A decades-long mystery is solved when DNA identifies the 1972 Polk County murder victim

WINTER HAVEN, Fla. (CBS12) – A man killed in 1972 can finally find his final resting place after being a “John Doe” for 52 years.

Polk County Sheriff’s investigators were able to identify Mack Proctor as the murder victim, who was shot and left near a canal in 1972.

According to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office (PCSO), on May 17, 1972, officers responded to a body found in a field south of the canal between Lake Lulu and Lake Ship. A person who was fishing discovered the body.

Officers determined the body belonged to a man in his 40s or 50s who was in an advanced stage of decomposition. There was no wallet or other identification on the body, officials say. PCSO continues that there were two small caliber gunshot wounds to the left side of his head and one exit wound to the right side of his head.

See also: Florida prisoner charged with second-degree murder of cellmate

During the investigation, officers found no clues or witnesses. According to investigators, the body was then buried in a pauper’s grave at Lakeside Memorial Cemetery.

Two years later, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office received a call from a Florida inmate named Charles Williams. He claimed he was in prison in 1973 with a man named Charles Ingram, who claimed he committed the murder.

The details were as follows:

• In 1972, Ingram and a man named Edgar Todd met a man in a bar in Winter Haven.
• The inmate claimed Todd and Ingram drove away with the victim in his white Chevrolet car and at some point an argument ensued.
• During the argument, Ingram handed Todd a .22-caliber handgun and Todd shot the victim twice in the head.
• Williams told the sheriff’s office that Ingram and Todd then drove down a road, stopped on an overpass and dumped their car in an area near a canal.
• Ingram and Todd removed the man’s rings and wallet and left him by the canal for the turtles to eat.
• Williams told PCSO officers that the victim had approximately $1,000 to $1,500 worth of tools in his vehicle. They sold the tools to Clarence’s brother, Johnny Ingran.
• They then sold the victim’s vehicle for $500.

In February 2017, the PCSO Cold Case Unit obtained a court order allowing the body of the 1972 murder victim to be exhumed for DNA collection. Years later, in 2023, John Doe’s femur was sent to Othram, Inc. for genealogical examination and study.

In April 2024, Onthram filed a report claiming that John Doe could be Mack Proctor, who would have been 57 years old at the time of his death. Through additional testing, officers were able to identify Proctor as the murder victim.

Through the sheriff’s office investigation, officials learned that Ingram died in 1995 and his accomplice Edgar Todd died in 2015. The investigation revealed that Ingram was charged with murder in 1973 and later convicted. During the incident, he shot the victim three times in the back with a 25-caliber pistol.

According to Proctor’s family, Mack carried a .25-caliber pistol with him at all times. Investigators attempted to locate the firearm, but the weapon’s serial number did not provide any clues to the story.

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