Man who killed 6 members of a Nebraska family in 1975 dies after complaining of chest pain

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A man who killed six members of a Nebraska family nearly 50 years ago has died after complaining about chest pain. Erwin Charles Simants was 77. His attorney told the Lincoln Journal Star that he died Thursday at a hospital. Simants initially was sentenced to death for shooting Henry and Audrey Kellie, along with their son and three of their grandchildren in 1975 in Sutherland, about 20 miles west of North Platte. But that sentence was overturned in 1979, and he was found not responsible by reason of insanity at retrial. He spent the rest of his life at a state psychiatric hospital.