1985.... Not even a teenager yet, living on the farm, when barn and corral camera's weren't even a thought to monitor the cattle, when mom and dad would go out at night to check cattle (we were in the middle of calving) them locking the door behind them which of course made me ask "why are you locking the door, you’re just going out to the barns?" The answer was, "There are killers on the loose who killed a farm couple."
The lives of Cora and Charles Abernathy weren't accidentally ended, they were brutally ended. Time passes, lives move on and tragedy's like this become just a story for many. This tragedy still weighs on my mind and to read that one of the men responsible for the deaths will be released. My anger goes beyond myself. My anger is for the Abernathy family, the community that had to pick up the pieces and still has the "story" hovering over their community. People forget.I haven't and won't forget. May the souls of Cora and Charles Abernathy be at peace.
MINOT, N.D. (AP) — One of the two men convicted of killing a Minot couple more than three decades ago has an estimated release date from the North Dakota State Penitentiary. Calvin Newnam is expected to be released around May 16, 2019. Newnam has been behind bars for slaying 66-year-old Cora Abernathy and her 75-year-old husband, Charles Abernathy, at their rural Minot home in February of 1985. The two had been shot in the head and their throats were slashed. Newnam’s accomplice in the murders, Kevin Austin, is serving a life sentence for the crime. Initially Newnam refused to testify against Austin, but later changed his mind after sitting in prison with no hope of being released. Austin finally went on trial in 1993 and was convicted.