https://www.newspapers.com/clip/50042574/berkshire-sampler/

'The case against Earl Gary Blake is the third and last Berkshire County case in which a suspect was arrested, tried and acquitted in the last decade. The beaten body of 14-year-old Dawn Smith was found in a field several hundred yards from her house on Dec. 15, 1975. Dawn was a runaway who had had problems relating to her step-sister and brothers. At first her mother, Thelma, and her step-brothers, Randy, 19, and Earl, 21, and her sister, Lisa, 14, all denied having seen Dawn on the night she was murdered. Shortly thereafter, however, Thelma, Randy, and Lisa put the blame on Earl. They testified that they had seen Blake hit his stepsister over the head with a long metal object. But there were too many inconsistencies in the familys testimony and at the trial, they admitted to having given three different versions of the events surrounding Dawns death. The jury found Blake innocent of murder. Juror Joseph R. Miller said that the, evidence presented during the six-day trial pointed to more than one person being involved and another juror said that he hoped that the state would pursue the case and bring another indictment. However, District Attorney William R. Flynn, and the commander of the Crime Prevention and Control unit of the state police, Milo Brown, said that no new investigation is being planned. '