A Calcasieu Parish grand jury on Thursday indicted Felix Vail on a second-degree murder charge.

Vail is accused in the 1962 death of his wife, Mary Horton Vail, whose body was pulled from the Calcasieu River.

He claimed she drowned while they were running trotlines.

A hearing is set for Aug. 14 to determine if Vail can afford to pay for his own defense or if the Calcasieu Public Defenders Office will assist in the case.

While the case is 50 years old, it was recently brought back to attention by Jerry Mitchell, an investigative journalist in Mississippi.

Vail is the last known person to have seen two other women alive: His girlfriend, Sharon Hensley, went missing in 1973, and another wife, Annette Craver Vail, disappeared in 1984.

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(Rick Hickman/American Press)

Rick Hickman