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OMAHA WORLD-HERALD Tues, April 30, 1995

Authorities Suspect Canoeing Accident

Former CIA Chief Colby Feared Drowned

Rock Point, MD (AP) Former CIA Director William Colby was missing and presumed drowned Monday after what the sheriff said was an apparent boating accident near Colbys vacation home. Colbys canoe was found on a sandbar Sunday a quarter-mile from his home on the Wicomico River, and divers researched the rough and murky water for the 76-year-old former spy-master. Right now, we are viewing it as an accident, Sherif Fred Davis said. Were not ruling out foul play, but we never rule out foul play. Colby, who headed the CIA from 1973 to 1976 under President Nixon and Ford, apparently went canoeing late Saturday, but his absence wasnt noticed until Sunday night, when neighbors became suspicious because his car was still in the driveway. Colby usually had returned to Washington by then. A neighbor who checked his home found his radio and computer still on. Investigators found dinner dishes on a table and clam shells in the kitchen sink. Davis said and Colbys wife, Sally Shelton-Colby, was out of town but had spoken to him during the weekend. He told her he didnt feel well but was going canoeing anyway. Neighbors said the water was rough Saturday and not good for canoeing. I dont see why a man his age would be out there, said neighbor Joseph Harvey. If I went out there it would be in a 16-to-20-foot boat not a canoe. The sheriff ruled out the possibility of suicide. Coast Guards crews searched the river for more than five hours late Sunday and resumed the search Monday morning. Authorities didnt know whether Colby was wearing a life-preserver. Colby, who began his intelligence career parachuting into France to fight the Nazis, later headed the CIAs Saigon office during the Vietnam War. In Vietnam, he was associated with Operation Phoenix, an infiltration effort to root out rural support for communist guerrillas. It led to sweeping arrests, torture and execution of suspects. Critics said most of those killed were innocent peasants. He was dismissed by Ford as CIA director because of a growing feeling in the White House that he was cooperating too freely with congressional investigators looking into allegations of wrongdoing within the

agency. The agency had been accused of plotting assassinations overseas and of spying on civilians in the United States. Colby was born in St. Paul, Mina. He dropped out of Columbia University Law School to join the Army after first year. He went into intelligence when he answered a call for French-speaking volunteers and joined the Office of Strategic Services, the CIAs forerunner. Colby joined the CIA in 1950.

Colby Played Small Part In Franklin Investigation

Former CIA Director William Colby, missing Monday from his vacation home in southern Maryland, had a small role in a high-profile investigation by a Nebrasky legislative committee. The committee headed by then Sen Loran Schmit of Bellwood, hired Colby during its investigation of the 1988 collapse of Omahas Franklin Community Federal Credit Union. In 1990, committee investigator Gary Caradori died when the plane he was piloting crashed into a Illinios farm field. Schmit Immediately raised the possibility that the plane might have been sabotaged. But lead investigator for the National Transporation Safety Board said he found no evidence of sabotage. The Franklin committee hired Colby in late 1990 to question National Transportation Safety Board officials about Caradori plane crash. The board determined that the cause was accidental, the result of Caradori losing control of his plane because of fatigue, disorientation in bad weather or instrument malfunction. Colby reported to the Franklin committee that although the crash had some strange aspects, there was no specific evidence of sabotage and he had confidence in the safety boards investigation. Earlier, Colby had been Schmits firm choice to be the Franklin committees counsel when the committee was formed in early 1990. But the committee instead selected Lincoln lawyer Kirk Naylor Jr. Colbys selection had been urged by former State Sen. John DeCamp of Lincoln, a friend of Schmits. Colby and DeCamp met during the Vietnam War.