Tongue Cutting/Murder Case Gone Cold?

Citronelle Murder Michael Crocker Could a brutal murder and tongue cutting case in Citronelle go cold? The murder victim's family says yes.

by Tiffany Craig

Published: Wed, May 28, 2008 - 5:45 pm CST Last Updated: Wed, May 28, 2008 - 7:22 pm CST

Has a bizarre murder case involving a man accused of cutting his own tongue gone cold?

The saga started to unfold in August when Stephen Perret was found murdered. Then, authorities say his boss cut out his own tongue and embezzled a quarter of a million dollars.

Months have gone by and no one has been indicted or charged with murder. The victim's family says they're being told the case has gone cold.

Stephen Perret Senior has waited almost a year to ask his son's killer one thing. Why? "What did he do to you that made you take his life? He may have known something but was it worth his life? You know, was it worth his life?"

Known as O'Neal by friends and family, the younger Stephen Perret was murdered in a work truck in Citronelle last August.

Perret Senior says the next shock came in a recent conversation with an investigator. "He told me that the first of the year, they made it into a cold case."

A cold case? Perret believes the Mobile County District Attorney's office is not doing enough.

So, we took the heartbroken father's concerns to district attorney John Tyson. "The Perret family thinks your office is not doing enough to help in this case. Our office is doing everything we know to do help but in fact we've not been presented a case."

Tyson says he will work to get some answers. "What I'm going to do as a result of this call is call the father and call the sheriff."

So, we called Mobile County Sheriff Sam Cochran too. "No, this is certainly not a cold case at all."

Cochran says the cold case reference is wrong and can't confirm that the family heard those words from an investigator.

He tells us that it's a tangled crime web but is confidant it will be solved. "It's an extremely complex case in that it surrounds an operation of a business and it surrounds a financial layout of a business which makes it a rather complex case."

Cochran believes Perret's neighbor and boss was involved in the murder. "Crocker remains our chief suspect. We are just not in a position to charge him at this time."

Crocker has been charged with false reporting for cutting out his own tongue a day after attending Perret's funeral. That charge was dropped.

The only remaining charge on Crocker is theft. Authorities believe that he stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from Vulcan Industrial Services in Mount Vernon.

Crocker is part owner of that business.

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