BEATRICE – A former Beatrice Police Lieutenant and investigator has died following a vehicle accident that occurred Friday afternoon…north of Beatrice and west of the Pickrell intersection on U.S. Highway 77.

The victim of the mishap was identified as Mike Oliver. The accident occurred when the northbound pickup he was driving went off the west side of the highway.

Beatrice Police Chief Bruce Lang said Oliver’s pickup was traveling north on U.S. Highway 77 when Oliver apparently suffered a medical episode. The pickup crossed the median traveling across the southbound lanes, coming to rest in a field about an eighth of a mile from the divided highway.

Gage County Sheriff’s deputies and Beatrice Fire and Rescue responded to the scene, just prior to 4:30 p.m.

Oliver was a long-time member with the Beatrice Police Department as a patrol officer, investigator, patrol sergeant and then a Lieutenant in charge of investigations. Health difficulties forced him to take a medical retirement from his job with Beatrice Police.

Lang said Oliver headed the task force that reexamined the investigation regarding the Beatrice Six case, which resulted in the exoneration of six defendants initially convicted for a 1985 murder and rape, in Beatrice.