Wrongful Death Lawsuit Can Proceed In Comstock Case:

No one has been charged in the July 2007 death of internationally renowned book collector and probate attorney Rolland Comstock, 70.

But that doesn't matter to Greene County Circuit Court Judge Michael Cordonnier who has ruled that a wrongful death lawsuit filed against Ablerta Comstock can proceed to trial.

A year after Comstock was found dead his daughter, Faith Stocker, filed the wrongful death suit against her mother, Alberta Comstock.

Alberta Comstock's attorney, Timothy Richardson, asked the court to delay the lawsuit until criminal charges have been filed against someone in the criminal case.

Rolland Comstock was found shot to death on the floor in between the kitchen and dining room of his North Springfield mansion on July 3, 2007, by his assistant, Becky Frakes.

Greene County Sheriff Jim Arnott says, "we have multiple suspects for different charges involved in this case," adding, "Alberta Comstock has not been ruled out as one of them."

Investigators say that theft was not a motive in the book fanatics murder as no books were found to be missing after they searched Comstock's unique cataloguing system. There also appeared to be no signs of forced entry at the house.

In June 2008 court documents revealed that detectives were interested in two family members for the crime.
Cops say that a cigarette butt, confidential legal papers belonging to Alberta, along with bullet shell casings recovered at the scene (that matched a handgun that had been purchased by Comstock's former wife the day before his death,) were all being analyzed.

Investigators say that DNA from that cigarette butt matches, Michael "Andy" Comstock, the estranged son that Rolland adopted early in his marriage to Alberta; and that the legal paperwork was from Alberta's attorney and pertained to her divorce from Comstock, therefore, it should not have been in Rolland's house.

Allegedly Alberta tested partial positive on a gunshot residue test taken after the murder.

Rolland and Alberta Comstock divorced in 2005 after 38 years of marriage and were involved in a bitter dispute over a $215,000 settlement Rolland Comstock was to pay the woman.

Sheriff Arnott says that there is a new investigator looking at the case that was not involved in the case before last fall. Arnott says, "that investigator is researching and studying this case from the beginning," adding, "we don't want any surprises to pop up after we present our case to the prosecutor.....we want to do the surprising."