SCOTTSBLUFF, Neb. (AP) - More than 35 years later, Pat Vostades still wants to know who killed his father.

So do Scotts Bluff County sheriff's homicide investigators who are working on the case, which has never been closed - the county's oldest unsolved murder.

There have been no answers for Pat Vostades or his five siblings or their mother.

Pat Vostades was 13 and Patrick Vostades' oldest son in 1971.

Pat says his dad valued education, worked two jobs, went to Boy Scout meetings, helped his sons build Soapbox Derby cars and took his family to visit his mother every Sunday.

On the night Vostades died - Aug. 21, 1971 - he had gone out for the evening.

Sheriff Jim Lawson says a rural resident found Patrick Vostades' body the next morning on a rural road. Vostades had been shot several times.

Pat Vostades remembers when officers brought the news to his mother and family.

"I remember when Jim Livingston (former Scottsbluff police chief, and at the time, an investigator) and another officer came to our house," Pat Vostades said. "I knew something was wrong when two guys in a suit got out of the car and they asked for my mom.

"And I remember Mr. Livingston hugging me as I cried."

His mother is 74 now and frail, Pat Vostades says.

"We are a fairly religious family, so we've placed our trust into God that he'll take care of it," he said.

"We would like to know what happened to our father. We'd like to put some closure, as much as we can, on his death."

Investigators found several leads in 1971, Lawson says, but none led to the killer.

"It's clear, from looking at the file, that the investigators put their hearts and souls into this investigation," Lawson said. "Wherever those leads went, they followed them. We plan to do the same."

He hopes advances in technology, such as DNA comparisons, automated fingerprint identifications and better ballistics testing, provide new leads.

A reward fund has been started - it contains $1,000 - and Lawson is seeking more donations.

"Personally, I think somebody needs to be held accountable," Lawson said. "Someone who knows something about this case has to be out there."