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Decades Later, Police Still Try To Solve Fisherman's Death

MERRITT, Mich. (AP) — A man fishing near a dam in Missaukee County didn't make it home. More than 30 years later, police still are trying to figure out who shot him.

John Skamelka was killed while fishing near the Reedsburg Dam, not far from Houghton Lake, in July 1989.

"At this point, it's truly just a whodunit," said Det. Sgt. Doug Baumann of the state police. "What we're hoping here is with the new advancement in some of our technologies, fingerprints, DNA if we can get resubmittals on some of those things collected at the scene, maybe we can get a connection."

First responders believed Skamelka had suffered a heart attack but then discovered that he had been shot. His wallet was also missing.

Police got a description of a vehicle and a man with "greasy" long hair and facial hair.

"When law enforcement arrived on scene, and we're shown where the vehicle had been camped, it was gone and what appeared to be tire marks from someone leaving in a hurry," Baumann told 9and10news.com.

Skamelka's son, Philip, regularly visits his father's grave near Midland.

"Somebody actually knows something out there that they're not saying," he said.

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