Deputy O. L. Case succumbed to a gunshot wound inflicted the previous day while he and the sheriff searched a suspicious car.

The car had crashed into a ditch and the three occupants refused help from any passersby. Local citizens became suspicious of this and called the sheriff to investigate. As the sheriff and Deputy Case examined the vehicle one of the occupants stepped from a near-by woods and opened fire, fatally wounding the deputy. It was discovered that illicit liquor was being transported in the vehicle.

Two suspects, arrested a short time later, each blamed the third suspect for the shooting. A week later the third suspect was shot and killed by a policeman in Omaha, Nebraska. The other two suspects were tried and acquitted.

Deputy Case was survived by his wife and two daughters.