bob Miller. "I believe he has very good reasons to pursue this the way he is, and the truth -- as it can be told -- needs to get out. There are very curious conclusions that surrounded the case at the time of death."\nFour months after the death, the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigation undertook a four-month investigation, including a complete autopsy and a full investigation into the events leading up to the fatal night. The office's policy is to act only as an investigative arm of local agencies that request their help performing interviews, conducting lab tests, etc.\nThe original autopsy concluded that Michael had a broken neck, Plume said. This, however, was later found to be false when the Air Force conducted their own autopsy, which revealed two very important findings: there was no broken neck nor any sign of a jump or fall.\nMonroe County Coroner David Toumey has agreed to take another look at the case.\nMiller said Plume is pleased that Toumey is willing to look into the case and his counsel is also confident in their abilities to present several contradictions noted in the original investigation.\nToumey is the first coroner that has looked at the case who hasn't had any ties to the original investigation, Miller said. With these original ties, past county coroners might have been swayed away from a different conclusion as to not "create controversy" or "rock the boat." \n"Four or five other coroners have already looked at the case and all determined that it was a suicide," Toumey said. "I am letting my deputy review all of the information before I even attempt to make a decision."\nSince there are thousands of papers and documents for Toumey to review, Plume said he doesn't expect any set timeline as to when Toumey can give a final answer.