More than a half century after his wife drowned in a Louisiana lake, Mississippi native Felix Vail is now facing a murder charge in her death. It is the oldest prosecution of a suspected serial killer in U.S. history - nearly 54 years between the Oct. 28, 1962, death of his first wife, Mary, and the trial. Mary Horton Vail drowned on Oct. 28, 1962. The Clarion-Ledger, following an investigation that began in May 2012, detailed in a 9,000-word, eight-page special report into the peculiar circumstances surrounding Mary Vail's drowning and the fate of other women who crossed Vail's path. The Nov. 11 report, titled 'Gone,' in which one pathologist said Mary Vail's death was a homicide prompted authorities to reopen the investigation. He was the last known person to be with her and two other women: Sharon Hensley, whom he referred to as his wife and who disappeared in 1973; and Annette Craver, whom he married before she disappeared in 1984. All three families are expected to testify at trial - one of the rare cases where this has taken place. Testimony in the trial is expected to include a debate over whether Mary Vail drowned accidentally or was a victim of murder at the hands of her then-husband, Felix Vail.