Cold case gumshoe at national conference

Oconee’s new cold case investigator has gone to a conference where he’s to brush up on investigative techniques. Dean Brown is attending the conference in Murphreesboro, Tennessee. And Sheriff Mike Crenshaw says Brown will be able to benefit there from the teachings of nationally-recognized pathologists, as well as veteran investigators from across the country. Brown took with him the Sheriff’s Office case file on the 2009 shooting death of Frances Earle near Seneca. After five years, the case remains unsolved and is one of the more perplexing cases investigators face. The elderly woman was found shot to death in her home—a home set on fire apparently by the killer as a way to destroy evidence.