WWII Vet who died in prison gets national cemetery plot

Vet who died in prison gets national cemetery plot
By DAN ELLIOTT (AP)

DENVER — Some military veterans are angry that a World War II soldier who died in prison after pleading guilty to killing his wife is scheduled to be buried Tuesday in Denver's Fort Logan National Cemetery.

Raymond R. Sawyer, a former Marine from Colorado, died Aug. 11 in a Tucson, Ariz., state prison while serving 13 years for second-degree murder.

His wife, Frances A. Sawyer, was found strangled in August 1981 in Glendale, Ariz., where the couple lived. The case remained unsolved for 26 years.

In 2007, sometime after Raymond Sawyer moved to the Denver suburb of Arvada, a cold-case investigator from Glendale went to Arvada to interview him in hopes of turning up new leads, Glendale police said.

During the interview, Sawyer "broke down" and made statements about the slaying that only the killer could have known, Glendale spokesman Matt Barnett said at the time.

Sawyer was arrested and taken to Arizona. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to prison in 2008.

Besides citing the slaying, Sawyer's critics also say he once falsely claimed to have received the Navy Cross, the military branch's second-highest medal for valor.
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Vet who died in prison gets national cemetery plot