Bismarck, N.D. – A man already serving a 30-year prison sentence for molesting a child has been charged in the shooting death of a teenage clerk during a convenience-store robbery nearly 25 years ago, authorities said Friday.
William See Walker, 48, of Fort Yates, has been transferred to North Dakota’s state penitentiary from a federal prison in Colorado to face the murder charge, state Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem said.
Stenehjem would release few details of the arrest, saying he did not want to compromise the court case.
“Additional information came to our attention,” he said.
Gary Gerth, 18, of Bowman, was found dead inside the Mon-Dak convenience store in Williston on Dec. 4, 1982. Police estimated about $140 was taken from the store.
Gerth was a college student who worked part-time at the store in rural northwestern North Dakota.
A death row inmate in Florida named Ottis Toole confessed in 1985 to killing Gerth. A North Dakota crime bureau agent said he determined the claim to be false after interviewing Toole, and that Toole later recanted his confession. Toole died in prison in 1996.
Brenda Neubauer, an attorney representing See Walker, said she had no comment Friday. See Walker was convicted in 2005 conviction of molesting a 7-year-old girl.
Stenehjem indicated that another person might have been involved in Gerth’s death but that See Walker is the only suspect still living.
“We think that we have charged the only person that is available to be charged,” the attorney general said.
Darlene Gerth said she and her husband, Fred, had nearly given up hope that authorities would find the man who killed their son.
“After that many years you always hope, and you know they’re working on it, but it’s a long time,” Darlene Gerth said. “It’s a relief.”
