On Oct. 21, 1986, 28-year-old William “Billy” Halpern was brutally murdered in his Miramar, Florida, home and now detectives have identified the individual responsible for his death.
Investigators said Halpern, a former paramedic, was “cut ear to ear” by an unknown object and bled to death, Local 10 reports.
The man who has been identified by detectives as the killer is Harry Van Collier, an acquaintance of Halpern who was killed seven months after Halpern was murdered.
Following a January press conference where Halpern’s relatives spoke out, new information pointed to Collier as the culprit responsible for Halpern’s murder. Detectives connected similarities between Halpern’s case and a double murder in Tamarac, clearing the investigation.
“Because we have Harry Collier’s fingerprint at the Tamarac double murder scene, and the similarities between that murder scene and the scene of Billy Halpern’s murder, along with numerous interviews we conducted, we are confident that if Harry Collier were alive today, we would be charging him with murder and he would stand trial,” said Miramar Police Detective Danny Smith.
Miramar Police say the case has been cleared.
