POLK COUNTY, Fla. – Fifty-two years ago today, a person fishing in Polk County found a man dead. Through DNA testing and decades of investigative work, detectives now say the man’s identity has finally been uncovered, as well as that of the men responsible for his murder.
Deputies responded on May 17, 1972, to a reported body found in a field just south of the canal connecting Lake Lulu to Lake Shipp, not far from the U.S. 17 overpass from Eloise to Winter Haven, the sheriff’s office said Friday in a news release. The body was that of a white male estimated to be in his 40s or 50s, noted as being in advanced stages of decomposition, the release states.
No wallet and no identification could be found on the body, only two small-caliber gunshot wounds to the left side of the man’s head and one exit wound to the right side, the sheriff’s office said. The initial investigation turned up no leads or witnesses and the man was buried in what investigators described as a pauper’s grave at Lakeside Memorial Cemetery.
Come January 1974, a Florida State Prison inmate named Charles Williams reportedly contacted Polk County investigators. Williams claimed that Clarence Ingram, a fellow inmate of his at present-day Union Correctional Facility, told him in November 1973 that he and a man named Edgar Todd worked together to kill, steal from and dispose of a man whom they met at a bar in Winter Haven the year prior, 1972.
Ingram allegedly said that he and Todd left the bar with the victim — in the victim’s white Chevrolet, noted as having Georgia plates — when an argument eventually began. During this argument, Ingram claimed to have handed Todd a .22-caliber pistol, which Todd then used to shoot the victim twice in the head. Ingram and Todd allegedly pulled over near an overpass in the Winter Haven-Eloise area, where they moved the victim’s body, removing his wallet and rings while putting the body near a canal “so the turtles would eat him,” the release states. The two then sold some $1,500 worth of tools that were in the Chevrolet to Ingram’s brother, later selling the vehicle itself in Keeler, Michigan, for $500, Williams said.
Following the discussion with Williams, detectives in 1974 made contact with law enforcement in Georgia. This branch of the investigation looked into 1972 missing persons cases out of Georgia, specifically that of a man named Lewis House, who left for Florida and was never heard from again, yet no further leads were found and the case went cold.
In February 2017, House was ruled out after the sheriff’s office’s Cold Case Unit obtained a court order allowing the victim’s body to be exhumed for DNA collection. Referencing the victim’s DNA against that of House’s family members, testing revealed that House was not the victim, according to the release.
By November 2023, the Cold Case Unit submitted part of the victim’s femur to Othram, Inc., described by the sheriff’s office as a private laboratory specializing in forensic genetic genealogy in cold case investigations. Othram later submitted a report indicating the victim could be Mack Lavell Proctor, who would have been 57 years old at the time of the murder.
Investigators made contact with Proctor’s son Wright in Ellijay, Georgia, who said his father had last been seen between 1969 and 1972 but was never reported missing. Wright said that he last saw Mack himself sometime around 1969 or 1970, adding his father gave him the impression he was leaving Georgia. The son otherwise noted that Mack was a master mechanic and would have had tools in his vehicle, according to the release.
Edgar Todd died in 2015 and Clarence Ingram died in 1995, the sheriff’s office said. It was found that Ingram was given a traffic citation on May 25, 1972, placing him in Paw Paw, Michigan, some 20 miles away from where the Chevrolet was allegedly sold. Ingram was later charged in April 1973 and later convicted of a separate homicide in which he shot a victim three times in the back with a .25-caliber handgun. Proctor’s family informed detectives that Mack commonly carried a .25-caliber handgun with him at all times, the sheriff’s office said.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said in a statement that while it is unfortunate the two suspects are dead, he is thankful that Proctor’s family now has some closure.
“We are extremely grateful for the assistance from Othram, Inc., who provided us with investigative leads that ultimately lead to our ability to positively identify Mack Proctor as the unknown 1972 homicide victim,” Judd said. “Through that information, and the information provided to us by Charles Williams in 1974, we were able to piece together circumstantial evidence that strongly points to his killers: Edgar Todd and Clarence Ingram. They are dead, and unfortunately, we cannot hold them accountable for the cold-blooded killing and robbery of Mr. Proctor. However, we have provided some closure to Mr. Proctor’s family and concluded a cold case homicide investigation. I am so thankful to our outstanding team of detectives who worked hard to solve this case, especially our lead detective Master Deputy Jason McPherson.”
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