MARYVILLE, Tenn. (TCD) — A police department’s oldest cold case reached a breakthrough this week following the arrest of an 80-year-old man who investigators allege killed his parents nearly 50 years ago.
In a statement, the Maryville Police Department announced a grand jury indicted Michael Fine on Tuesday, Nov. 7, on two counts of first-degree murder for allegedly fatally shooting his parents, Helen Fine and Maynard Fine, in 1977. Michael Fine currently lives in Alabama and was taken into custody in Jefferson County, where he is awaiting extradition back to Tennessee.
On May 20, 1977, Helen Fine and Maynard Fine were found deceased at their home in Maryville from apparent gunshot wounds. The investigation into their deaths went cold but was reopened in May 2021.
Maryville Police Chief Tony Crisp spoke at a press conference on Wednesday, Nov. 8, and shared additional details about the slayings and Michael Fine’s arrest. According to Crisp, a telephone technician was working at a home on Everett Avenue when he discovered 54-year-old Helen Fine’s decomposed body in a car parked outside the home. The technician called Maryville Police, who arrived and discovered 67-year-old Maynard Fine’s decomposing body inside the residence.
Crisp said they both died from multiple gunshot wounds.
Investigators were able to tie Michael Fine to the gun used in the killing, which was found a year later in a landfill.
Crisp called the arrest “rewarding” because it allowed police to “do our job, pursue justice, and bring the person responsible for such a crime to answer for that and the families to know that it didn’t end in 1977. No one’s forgotten.”
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