Well-known 440 MHz Repeater Owner Murdered in Owen Center Township near Rockford.

My prayers go out to his family on this tragedy, and yes, I hope the killers are found and made accountable. One life lost is too many.

 

Murder ? homicide ? This story is pretty poorly written by someone who obviously doesn't understand that while all murders are homicides not all homicides are murders. So have the investigators actually ruled it was a murder or simply a homicide ??

I find it humorous that some hams are so arrogant that they think someone other than another ham or CBer would actually kill to steal someones ham radio gear. Obviously they think way to highly of their old school radio toys. About the only people that would be interested in stealing ham radio gear are other ham or maybe even a CBer. It's simply to hard to sell not to mention that 99 percent of thieves and drug addicts .... have no clue what it is or how much its worth or how to sell it. On the other hand they sure the heck do know what an I-phone is worth and they know they can easily sell a a game console but an old ham set puleaseeee.

So the idea that he was murdered by a druggie or thug for his ham gear is laughable at best, It's much more plausible that he was killed by another ham or someone he knew and even more likely that he was killed by someone in his own family, just find out who benefits the most from his death and the best way to do that is to follow the money trail.. Does he own the property the house was on ? Any property developers or real estate vultures been knocking on the door lately, heck for all we know it could have been argument with a ham friend that got out of control someone fell or got shoved and knocked their head. In a panic the other party burned down the house attempting to destroy any DNA evidence linking him to the crime by proving he was there.

As far as druggies stealing ham gear well I'm sure it happens but its probably more the exception rather than the rule. I have read far to may reports of hams having their homes and cars broken into where the thieves took everything but the kitchen sink and the ham gear. Face it, its really arrogant to think your ham gear has value to anyone other than another ham, We may love it but face it, it's old school, out dated, archaic technology that nobody other then an insignificant fraction of the population gives a rats rear end about.

Years ago my truck was broken into and stolen, they took a lot of stuff including the car stereo, the GPS.... yet left behind several radios including an IC706, an sgc tuner as well as a very nice IC2800H dualbander and a VX5 all which were left untouched, heck they even took my leatherman that was under the VX5 and a a 10 year old worthless Kodak digital camera but left all the ham gear.

On the other hand it seems like ever since the zombie Apocalypse prepper degenerates have started flooding the ranks of ham radio we've started to see a lot more ham on ham crime. I know of several instances were newly minted hams of the prepper variety AKA the Baofeng brigade have monitored repeaters waiting for a ham they know to leave his home so they could break in and steal gear. I almost lost an aluminum tower that way when I moved. Thankfully an observant neighbor called the police saving my Rockwell Collins portable aluminum tower from a couple of local members of the Baofeng brigade AKA prepper hams. Come to think about it the only people who have either defrauded me over ham gear or outright stolen ham or electronics gear from me have been other hams.

It's become so bad that I won't publish my address so other hams can't find my shack. Think about it, we get on the air and talk about all the expensive gear we have, then when we leave the house we get on the mobiles and let everyone know we're not home, with that in mind how smart is it to publish the address where all this expensive gear can be found ..LOL I've had so much stuff stolen by other hams that unless you're a long time personal friend I will no longer let you in my shack or my electronics lab. I won't even let people in the house anymore, Rather then let people in the house to use the bathroom I've actually installed a portapotty and have a honey wagon come out and dump it weekly.

If you can believe this I've actually had local hams try and pocket stuff from my shop while my back was turned working to repair their equipment FOR FREE, trying to help them !! I've even had hams steal stuff out of my tool boxes while I was over at their homes helping them with their stations and antennas.

Whats sad is I help a lot of the local homeless and many of them know where I live and I've had more hams try and rip me off than homeless people. we had one homeless woman whom we knew before she lost her home. We felt sorry for her so we would let her take showers here until she stole a watch from me.. That was small potatoes compared to the hams though, I had a local ham steal a very nice set of Tek O-Scope probes as well as a high voltage probe and a fluke meter. I hand another ham and his buddy walk off with a very expensive reverse loss bridge. I had another ham steal a 180 watt MFJ amplifier off my work bench that I had just finished repairing for a friend, heck don't even get me started about hams trying to walk off with stuff at ham swaps ... ARGGGG What I don't get is all this seems to have started within the last few years or so.

Okay I'll get off my soap box, thanks for reading my rant I needed to vent a bit. Anyhow my condolences to the family. It will be interesting to find out what really happened that's assuming they can figure out whether fowl play was involved in the homicide.

 

Hello N6YG,

I am the author of this article & am a freelance writer on the side, as well as a teacher in my state. But, I want to keep my remarks away from me and focused purely on Henry only. Unfortunately, there's nothing funny about it... Henry was murdered in 'cold-blood' by a single gunshot wound. His dog, Shelby, also suffered the same fate. The Winnebago Co. Coroner's Office has ruled his death a homicide; and no gun was found at the crime scene.

Furthermore, the fire was started after both he and his dog were shot to death in their home sometime prior to 7:45 AM CDT, when the fire broke-out. (It is safe to assume the fire was started in an attempt to cover-up future evidence of the crime scene and most likely burn the remains inside [both Henry and his dog].

Henry had both an extensive gun and radio collection. However, Winnebago Co. Sheriff's Police have not disclosed whether any items in the home were stolen or not. Due to the limited information available, no further details could be given at the time I posted this article; and still to date.

it is unknown where Henry was in the house at the time the intruder(s) made entry. We do not know if he let anyone in his home the evening prior or of that morning. Given consideration to the time, he may very well have been asleep, unless he was murdered the evening prior. (We just don't know any of the details as police are obviously still investigating the case.)

But, to answer your initial question: Yes; Henry was killed, along with his pet in the home, prior to the start of the fire. (That is all we know for now...)

~nn9p

 

To everyone:

We, the Rockford area hams, greatly appreciate the warm thoughts and prayers from so many of you reaching out to us in wake of Henry's death and in lite of posting this article here. If anyone wishes to express their sympathy in writing, please email me a short sentence (or two), which I can print and glue to a condolences card to the family. My email is good on QRZ here, or: nn9p -at- comcast.net. Thanks again all and best wishes [73]!

~de nn9p

 

**Here is a link to the most recent update from our local newspaper [R.R. Star] in reference Henry Murphy, if anyone is interested.:

http://www.rrstar.com/article/20150721/NEWS/150729823

 

**For clarification everyone...

At this time, we do NOT know whether or not any items from the home had been taken prior to the start of the fire. (This info. hasn't yet been released by the Sheriff's dept. to date: 7/31/15, due to this being an 'active' investigation.) And no; I am not privileged to this info. either. Henry's residence had been broken into last Nov. while he was away recovering in the hospital. (I do not know what, if anything, was taken at that time. Nor if it could be related to his death several weeks ago.)

So, until we know more, we cannot conclude a licensed radio ham; someone else he may have known unrelated to radio; or if it was simply a home invasion gone terribly wrong. (I am hopeful we will know more about the case as time goes on, and ultimately whomever is responsible for it to be brought to justice.)

~nn9p

 

I didn't get much past the first line in your reply N6YG. Sorry to disagree but this 'story' is OBVIOUSLY written by someone who is saddened beyond comprehension over the loss of a personal and community friend.

 

Quite late to the thread here, after searching for his callsign on a whim.
I used to converse with Henry alot on 2M, and certainly considered him a friend. Very sad news.
At least it appears they found the perpetrator.

A Delano L. Foreman was convicted of his murder plus other crimes and was sentenced to 90 years:
https://www.rrstar.com/story/news/crime/2017/06/29/delano-foreman-found-guilty-killing/20398109007/
https://www.mystateline.com/news/ro...der-of-henry-murphy-and-his-golden-retriever/

It also appears his son now holds his callsign. A nice way to honor him.

 

Thank you for the follow up on this story - I'm surprised it only took 2 years to sort out everything.