Man Found Innocent Of Murder

A Lemhi County jury deliberated only a little more than four hours before finding Glenn Edward Hertel innocent of second-degree murder for last November’s slaying of a 73-year-old North Fork woman.

Hertel, 30, was charged last spring with the November 1995 murder of Nancy Marie Cummings, who managed the River’s Fork Inn in North Fork.

Cummings disappeared the night of Nov. 6, 1995.

Her body was found Nov. 21, buried beneath a pile of rocks beside the Salmon River Road about a half mile west of North Fork. She died from a blow to the back of her head and strangulation.

Hertel was arrested March 4 in Grand Junction, Colo., several days after being released from a Pueblo, Colo., mental institution.

There was no physical evidence linking Hertel to the crime.

“Where’s the murder weapon?” defense attorney James Archibald responded in his closing argument.