Happy Howry, 66, was reported missing from his Odessa, Texas, home on April 25, 1982, after attending church that Sunday. A longtime Odessa resident who worked as a salesman at J.C. Penney Co. and belonged to Sunset Heights Church of Christ, he vanished just days before his body was found.

On May 6, 1982, two students from a nearby school for the deaf discovered Howry’s decomposed remains in a field in Big Spring while chasing a roadrunner. Investigators concluded he had been bludgeoned to death, and the likely murder weapon was a tire iron taken from his own vehicle. Authorities offered a reward exceeding $2,500 and looked into possible links with other violent crimes in the area but said they did not believe Howry’s death was connected to the Velma Nesset case.

No arrests were announced and the case remained unresolved. If anyone knew Happy Howry, his movements in late April 1982, or has information about the tire iron or the field where he was found, please come forward.