Sheppard’s Son Hopes Dna Will Clear Dad Retrial Didn’t Clear Air In 1954 Murder Case

The body of Dr. Sam Sheppard was exhumed and sent for DNA testing Wednesday in an effort by his son to clear Sheppard’s name once and for all in the 1954 murder case that inspired TV’s “The Fugitive.”

Television lights provided the illumination before daybreak as a backhoe began digging up the Columbus gravesite where Sheppard’s remains have been buried for 27 years.

Sam Reese Sheppard - who was 7 when his mother was beaten to death - stood back and watched, cradling 27 daisies. He rested his hand on the coffin and placed most of the flowers on top as it was lifted away.

The elder Sheppard was convicted of killing his wife Marilyn and spent 10 years in prison before being acquitted in a retrial in 1966. He claimed a bushy-haired intruder knocked him out and killed her at their suburban Cleveland home.

Lingering questions about Sheppard’s innocence dogged him for the rest of his life, and he died nearly penniless of liver disease at age 46 in 1970.

The younger Sheppard, now 50, also was left unsatisfied by his father’s acquittal, since a verdict of “not guilty” requires only a reasonable doubt. He has sued the state, seeking a declaration that Sheppard was innocent and wrongly imprisoned.

He hopes that DNA samples, which were taken from Sheppard’s body five hours after the exhumation, will exclude the doctor as the source of bloodstains at the crime scene.

Doctors took 50 samples, including pieces of bone, hair and skin, Coroner Dr. Elisabeth Balraj said. The remains were released to Sheppard’s son, who will have them cremated and placed next to his mother’s at a Cleveland cemetery.

Although Sheppard, from Oakland, Calif., could recover as much as $2 million if he wins, he insists that clearing his family’s name is his goal.

Speaking briefly to reporters, the bald, bespectacled Sheppard thanked them for keeping their distance while the body was unearthed.

“I feel a great sorrow, a great sorrow not allowed to me as a young child by the media,” he said, noting he had not attended the funeral of either parent.

Earlier DNA tests by Dr. Mohammad Tahir, a forensic expert from Indianapolis, indicated a second person’s blood - other than the victim’s - was present in Marilyn Sheppard’s bedroom.

Those tests also indicated the DNA could be that of Richard Eberling, a former window washer at the family’s home who has been in prison since 1984 for an unrelated murder. Eberling denies killing Marilyn Sheppard.