MOUNT VERNON Lyle Swenson easily recalled the date. "September 8 is coming pretty fast," Swenson, the former longtime Davison County sheriff, said last week. He was referring to Sept. 8, 1981, 30 years ago today, when a rural Mount Vernon fami.
Authorities, surviving family disagreed on not guilty verdict Written By: Erik Kaufman | ×
The home of John Mathis, eight miles north of Mount Vernon, is pictured in this Republic file photo. The farm was the site of a triple homicide nearly 40 years ago. (Chris Huber/Republic)
MOUNT VERNON, S.D. It was an ugly scene at the Mathis farm outside of Mount Vernon Sept. 8, 1981.
When police were called to the location that night, John W. Mathis was sitting on a bed in the metal shed he and his family were living in after a pair of fires had destroyed their home earlier in the year. His left arm was bleeding from a gunshot wound.