New York State Police Troop D has launched a new weekly feature on the NYSP Facebook page (facebook.com/nyspolice ) called “Cold Case Tuesday,” which will highlight unsolved cases in hopes of bringing them to closure.
“The primary goal is to generate leads for the investigations,” said Jack Keller, Troop D public information officer.
The cold case series was launched April 19, about a 30-year-old homicide case in Clinton County. The most recent cold case to be featured in the new series is the 1958 murder of 63-year-old Ernest Chaney in the Town on Eaton, which state police in Oneida continue to investigate.
According to the case file, on Sept. 22, 1958, Chaney was a gas station attendant working and living at the Gulf Service station on US-20 in the Town of Eaton. On that night, a motorist stopped for gas at approximately 1:30 a.m. and found the lights on at the station, but no one came out to fill his car with gas.
The motorist went inside the station and heard moaning. He found Chaney unresponsive on the floor of an oil storage room with obvious wounds to the back of his head and a large amount of blood.
After state police responded, Chaney was taken to the Hamilton Community Memorial Hospital and later transferred to Syracuse Memorial Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries on Oct. 2, having never regained consciousness.
The investigation indicated that Chaney went outside to attend to a customer at approximately 1 a.m. Chaney was in the process of adding oil to the engine of an east facing car, parked on the north side of the gas pumps, when he was struck in the back of his head with a blunt object. He was struck a total of nine times and his wallet containing about $80 was stolen. There were no indications that any money or anything else was stolen from inside the gas station and no weapon was ever located.
Many leads were followed up on during that time period and the case has remained open. Several interviews of potential witnesses have been completed throughout the years, however, this homicide has never been solved.
The Gulf gas station is no longer in business, but remnants of the buildings still remain on the south side of Route 20, approximately 9/10ths of a mile west of the intersection with State Route 46.
Anyone with information regarding this case is asked to call the New York State Police in Oneida at 315-366-6000 and ask to speak with Inv. Mark Nell or Senior. Inv. Reece Treen of the Major Crimes Unit.
All calls can remain confidential.
