Longtime Fugitive May Be Hiding by Dressing as Woman

John Gentry Jr. is wanted in a 1983 double murder in Michigan
By Michael Harthorne,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 27, 2016 11:37 AM CDT
Cold Case Suspect May Be Living Disguised as Woman
John Gentry Jr. alongside an age-progressed rendering. He's wanted for a double murder in 1983 and may be hanging around Los Angeles dressed as a woman.   (Monroe County Sheriff's Office)

A suspected murderer Michigan authorities have been hunting for more than 30 years may be living in California disguised as a woman, the Los Angeles Times reports. John Gentry Jr. was 30 years old in 1983 when he was released from a Michigan prison after serving time for nearly killing his boyfriend. According to Reuters, he started dating 25-year-old Barbara Gerber, who had worked in the kitchen of a jail where Gentry was an inmate. Unbeknownst to Gerber, Gentry also started dating 52-year-old William Veith in neighboring Ohio. Then Gerber was found with her throat slit. Six days later, authorities found Veith dead after he was beaten over the head with an ax handle. They suspect Gentry killed his lovers after they found out about each other.

Authorities tracked Gentry to Indiana but lost the trail. He sent two postcards from San Diego and Los Angeles, and that was the last authorities heard of him. A nationwide arrest warrant was issued for him in 1988 to no effect, CBS Detroit reports. Jeff Smith, the Michigan investigator working the cold case, says information received in the past five years hints that Gentry may have adopted his middle name Kelly and started hanging around West Hollywood dressed as a woman. He may also be dead. Smith says Gentry's fingerprints haven't popped up anywhere, and it would be unusual for him to live within the law for so long. Authorities have released aged-up photos of Gentry in the hopes of getting a lead from the public. (A woman became a PI to help solve her friend's murder.)

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