Our top stories of the year

This week, we count down our top 11 sto­ries of 2011 from the Amherst News-Times, includ­ing mur­der charges, big-time fraud con­vic­tions, cov­er­age of the 10th anniver­sary of 9/11, floods, changes at the Amherst Hos­pi­tal, and more.

As a pre­view, here is a recap of our num­ber 10 story of the year:

Arrest made 35 years after woman fatally shot
From our July 6 issue

Sheriff’s deputies arrested 69-year-old Bob­bie New on June 30 at his Tele­graph Road home in Amherst Township.

He was charged with the mur­der of his live-in girl­friend, Dorothy Spencer, in March 1976.

Spencer was found beaten and shot in her Gif­ford Road trailer in Cam­den Town­ship. She died three days later in the hospital.

Inves­ti­ga­tors said the cold case was reopened in 2010 after new evi­dence surfaced.

A grand jury handed down a secret indict­ment against New the day before he was arrested.

New has remained under house arrest on $1 mil­lion bond with lim­ited leave.

In the past sev­eral months, the defense has filed motions to sup­press evi­dence and to dis­miss the case, claim­ing New was in the Hon­key Tonk bar at the time of the murder.

A pre-trial hear­ing has been set for Jan. 5.

Posted by Jason Hawk on Dec 27 2011. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.