A cold murder case in Oconee County has been closed more than 20 years after the fact. However, the accused killer will not be brought to justice. The Oconee County Sheriff's Office says that 50 year old, Bruce Marrett was found dead inside his home near Westminster in 2002.
Marrett's cause of death was ruled to be blunt force trauma, he also had visible stab wounds. In 2013, the Sheriff's Office determined they did not have enough evidence to charge anyone.
A year later, the Sheriff's Office hired retired SLED Agent Dean Brown who took the lead in investigation the murder. Since then Brown determined that the suspect was a man named James Forrest Ritchie. He was never charged with the murder and then died in 2017.
Recently, new 10th Circuit Solicitor Micah Black determined there was enough probable cause to have charged Ritchie with murder.
However, due to the accused killer being dead, the case has been closed. The Sheriff's Office says Marrett was killed over pills that were never paid for.