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Rudy Redd Victor remains recovered after 43 years

by Jonn Lilyea••18

One of our ninjas send us a link to the strange story of Rudy Redd Victor, an Air Force airman who leaped from his girlfriend’s car during an argument on June 15, 1974 in Montana, never to be seen again. He was on leave from the Air Force at the time. When he didn’t report back, the Air Force declared that he was deserter.

Fast forward to two years ago. A cattle inspector found a skull in the remote Wolf Creek Canyon and took it home as a souvenir of sorts. Recently he turned it over to the coroner. Investigators searched for more evidence and found more remains and a noose made of wire in a nearby tree, leading folks to believe that Rudy hung himself;

Friday, his sister received a letter from the Air Force saying his remains have been found and identified. Burial plans are in progress.

[…]

The county coroner concluded Victor likely died either the day he leapt from the car or shortly after.

The investigation determined Victor died while on leave, so he is no longer listed as absent without leave.

Victor’s military record has been corrected to remove his deserter status.

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18 thoughts on “Rudy Redd Victor remains recovered after 43 years”

    2. They removed his deserter classification, but did they keep the “destruction of govt property”??

  5. Hopefully the coroner can cut the family some slack in determining cause/manner of death. IDK. Just a thought.

  7. Here is a question. If you are on leave or active duty like that and commit suicide, the noose in the tree leads us in that direction although it is unproven, how does the military handle that? Do they discharge him? Honorable, Dishonorable? Other? Died during service? Do the survivors of the family get benefits?

    1. The death occurred on active duty so there’d be no discharge. There’d be an investigation to determine whether the death occurred in the line of duty, however. There’s a presumption that every death while on active duty is in the line of duty, but that presumption can be overcome by evidence of misconduct on the part of the deceased. If the manner of death is uncertain, usually the benefit of the doubt is given to the service member and the determination would be in line of duty, which would mean that the family would get whatever benefits may have been available at the time.

      Caveat: these rules have been more or less the same as far back as I remember, although I don’t remember all the way back to ’74.

      1. Sounds correct. I remember another fairly recent case that involved a Marine Corporal. He had been to Vietnam and been wounded.
        He was recovering at the Navy Hospital in Philadelphia. He was on on Liberty on a weekend and never came back.
        He was ran as AWOL/ Deserter and Dropped from the rolls. Since he never went home his family insisted that something had happened. Turns out he was robbed and murdered ans buried as a John Doe. After several decades his family was able to track connect him to the John Doe and get his records corrected and a proper burial and headstone. https://www.facebook.com/notes/wayne-stacy/the-story-of-corporal-robert-daniel-corriveau-usmc-the-turnpike-marine/10151215037664168/

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