Neighbors Say Farmer Was No Brother Killer

For decades, the Ward “boys” tended the dairy herd on their farm at the end of a dirt road and, neighbors say, pretty much minded their own business.

“They live off by themselves, but they’re not hermits or recluses,” said Emilie Stilwell. “They’re a throwback to the pioneer days. They stick to themselves, but if you were raising a barn they’d be the first to arrive and the last to leave.”

Four brothers, four bachelors. That all changed forever on June 6 when William Ward died--of suffocation, authorities said--and Delbert Ward was arrested and charged with second-degree murder.

The tiny rural communities of Munnsville (pop. 400) and Stockbridge (pop. 140) have rallied around Delbert Ward. His neighbors say he could not possibly have killed his brother.

Nearly 900 people have signed petitions calling on the county prosecutor to review the autopsy report on William Ward. When a judge set bail at $10,000 on June 25, Delbert Ward’s supporters raised the sum outside the courtroom within a few minutes.

Delbert, 59, has been advised by his attorney not to discuss the case. At a July 8 banquet that raised almost $1,500 for his defense, he told about 1,000 of his supporters: “I have a lot of friends all over this county. I thought I’d be left in jail, but my friends brought me home.”

Deborah Wilson of Munnsville, who contributed $500 on the spot to Delbert’s bail, said: “You have to act on your beliefs when something like this happens. I just know there’s no way he could have killed his brother.”

State police investigators testified at a preliminary hearing that Delbert told them the death of 64-year-old Bill was a mercy killing.

Investigators say that Delbert told them he smothered Bill in his sleep. According to the initial autopsy report, a benign tumor the size of a golfball was found in Bill’s neck, and he had kidney and prostate tumors that might have been cancerous.

“Bill had trouble with his head. He accidentally cut his jaw with a chain saw (years ago) and got blood poisoning,” said Roscoe Ward, 70, the eldest brother. “He was doing farm chores up to the day he died, but he wasn’t doing too good. He’d be burning up, and the next time he’d be shaking all over.”

Asked whether he thought Delbert was innocent, Roscoe Ward replied: “I sure do.”

The Wards’ small farm is on a hill overlooking the undeveloped Stockbridge Valley, about 30 miles southeast of Syracuse.

A lifetime’s collection of odds and ends, old appliances and crumbling farm machinery is strewn about the old, unpainted farmhouse where the brothers have lived since their childhood.

They have running water and electricity but no telephone and not much else in the way of conveniences.

“Their parents lived there and they took care of them until they died, and they just stayed,” Stilwell said.

The Wards, especially Delbert and Bill, whom friends say were inseparable, were often seen at The Shack, the Munnsville coffee shop where Stilwell works. They made frequent trips to town to shop and buy new parts for their farm machinery. None of the four had a driver’s license; they would drive their tractor the 5 miles into town.

At the July 8 banquet, Stilwell sold several pictures of Delbert and Bill riding on the tractor for $3 each.

The Wards are described as happy and generous neighbors, self-educated and hard-working. Delbert is the youngest. Bill was called the leader. Roscoe never stops talking once he starts. Lyman is bashful.

It wasn’t difficult to get townsfolk in Munnsville to rally around the Wards after Delbert’s arrest, Grant Kroneck, a local insurance agent, said.

“I’ve lived in Munnsville since 1947, and I’ve never seen a community come so solidly together on one side of an issue that like this,” he said.

Within hours after Delbert’s arrest, Stilwell and Kroneck were circulating a petition challenging a medical examiner’s report that Bill was killed and asking for a second autopsy.

“I knew we had some friends,” said Roscoe Ward. “I just didn’t know we had friends like that .”

Madison County District Attorney Donald Cerio Jr. agreed to a review of the autopsy findings. He has said he will not seek a grand jury indictment before that review is completed.

“This particular case is quite unique in the intensity of emotions stirred by those persons acquainted with the Ward family,” said Cerio. He said he doesn’t believe Delbert is dangerous, but he is confident that he is being justly prosecuted.

Jars and plastic containers were set out at businesses in town and within days, $1,800 was collected, said Stilwell. The money was used to hire two private investigators to bolster Delbert’s case. The total raised since has climbed to almost $3,500.