Opinion ID: 1855479
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: discovery of carlson's body

Text: On the evening of April 15, 1994, Carlson and his friend Frank Cuba worked on a golf cart at Cuba's auto body repair shop in Silver Creek, Nebraska. Carlson left the shop in his Chevrolet pickup between 11:30 and 11:45 p.m. and turned west on Highway 30 toward Clarks, Nebraska. At approximately 1:15 or 1:30 a.m. on April 16, Tom Branting stopped at the residence of John Wirrick, village marshal for Clarks, and told Wirrick that there was a vehicle, possibly belonging to Carlson, about 2 miles east of Clarks in a ditch adjacent to Highway 30. Wirrick then contacted the Merrick County Sheriff's Department and met Chief Deputy Richard Miller at the scene. The officers discovered a pickup with the headlights on and the engine running approximately 20 to 50 yards south of Highway 30, resting on a tree in a ditch containing a foot of water. The officers found Carlson dead in the pickup with a wound in his back just underneath the left shoulder blade. The rear driver's-side window on the extended portion of the cab was broken out by a single bullet from a highpowered rifle that pierced through the driver's seat, entered Carlson's back, and penetrated his chest. Originally, Branting and Charles Johnson were arrested for, and charged with, second degree murder in the death of Carlson. The cases were subsequently dismissed.