O'Hair Son Happy Kin's Disappearance Solved

AUSTIN, Texas, Jan. 30 (AP) - Atheist leader Madalyn Murray O'Hair's estranged son says he's glad the mystery surrounding the disappearance of his mother, brother and daughter appears to be solved.

``I think we're fortunate to have some sort of a resolution, for the family members, even my mother's supporters, who I feel sorry for,'' William Murray said Monday by telephone from Washington.

Over the weekend, the discovery of human remains in a shallow grave on a south Texas ranch suggest the long investigation into the atheist leader's 1995 disappearance may be near an end.

Investigators believe O'Hair, her son Jon Garth Murray, 40, and granddaughter Robin Murray O'Hair, 30, were killed, dismembered and dumped on the private, 5,000-acre ranch.

William Murray, O'Hair's eldest son who broke with his family and became an evangelical Christian, said he plans to return to Texas to bury the bodies if the remains prove to be his family members.

``They just deserve a decent burial,'' he said. ``It's not the time to get into some kind of controversy with people who would like to martyr her.''

O'Hair enjoyed calling herself the most hated woman in America. She was involved in successful court battles in the 1960s to ban prayer and Bible-reading in the nation's public schools.

Continued on page 2: »