The death of Cary Owsley: Syndicated TV show will feature segment on local case

A nationally syndicated television show, “Crime Watch Daily,” will broadcast a segment today on the death of Columbus area resident Cary Owsley nearly five years ago.

The hour-long show, which airs at 3 p.m. on WXIN-TV 59 in Indianapolis, is anchored by Chris Hanson.

Cary Owsley, 49, was found by his wife Lisa on April 7, 2013 with a gunshot wound to the chest in his Zephyr Village home outside of Columbus. An investigation by the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department and then-Coroner Larry Fisher concluded the death was a suicide, prompting Prosecutor Bill Nash to close the case in July of that year.

Other family members don’t agree with that assessment, however, and have told their story to “Crime Watch Daily.”

The segment begins with Lisa Owsley’s 911 call, followed by interviews with Cary’s mother, Rosemary Owsley; his son, Logan Owsley; Louisville Metro Police Surgeon Dr. William Smock, who examined the evidence; and Cary’s sister, Cheryl Owsley Jackson.

Smock, a gunshot wound and trajectory expert who was an FBI consultant, in a March 2015 interview with The Republic said: “I believe it could have been a staged scene.” On the broadcast, Smock refers to trajectory evidence that questions the coroner’s conclusion of suicide.

Since shortly after her brother’s death, Jackson has maintained that Bartholomew County officials botched the investigation and lost and mishandled much of the evidence that could prove Cary Owsley was killed.

Nearly four months after Owsley’s death, three sheriff’s department investigators — E. DeWayne Janes, Dean Johnson and Christie Nunemaker — were disciplined by then-Sheriff Mark Gorbett for errors in judgment while investigating the shooting.

Among those errors were allowing Janes, who was formerly married to Cary Owsley’s wife, to enter the death scene and remove Cary Owsley’s body from the home and allowing him to touch and secure a Walther handgun found at the scene. Janes also helped cut out a section of the rug that was blood-soaked and bagged it for disposal after investigators left.

“I am not going away on this. Ever,” Jackson says on the broadcast.