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Speaker 5: You are now listening to True Murder, the most shocking
Speaker 5: killers in true crime history and the authors that have
Speaker 5: written about them Gasey Bundy, Dahmer, The Nightstalker DTK. Every
Speaker 5: week another fascinating author talking about the most shocking and
Speaker 5: infamous killers in true crime history. True Murder with your
Speaker 5: host journalist and author Dan Zupansky, Good Evening Under the
Speaker 5: Trustle is the true story of the most compelling murder
Speaker 5: case in Virginia history. In nineteen eighty, Beautiful Gina Renee Hall,
Speaker 5: a Radford University freshman, went to a Virginia teen nightclub
Speaker 5: on a Saturday night. She was never seen again. Her
Speaker 5: abandoned car was found parked beneath a railroad trestle bridging
Speaker 5: the New River with blood in the trunk. The investigation
Speaker 5: led police to a secluded cabin on Claytor Lake, where
Speaker 5: there was evidence of a violent attack. Former Virginia Tech
Speaker 5: football player Stephen Epperley was charged with murder, despite the
Speaker 5: fact that Gina's body was never found. In Virginia's Trial
Speaker 5: of the Century, prosecutor Everett Shockley presented an an entirely
Speaker 5: circumstantial case. Key witnesses against Epperley included his best friend,
Speaker 5: his mother, and a tracking dog handler later believed by
Speaker 5: many to be a fraud. Three former Virginia Tech football
Speaker 5: players testified, including a Hokies quarterback once featured on the
Speaker 5: cover of Sports Illustrated. Would Epperley become the first person
Speaker 5: in Virginia history convicted of murder without the victim's body,
Speaker 5: an eye witness or confession, And would authorities ever find
Speaker 5: the body of Gina Renee Hall. Book they are featuring
Speaker 5: this evening is Under the Trestle, the nineteen eighty Disappearance
Speaker 5: of Gina Renee Hall and Virginia's first nobody murder trial,
Speaker 5: with my special guest, journalist and author, Ron Peterson Junior.
Speaker 5: Welcome to the program, and thank you very much for
Speaker 5: agreeing to this interview. Ron Peterson Junior.
Speaker 3: Well, thank you, Dan, it's great to be here.
Speaker 5: Thanks, thank you very much, very very very interesting and
Speaker 5: unique case. And we'll get to that. First off, I
Speaker 5: want to ask you how you came to want to
Speaker 5: write this, how you came to be in a position
Speaker 5: to write this book. Under the Trestle.
Speaker 3: Well, good question, Dan. Interestingly enough, I attended Radford University
Speaker 3: in the nineteen eighties. I got there about four years
Speaker 3: after Junior Rene Hall's disappearance, and as I was a
Speaker 3: student there there there was a rumor, or an urban myth,
Speaker 3: that there was a former student buried somewhere either on
Speaker 3: campus or around town in a clandestine grave. And I
Speaker 3: was always curious about the case, and as I approached
Speaker 3: my senior year, I did did a little bit of
Speaker 3: research on it and actually referenced it in an article
Speaker 3: in the student newspaper. My senior year, I was an
Speaker 3: editor in the student newspaper and just briefly mentioned it.
Speaker 3: And then over the years, you know, it's one of
Speaker 3: those cases. It's so fascinating. It never never left my mind.
Speaker 3: And as I got a little older, I became a
Speaker 3: father myself, I was a little more interested in the
Speaker 3: case emotionally, and you know what Gene Hall's family went
Speaker 3: through and that part of it. And after researching the
Speaker 3: case online over over a period of several years, about
Speaker 3: two years ago, I started doing detailed research. Actually found
Speaker 3: the public record of the court transcript at the seven
Speaker 3: day trial. There was also audio recordings of the murder
Speaker 3: trial itself. Took the time to listen to that, and
Speaker 3: then reached out to Gena Hall's family and just to
Speaker 3: see if they would be okay with me writing a book.
Speaker 3: Met with one of Gena Hall's family members and they
Speaker 3: gave their blessing on the project, only asked that I
Speaker 3: tell this story accurately, and then went from there to
Speaker 3: interview the prosecutor in the case, the lead state police investigator,
Speaker 3: the defense attorneys, as well as witnesses in the murder trial,
Speaker 3: even a few of the jurors, as well as friends
Speaker 3: and family of both Stephen Epperley, the killer and Gina
Speaker 3: Renee Hall, the victim. I interviewed a totally about one
Speaker 3: hundred people that were involved in the case.
Speaker 5: Yes, incredible job. Let's talk about Stephen Epperley, but first
Speaker 5: tell us a little bit about Radford, its location, population,
Speaker 5: sort of what kind of place it really is. Let's
Speaker 5: talk about the background of Stephen Epperley, how he grew up,
Speaker 5: and before we talk about Gina Hall.
Speaker 3: Sure this sounds good. Radford is a small town in
Speaker 3: southwest Virginia, at a population of ten thousand. It's known
Speaker 3: by most as a college town. Radford University is now
Speaker 3: has grown since nineteen eighty, but at the time, Radford
Speaker 3: had about four or five thousand students. And Radford was
Speaker 3: a typical southwest Virginia working class town and it's alongside
Speaker 3: the New River. The town is actually located in a
Speaker 3: bend of the New River, which is a river that
Speaker 3: flows actually from North Carolina through Virginia into the Ohio
Speaker 3: River and then eventually into the Mississippi. So Guests could
Speaker 3: best be described as just a scenic small town, you know,
Speaker 3: like a lot of small towns in Virginia, just a
Speaker 3: lot of folks with good family Christian values that live
Speaker 3: in the town.
Speaker 5: Right, Let's talk about Stephen Epperley and his upbringing and
Speaker 5: the kind of person he becomes. It's very important to
Speaker 5: as you do, paint a picture of who this person is,
Speaker 5: and you really do fantastic job of doing that. Let's
Speaker 5: talk about Stephen Epperley, his upbringing, what he has, his
Speaker 5: aspirations to become, and what actually happens before we get
Speaker 5: to July twelfth, nineteen eighty and claytor Lake.
Speaker 3: Sure well, Steve Epperley at the time of the murder
Speaker 3: was older than Gina Hall. He was twenty eight years old.
Speaker 3: He was originally from the town of Radford and still
Speaker 3: still lived in the town. He's what college kids would
Speaker 3: call a towny, and a lot of college towns. Eply
Speaker 3: and high school friends describe him as generally a fairly
Speaker 3: normal guy, although a lot of friends used the same
Speaker 3: phrase to describe him that he had a screw loose.
Speaker 3: In his younger years in high school, he was an
Speaker 3: accomplished athlete football player, was in All Conference football player
Speaker 3: at Rapid High School and eventually went on to play
Speaker 3: football at Fareham College and later at Virginia Tech, graduating
Speaker 3: from Virginia Tech in nineteen seventy eight. It was interesting
Speaker 3: to interview people that knew Apperly and you just see
Speaker 3: a pattern of deviant behavior from the time of his
Speaker 3: senior year in high school, when there were some incidents
Speaker 3: when he was violent with family members. On at least
Speaker 3: one occasion, the police were called to the house when
Speaker 3: he struck his sister and became physical with family members,
Speaker 3: and then the summer after senior year, there were accounts
Speaker 3: from friends, for example, going on a double date with
Speaker 3: Epperly and everything seemed to go okay through the evening,
Speaker 3: but then the next day they'd hear account of Eppley
Speaker 3: more or less forcing himself on his date, you know,
Speaker 3: and what would later be known as a date rape
Speaker 3: kind of situation. And also along with that accounts of
Speaker 3: just a just a violent guy, a lot of fights,
Speaker 3: a lot of bar fights, and not just you know,
Speaker 3: just beating people up, but beating them up very badly
Speaker 3: and in a number of incidents and around the small
Speaker 3: town of Radford.
Speaker 5: He also is a person that again likes to likes
Speaker 5: to go on dates and sorry, he's a person that's
Speaker 5: interested in women. He's interested in hunting, fishing, and sports.
Speaker 5: Tell us what he looks like and what you talk
Speaker 5: about him being in the in training and then bulking
Speaker 5: up one summer twenty five pounds of muscle. Tell us
Speaker 5: a little bit about some of this and its effect.
Speaker 5: And he used this in his dating, in his relationships
Speaker 5: with women.
Speaker 3: At the time of the murder. Was he was about
Speaker 3: six feet tall, was an athletic guy, you know. He
Speaker 3: was described as a guy who lifted weights before lifting
Speaker 3: weights was was cool, you know, if you can imagine
Speaker 3: that back in the seventies. Graduated from high school in
Speaker 3: nineteen seventy and had aspirations of playing college football. It
Speaker 3: was a bit undersized though. He wasn't fast enough to
Speaker 3: play a skill position you know, on offense like wide
Speaker 3: receiver or running back, and then wasn't big enough to
Speaker 3: be alignman. So he went to a junior college, went
Speaker 3: to Fareham Junior College, and there, over the course of
Speaker 3: two years, he was able to bulk up quite a bit,
Speaker 3: which a lot of college football players do. You know,
Speaker 3: their first few years in college. There was a pretty
Speaker 3: steady regiment of lifting weights, you know, eating in the
Speaker 3: school cafeteria, a lot of things that football players did
Speaker 3: then to beef up and get bigger. So within about
Speaker 3: two or three years of being in college, he was
Speaker 3: a was a pretty big guy, you know, certainly had
Speaker 3: the look of a college football player, and is described
Speaker 3: as people, you know, as someone who certainly had an
Speaker 3: intimidating appearance. And as I mentioned, you know, there were
Speaker 3: many accounts of violence and fights, and he's described as
Speaker 3: someone in his post high school years in the the
Speaker 3: eight or nine years leading up to the murder that
Speaker 3: just had an expectation that any woman who was with
Speaker 3: him in a dating situation or a social situation, you know,
Speaker 3: was one way or another she was going to sleep
Speaker 3: with him.
Speaker 5: Now, you also talk about his aspirations in football and
Speaker 5: those aspirations not being fulfilled, and this has to play
Speaker 5: into his psychology and some of the actions that happened
Speaker 5: afterwards tell us what happens and as opposed to some
Speaker 5: of the friends that he has, and again, how important
Speaker 5: this these aspirations in football were to him.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a good question, Dan, and one that I
Speaker 3: tried to look into pretty deeply. He was very ambitious
Speaker 3: as far as playing football on the next level. The
Speaker 3: town of Radford is right next to Blacksburg where Virginia
Speaker 3: Tech is. Virginia Tech was then and is now, you know,
Speaker 3: a big time football program. So clearly Upperly's aspirations were
Speaker 3: to play to play big time college football. Several of
Speaker 3: his friends were on that track. They were more accomplished
Speaker 3: football players than he was. And they were including his
Speaker 3: best friend Bill King, who he was with the Knight
Speaker 3: of the murder and who later testified against him in
Speaker 3: the trial, was one of several people that were from
Speaker 3: Radford who were within Epperley's network of friends who were
Speaker 3: more successful and more accomplished as college football players on
Speaker 3: what would be a you know, a big time division
Speaker 3: IE level, and there's many indications that Eperly was frustrated
Speaker 3: with that. His parents, who were both you know, described
Speaker 3: as lower middle class folks. He had a lower middle
Speaker 3: class upbringing. His dad was working class, worked in the
Speaker 3: local arsenal there in town or right outside of town,
Speaker 3: and his parents sacrificed a great deal in order for
Speaker 3: him to go to college, to go to the junior
Speaker 3: college that he went to, and then later to transfer
Speaker 3: to Virginia Tech. So there was just you know a
Speaker 3: lot of commitment from his family as well for him
Speaker 3: to reach his athletic goals, and those goals, unfortunately for him,
Speaker 3: went unrealized. When he later transferred to Tech, he was
Speaker 3: on the football team there for one year, but did
Speaker 3: not get any significant playing time, and his playing career
Speaker 3: ended in about nineteen seventy five when he had used
Speaker 3: up all his college eligibility and it was certainly, you know,
Speaker 3: not a football career of note, and according to friends
Speaker 3: and acquaintances, he was really frustrated about that and in
Speaker 3: a lot of ways felt like a failure because of it.
Speaker 5: After that, after that disappointment, what was the employment that
Speaker 5: he finally attained and what was his behavior like, we'll
Speaker 5: say just proceeding the year preceding July nineteen eighty in
Speaker 5: terms of his normal behavior, what was his attitude at
Speaker 5: that time? Like and from examples you give.
Speaker 3: Well after about eight years of college after he finally
Speaker 3: graduated from Virginia Tech in nineteen seventy eight, and he
Speaker 3: was a business administration major, had no real job prospects
Speaker 3: when he graduated from Virginia Tech, spent the summer of
Speaker 3: nineteen seventy eight in Richmond, where a friend had a
Speaker 3: line on jobs than there successful living on his own
Speaker 3: en Richmond, moved back to Radford at the end of
Speaker 3: that summer, and then for the two years prior to
Speaker 3: Juna Hall's murder, he went for a variety of jobs.
Speaker 3: Probably the best opportunity he had was in real estate
Speaker 3: at a local real estate agency in town, where the
Speaker 3: owner was well connected and certainly willing to support his career.
Speaker 3: That didn't work out for him. He worked as a
Speaker 3: delivery person for an office supply company in town. Was
Speaker 3: also a substitute teacher at the nearby high school, Kulaski
Speaker 3: County High School, where there are a lot of accounts
Speaker 3: of him challenging the male students at the high school
Speaker 3: physically and then making inappropriate comments to the female students
Speaker 3: that he taught as a substitute teacher, many accounts of that.
Speaker 3: And then at the time of the murder he was
Speaker 3: working as a landscaper on the campus at Radford University,
Speaker 3: just a grounds of labor doing that kind of thing.
Speaker 3: So certainly not the kind of Wark history you'd expect
Speaker 3: from a college graduate.
Speaker 5: Yes, certainly. Now let's get to Gina Hall. She was
Speaker 5: eighteen years old and tell us she went to Colburn
Speaker 5: High School in Wise County. Tell us a little bit
Speaker 5: about Wise County in Colburn and the kind of person
Speaker 5: Gina was from the accounts from her sister, her father
Speaker 5: tell us about her life. What was she? Gina Hall?
Speaker 3: Like, thank you? And really the real story with this
Speaker 3: is just the wonderful kind of that Gina Hall was.
Speaker 3: She was from the small town of Coburn, which is
Speaker 3: about an hour and a half two hours west of Radford,
Speaker 3: tiny little town nestled right in the heart of coal
Speaker 3: mining country in Wise County. Gina was most popular in
Speaker 3: her graduating class and in nineteen seventy eight from Coburn
Speaker 3: High nineteen seventy from Cobra and High School, GA. She
Speaker 3: was petite, very attractive young woman, had a variety of interests.
Speaker 3: She was perhaps ahead of her time. She was very athletic.
Speaker 3: She played on the men's golf team and on most
Speaker 3: occasions she beat all the men on the team. Also
Speaker 3: did gymnastics and then was an accomplished tennis player as well.
Speaker 3: Went to the state championship at her high school in
Speaker 3: tennis and was noted for her skills as a doubles
Speaker 3: player because of her sense of teamwork and camaraderie. It's
Speaker 3: important to note Gina had suffered a childhood accident when
Speaker 3: she was two years old at her house. She was
Speaker 3: wearing a pair of cotton pajamas and brushed up against
Speaker 3: a stove. The pajamas ignited and she had terrible burns
Speaker 3: on the right side of her body, covering about ninety
Speaker 3: percent of the right side of her body from her
Speaker 3: right arm down to just above her knee. These were
Speaker 3: third degree burns and she required required surgeries and excisions
Speaker 3: and skin grafts throughout her childhood up and up until
Speaker 3: you know, till her eighteenth birthday, shortly before she died.
Speaker 3: So because of those scars, Gina was really modest in
Speaker 3: her relationships with men. Now she did. Every account is
Speaker 3: she did keep the scars covered up. Even in the summertime.
Speaker 3: She'd wear a pair of tights under her clothes, and
Speaker 3: she'd wear long sleeves and long pants, so she would,
Speaker 3: you know, she'd have the apparent appearance of an attractive
Speaker 3: young woman, which she she certainly was. But more importantly
Speaker 3: than that, she was she was just a wonderful person,
Speaker 3: just had a had a bright future. She was active
Speaker 3: in her church, she volunteered with with teaching Bible school
Speaker 3: and uh teaching dance classes to you know, to young
Speaker 3: girls in town. There and morally. There were character witnesses
Speaker 3: in her murder trial that stated she was the kind
Speaker 3: of person would would typically never have more than one
Speaker 3: alcoholic drink, in fact, usually drank a non alcoholic drink
Speaker 3: if she was out socially, and was certainly not the
Speaker 3: kind of a person to be promiscuous or as was
Speaker 3: later alleged, to leave a nightclub on her own with
Speaker 3: another man, you know, for romantic reasons. So that's basically
Speaker 3: a little bit about about the kind of person Gena
Speaker 3: Hall was.
Speaker 5: I think it's important to mention, as you do, that
Speaker 5: this extensive scarring that she experienced and she had and
Speaker 5: all these operation surgeries to correct that, still she was
Speaker 5: very modest and that would have factored into her decision
Speaker 5: to have relations with someone that she didn't know and
Speaker 5: wasn't comfortable with. So that was part of what her
Speaker 5: sister Jlana said later that there certainly was that as
Speaker 5: a major factor in her being more inhibited than most
Speaker 5: people in terms of getting in to meet with someone.
Speaker 3: Absolutely and and and uh yeah, Dan, that's that's important
Speaker 3: to note. She was, you know, with someone who would
Speaker 3: would most definitely not put herself in an intimate situation
Speaker 3: with the man. And her sisters even stated at the
Speaker 3: trial and afterwards that that, uh Gina was very concerned
Speaker 3: that that she'd ever even be able to conceive a child.
Speaker 3: That was something she had she discussed with her mother
Speaker 3: and her sister because of this this scarring that she had,
Speaker 3: and and you know, that certainly contributed to her her
Speaker 3: modest behavior and in her romantic relationships. Any relationship she
Speaker 3: had with you know, with boys or men growing up,
Speaker 3: you know, was more more just friends. And that's kind
Speaker 3: of the way she was socially and romantically. Yes.
Speaker 5: Another important thing is too you you talk about her athleticism,
Speaker 5: but also that she loved dancing and that that was
Speaker 5: one of her activities that she really enjoyed, was dancing.
Speaker 5: Let's talk about the Blacksburg Marriott. You say, on campus
Speaker 5: at Virginia Tech here, and what happens that she goes
Speaker 5: out dancing on that date, July twelfth, nineteen eighty.
Speaker 3: Tell us about that circumstances. And one small correction, Dan,
Speaker 3: it was the night of her disappearance was June twenty
Speaker 3: eighth to nineteen eighty, so it was Gene was actually there.
Speaker 3: She was taking summer school classes with her sister Delana.
Speaker 3: They lived together in an off campus apartment. And being
Speaker 3: the summer, you know, there was not the night life
Speaker 3: was there was not as much going on as there
Speaker 3: typically would be during the school year. As I mentioned,
Speaker 3: the town of Radford and Radford University is only only
Speaker 3: about ten to fifteen miles from Virginia Tech. So socially,
Speaker 3: students tend to, you know, Radford students would tend to
Speaker 3: travel to Virginia Tech to go to park using nightclubs
Speaker 3: and so forth, and on the evening of June twenty eighth,
Speaker 3: nineteen eighty, Grena had just finished a really challenging schedule
Speaker 3: of midterm exams. She'd studied hard for them, you know,
Speaker 3: had pulled all nighters the week before, and Gina was
Speaker 3: in the mood to go out and blow off a
Speaker 3: little steam. And for her, that was was to go
Speaker 3: out dancing. All her friends, anyone who knew her said that,
Speaker 3: you know, Gina was, she was a great dancer. She
Speaker 3: loved to dance, and you know, was happiest when she
Speaker 3: was dancing. So she wanted to go out that night.
Speaker 3: Gina's sister elected not to go out with her that night.
Speaker 3: Her sister, Delana, was was apparently you know, tired from
Speaker 3: studying for exams and elected to stay home. So Gina
Speaker 3: did something that night she had never done in her life,
Speaker 3: and tragically enough, she decides to go out by herself.
Speaker 3: She barred her sister's car, went to the Blacksburg Marriott Lounge,
Speaker 3: which in the nineteen seventies and nineteen eighty that was
Speaker 3: the place to go. That was, you know, the dance
Speaker 3: spot to go in in the town of Blacksburg where
Speaker 3: Virginia Tech is. So Gina went there by herself that
Speaker 3: night and got to the club about about ten o'clock
Speaker 3: that night.
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Speaker 5: Now you talk about Ronald and Betty Davis and the
Speaker 5: relationship they have with King, with Skipper King, Bill Skipper King,
Speaker 5: and he's a former Virginia Tech Hokies football player, kind
Speaker 5: of local star. Anyway, tell us about Ronald and Betty
Speaker 5: Davis and how it comes to be that their lake
Speaker 5: house is being able to be used by Bill King.
Speaker 3: Yes, as we mentioned earlier, Bill King was one of
Speaker 3: Stephen Epplei's best friends and they've been friends since they
Speaker 3: were very young, played football together, then went to Virginia
Speaker 3: Tech together football there together. Bill King, as he said,
Speaker 3: was a much more accomplished athlete than Epley and it's
Speaker 3: still still really well known in that area. And Bill
Speaker 3: King's parents, his mother and stepfather had a lake house
Speaker 3: on Clayter Lake, which is a resort lake about three
Speaker 3: miles from Radford. It's a twenty one mile long lake
Speaker 3: that's formed where the New River is is impounded with
Speaker 3: a dam, and ron and Betty Davis being out of town,
Speaker 3: they asked their son and stepson Bill King to keep
Speaker 3: an eye on the house, just you know, to keep
Speaker 3: an eye there. So earlier that day, Bill King picked
Speaker 3: up Stephen Eppley. They went to the house, kind of
Speaker 3: looked around Gavid the once over. Everything looked good, and
Speaker 3: then there were plans later that night if Epley wanted,
Speaker 3: you know, he was certainly had cart wantche to come
Speaker 3: back to the house if if he had a date
Speaker 3: or you know, anything along those lines. So Bill King
Speaker 3: and Stephen Eppley left the lake house that that King
Speaker 3: was house sitting and then went to the blacksburd Marriott Lounge.
Speaker 3: They arrived there at the Marriott Lounge at roughly the
Speaker 3: same time Gina Hall did. In fact, as tragic fate
Speaker 3: would have it, they parked right beside her, and Gina
Speaker 3: Hall walked in the nightclub at about the same time
Speaker 3: as Stephen Epperley, Bill King and then three other male
Speaker 3: friends of King and Epperley.
Speaker 5: What was the arrangement with these best friends, Bill King
Speaker 5: and Steve Epperley. Steve Epperley living at home with his
Speaker 5: parents and this lake house, and you do mention in
Speaker 5: the Ron and Betty Davis are familiar with Bill King
Speaker 5: with their stepson's best friend or a friend Steven Epperley,
Speaker 5: so they're aware of him. Tell us the relationship of
Speaker 5: the arrangement that they have in case something fortuitous happens
Speaker 5: for Stephen Epperley.
Speaker 3: Well, according to Bill King's court testimony in the murder trial,
Speaker 3: approximately six months after the evening in question, Bill King
Speaker 3: had made it clear to Steve Apperley that if Epperley
Speaker 3: had female accompaniment, that he was more than welcome to
Speaker 3: to bring a date back to the lake House that night.
Speaker 3: And you know, that arrangement was understood between them, and
Speaker 3: according to King's testimony, he was perhaps even expected that
Speaker 3: if things went according to plan, that that Steve Epperley
Speaker 3: would would bring a date back to the lake House
Speaker 3: later that night.
Speaker 5: Now, by by witness accounts, what happens in the club
Speaker 5: that night to this conservative Gena Hall or between conservative
Speaker 5: Gena Hall and Stephen Epperly ten years older.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, they they entered the night club about the
Speaker 3: same time. It was crowded. You know, you can picture
Speaker 3: nineteen eighties era disco music playing. You know, one of
Speaker 3: the number one song at that point was celebrate by
Speaker 3: Pooling the Gang, and that kind of kind of described
Speaker 3: the whole vibe of the evening that night. So as
Speaker 3: they entered the club, Gina Hall saw a group of
Speaker 3: friends that she knew she was acquainted with. They were
Speaker 3: sitting at a table near the dance floor. Gina sat
Speaker 3: down with them, started socializing, and then Epperley and Bill
Speaker 3: King and their three friends gathered nearby at a stand
Speaker 3: up circular table, ordered drinks and you know, began talking.
Speaker 3: After a short amount of time, Gina Hall caught Steve
Speaker 3: Epley's eye. Apparently Steve Eppley said hello, introduced himself to
Speaker 3: Gina Hall and asked Gina to dance. And of course, Gina,
Speaker 3: you know someone who loves to dance just for dancing sake.
Speaker 3: Every indication is that you know that she went to
Speaker 3: dance with Epperley, probably not for a romantic reason, but
Speaker 3: just because she wanted to get out on the dance
Speaker 3: floor and dance. They danced together for three or four
Speaker 3: songs and then came off the dance floor and went
Speaker 3: through separate ways, Gina back to her group of friends
Speaker 3: and Epery with his group of friends. There's varying accouncil
Speaker 3: what happened later that night, but it's agreed they you know.
Speaker 3: Over the next forty five minutes or an hour, there
Speaker 3: was not a lot of conversation between Gina Hall and
Speaker 3: Steve Eppley. But then close to midnight, Epley came back
Speaker 3: to talk to Gina and according to court testimony, invited
Speaker 3: her to come back to the lake House at Clayter Lake.
Speaker 3: And there is also evidence and testimony from Bill King
Speaker 3: that Epley gave Gina the impression that there was a
Speaker 3: group of people going back to the lake House at
Speaker 3: Clayter Lake. He didn't give her the impression there was
Speaker 3: going to be any kind of one on one romantic
Speaker 3: interlude with him and Gina, that the entire group of
Speaker 3: people that were in the nightclub, at least one of
Speaker 3: which that Gina knew as well as her friends, that
Speaker 3: they were all going back to the nightclub. Around midnight,
Speaker 3: Gina left with Steve Eppley and Bill King. Bill King
Speaker 3: went out to his car got the key. According to
Speaker 3: King's court testimony, he got the keys to the lake house,
Speaker 3: gave them to Epperly, at which point Epley turned to
Speaker 3: Gina and said you can drive right and Gina said,
Speaker 3: you know, she agreed to drive, And according to Bill
Speaker 3: King and Steve Epperley's well, Bill King's testimony and Steve
Speaker 3: and Steve Epperley's witness statement. At that point, Epley got
Speaker 3: in the car with Gina Hall since he was familiar
Speaker 3: with the route. He drove Gena's car back to the
Speaker 3: Lake House, and then Bill King went back into the
Speaker 3: nightclub rejoined his friends. And that's what happened over the
Speaker 3: you know, over the course of the evening.
Speaker 5: There you talk about, Delena asleep, decided not to go
Speaker 5: to to the nightclub with her sister Gina. She gets
Speaker 5: a phone call. Tell us about that phone call.
Speaker 3: Exactly about one o'clock or one point thirty that night,
Speaker 3: the phone rings at Delana's apartment, at the apartment she
Speaker 3: lives in with Gina, and Delane answers the phone. It's
Speaker 3: Gina on the other line. Delana later testified in court
Speaker 3: that Gina's voice sounded nervous, uneasy, and out of character,
Speaker 3: and when Delanne asked her where she was, Gina said,
Speaker 3: I'm at de Lake. Delana said who are you there with.
Speaker 3: She said, I'm with Steve, and Delana said, well, get
Speaker 3: home right away, and shortly after that the line abruptly
Speaker 3: went dead. Deleyna being awoke in the middle of the night,
Speaker 3: she went back to bed, and then fast forwarding a
Speaker 3: little bit ahead, she woke up early the next morning,
Speaker 3: remember the phone call, was immediately concerned for her sister,
Speaker 3: checked her sister's bedroom, Gina was not there. Looked out
Speaker 3: in the parking lot of their apartment complex, and Gina's
Speaker 3: car was not there. And that was sadly, that was
Speaker 3: the last that that Delana Hall heard or her sister Gina.
Speaker 5: You say in the ensuing panic and growing panic that
Speaker 5: she tries to call her father, but back in the day,
Speaker 5: even before answering machines are really popular, she can't even
Speaker 5: get a hold of her father at that time, can she?
Speaker 3: She can't. Yes, Delena spent that morning up until about noon,
Speaker 3: just you know, getting friends together that she knew, calling
Speaker 3: around looking for Gina, you know, and you think about it,
Speaker 3: and so often in a college town, it's not unusual
Speaker 3: for someone to you know, to not come home the
Speaker 3: next morning and and you know, to be missing for
Speaker 3: a little bit. But nonetheless, Delena was worried immediately. She
Speaker 3: spent the morning looking for Gina, calling around, asking friends
Speaker 3: to help. And then it wasn't until the afternoon. Actually
Speaker 3: that she called her father, was unable to reach her father,
Speaker 3: and finally got in touch with him later later that night.
Speaker 5: Let's go back to Bill King and his friend that
Speaker 5: he ends up at the lake house. Later Robin Robinson
Speaker 5: tell us what they witness when they go to the
Speaker 5: lake house and speak with Stephen Epperley.
Speaker 3: Okay, going back to the night or the evening in question,
Speaker 3: the evening before, so after the phone call from from Gina,
Speaker 3: about three and a half hours later, about three o'clock
Speaker 3: three point thirty that morning, Bill King comes back to
Speaker 3: the lake house. Bill King's evening that night, he stayed
Speaker 3: at the Marriotte Lounge, closed it down with his friends,
Speaker 3: and then they went to a party at an apartment
Speaker 3: near Virginia Tech. Bill came connected with an old girlfriend there,
Speaker 3: invited his girlfriend to come back to the lake House
Speaker 3: with him. Her name, as you said, was Robin Robinson.
Speaker 3: She agreed to come back and go for a swim.
Speaker 3: So they get back to the lake house about three
Speaker 3: o'clock three thirty in the morning, depending on whose account
Speaker 3: it was, they walk in the in the door of
Speaker 3: the lake house, and according to Bill King's court testimony,
Speaker 3: he deliberately made a lot of noise. He knew that
Speaker 3: that Everly was, you know, was there with the young ladies,
Speaker 3: so he deliberately made noise so as not to interrupt anyone.
Speaker 3: And they walked in the lake house at three level house.
Speaker 3: They entered on the main floor, which was the second floor,
Speaker 3: and as they walked into the kitchen, they heard Steve
Speaker 3: Beverley's voice coming from down in the bottom floor, which
Speaker 3: was a wreck room down there. Steve Beppley said, Bill,
Speaker 3: is that you. Bill said, yes, what are you doing?
Speaker 3: And Steve said, well, you know I'm here. We're getting
Speaker 3: ready to leave it a little bit. Bill said you
Speaker 3: don't have to leave, Steve. We're just going to go swimming,
Speaker 3: and Steve's Steve Epley said no, she's got to be
Speaker 3: getting home from Then. Bill King and his date and
Speaker 3: Robin Robinson they got towels. They walk out the back
Speaker 3: door of the lake house. They go down to a
Speaker 3: lock doc just right at the end of the backyard.
Speaker 3: They go out to the pier. Robin Robinson goes swimming.
Speaker 3: Bill King does not. He sits on the edge of
Speaker 3: the pier with his feet in the lake, and after
Speaker 3: five or ten minutes, Steve Epperley apparently blinks the lights
Speaker 3: on the back of the house. They both turn around
Speaker 3: and look and Steve says, okay, we're leaving now, and
Speaker 3: you know they Bill King did them farewell, and that
Speaker 3: evening that was the last day they saw of Steve Epperley. Now,
Speaker 3: one thing I left out before they left, As Bill
Speaker 3: King and Steve Epperley were having sort of a blind
Speaker 3: conversation with Bill King on the second floor at the
Speaker 3: top of the stairs, Steve Eppley down on the first
Speaker 3: floor in darkness, Robin Robinson did get a glimpse of
Speaker 3: Steve Epperly. She did not see Gena Hall, but she
Speaker 3: saw Steve Epperley. He was standing shirtless with a blue towel,
Speaker 3: apparently drying himself off. And while Robin Robinson saw Steve Eppley,
Speaker 3: Bill King did not. And it's important to know that
Speaker 3: both of them they heard Steve Epperley's voice, but at
Speaker 3: no point that night did they see or hear Gina Hall.
Speaker 5: You mentioned one other thing that's important later that they
Speaker 5: do notice that they don't recognize as anything other than
Speaker 5: in terms of the carpet in the rec room. When
Speaker 5: they finally do go down there? So what happens? What
Speaker 5: does the experience later?
Speaker 3: It's important right, Well, later that morning, after Steve Eppley
Speaker 3: had left the lake house, Bill King and Robinson, Robin
Speaker 3: Robinson were on the first floor where Epperley had previously
Speaker 3: been and Bill King noticed a wet spot on the floor.
Speaker 3: He stepped in it with his foot, and then later
Speaker 3: that night, when he and Robin were actually laying on
Speaker 3: the floor with some pillows, he commentates to Robin, my
Speaker 3: foot is in something wet. So that, as we'll later
Speaker 3: talk about, that was turned out to be noteworthy.
Speaker 5: Now what happens also with Bill King in terms he
Speaker 5: still has access obviously to this lake house and it's
Speaker 5: a luxurious place, and he has a bunch of buddies
Speaker 5: that he's been friends with forever and they have the
Speaker 5: time off. So what does he do and tell us
Speaker 5: about Stephen Pepperley's behavior that next day?
Speaker 3: Well, the next day, as we talked about previously, Gina
Speaker 3: Hall's sister Delana is frantically looking for Gina along with
Speaker 3: friends that are helping out. And meanwhile, back at the
Speaker 3: lake house, Bill King is hosted a gathering, a cookout
Speaker 3: or an afternoon party with Steve Eppley invited, as well
Speaker 3: as the three other friends that were there that evening. Well,
Speaker 3: I'm sorry two of the three friends. One was a
Speaker 3: man named Jan Fisher, the other was man named Bucky Cochran,
Speaker 3: and both of them were in their their mid to
Speaker 3: late twenties as well. So they're at the lake House.
Speaker 3: They're throwing horseshoes down by the lake. Some of them
Speaker 3: are swimming and going into lake. You know, it's a
Speaker 3: nice June June afternoon. Assumingly, they're talking about the evening before,
Speaker 3: and at one point Steve Epperley asks Bill King, Hey, Bill,
Speaker 3: can I go up and get a drink? Get a soda?
Speaker 3: And Bill King says to him, sure, Steve, you know
Speaker 3: where they're at the side note is Steve Eppley has
Speaker 3: been coming to the lake House with King for years,
Speaker 3: so he knew the layout and the lay of the
Speaker 3: land there. So Steve Eppley goes back in the lake
Speaker 3: house apparently to get a soda, and he's gone for
Speaker 3: longer than it would take to get a drink. He's gone.
Speaker 3: King later testifight in Corty's gone for about ten minutes.
Speaker 3: In fact, you know he leaves the party for so
Speaker 3: long that Bill when he gets back, Bill King says,
Speaker 3: what happened to you, Steve? Did You're falling a hole?
Speaker 3: And Appley says, I couldn't find an opener. So it
Speaker 3: was noteworthy that Appley did go back in the lake
Speaker 3: House for an extended amount of time while you know,
Speaker 3: while they were cookout or barbecue was going on the
Speaker 3: next day.
Speaker 5: Now, meanwhile, you talk about the effort with the Delana
Speaker 5: to contact her father and people that are quickly gathering
Speaker 5: and organizing to be able to look for her in
Speaker 5: any conceivable way they think that she may be found.
Speaker 5: Tell us what she does, which is very very interesting
Speaker 5: with the radio station K ninety two in the PSA.
Speaker 3: Exactly well. As and it goes on, the search for
Speaker 3: Gina becomes more and more urgent. The police are contacted,
Speaker 3: and as you probably know there, you know, she's told
Speaker 3: that she can't officially file a police report until Gina
Speaker 3: has been missing for twenty four hours, But just the same,
Speaker 3: since it's not in her nature to be missing, you know,
Speaker 3: they were going to keep a lookout. The next mister
Speaker 3: Hall gets home late that night. He'd been out at
Speaker 3: a corporate golf outing. He agrees to come to town
Speaker 3: the next morning. Is obviously worried to death about his daughter.
Speaker 3: So the next morning, which would be Monday morning, there's
Speaker 3: still no sign of Gina. Mister Hall gets to town
Speaker 3: early that morning. There's many volunteers both from the campus
Speaker 3: of Radford University as well as friends from back home
Speaker 3: at Coburn, and mister Hall, John Hall, has mobilized the effort.
Speaker 3: He's got some people out looking for Gina, other people,
Speaker 3: you know, calling on the phone to talk to people.
Speaker 3: And Delena realizes the need to get the word out
Speaker 3: in the region throughout that area, which is called the
Speaker 3: New River Valley. You know that there's that there's a
Speaker 3: missing person. So she calls a radio station which is
Speaker 3: out of the Roanoke area, which is a larger town
Speaker 3: about forty five minutes away. Delanna calls them and asks
Speaker 3: them to make an announcement on the radio station, and
Speaker 3: the just the receptionist politely tells Delena, you know, listen,
Speaker 3: if we made every announcement people asked us to do,
Speaker 3: we wouldn't have any time to play music. So Deleana
Speaker 3: gets in her car drive or gets in another car,
Speaker 3: makes a beeline for the radio station, basically gets there
Speaker 3: and talks to the manager and insists that right away
Speaker 3: he does a public service announcement to be on the
Speaker 3: lookout announcement announcing a missing person. So that goes into
Speaker 3: the rotation of the radio station playing you know, every
Speaker 3: every hour at the top and the bottom of the hour,
Speaker 3: and this announcement is going out to get the word
Speaker 3: out that that Gena Hall is missing. And as Monday
Speaker 3: turns to Tuesday, the search continues to intensify. By now
Speaker 3: the police are involved and there's an act of all
Speaker 3: out search in the region for missing Gina Hall.
Speaker 5: To lend credence too, that she wasn't the kind of
Speaker 5: person that would go and be irresponsible, if we can
Speaker 5: call it that, in that there was a friend, the
Speaker 5: person that she'd had a long distance relationship with that
Speaker 5: was scheduled to meet her at seven point thirty in
Speaker 5: the morning the following day. Gina tell us about this person,
Speaker 5: and of course that person has to be eliminated as
Speaker 5: a person of interest once it's decided that she is
Speaker 5: absolutely missing.
Speaker 3: Exactly, and this person was initially viewed by the police
Speaker 3: as a potential suspect. His name was Greg Bass. He
Speaker 3: was from near Gina's hometown and they've been friends for
Speaker 3: several years. And Greg Bass, after high school, went into
Speaker 3: the Air Force while Juna went to college. He went
Speaker 3: into the Air Force, and they'd had had a long
Speaker 3: distance relationship mostly you know, back then, the pre internet era,
Speaker 3: it was mostly phone calls and or more so letters
Speaker 3: and then the occasional overseas phone call. And Greg Bass
Speaker 3: had been stationed in Italy and was home on leave
Speaker 3: and he and Gina had agreed that he was back
Speaker 3: home visiting friends and on his way back to Baltimore
Speaker 3: to fly back to Italy. He was going to stop
Speaker 3: in Radford that morning and spend Sunday with Gina. So
Speaker 3: they had plans to meet early that morning that Sunday
Speaker 3: morning at eight o'clock and Greg Bass came by the house.
Speaker 3: Gina was not there, so just like Gina's sister Delana,
Speaker 3: Greg was upset. He knew how out of character it
Speaker 3: was for Gina, you know, she was a really she
Speaker 3: was a responsible person, and so he was concerned as well.
Speaker 3: And Greg Bass eventually helped with the search and later
Speaker 3: on that we he was actually he took a polygraph
Speaker 3: test the police wanted just to make sure to rule
Speaker 3: him out of the suspect, and obviously he aced the
Speaker 3: polygraph as having no knowledge of Gena's disappearance or her whereabouts.
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Speaker 5: Let's talk about the look or the search for her
Speaker 5: car and what happens and also how Bill King eventually
Speaker 5: hears about Gina Hall missing and what is his reaction
Speaker 5: is as a result.
Speaker 3: Well, the Monday after Gina's disappearance, there's still no sign
Speaker 3: of Gina and just is disturbingly no sign of the
Speaker 3: car she was driving, which was her sister's car, but
Speaker 3: Gena and Elena shared the vehicle Finally, about midday on Monday,
Speaker 3: two young men who were from the town of Cobra
Speaker 3: and were out searching and they're driving down a road
Speaker 3: called Hazel Hollow Road and they see Gina's car. They
Speaker 3: see it interestingly enough, the trunk is open and her
Speaker 3: car is parked directly underneath the railroad trestle. It's parked
Speaker 3: under the trestle, which is part of the inspiration for
Speaker 3: the name of the book, under the Trestles. So these
Speaker 3: two people immediately notify police. Police and the state police
Speaker 3: come to the car. The car is tested for fingerprints.
Speaker 3: The trunk had been left open, and disturbingly, there was
Speaker 3: blood and there was hair in the trunk, fresh blood,
Speaker 3: and the blood was later later learned to be a
Speaker 3: match for Gina Hall. Now this was pre and a
Speaker 3: pre DNA, this was nineteen eighty. DNA didn't come on
Speaker 3: the scene un till nineteen eighty six. The blood in
Speaker 3: the trunk was type O blood. It was fresh blood
Speaker 3: and it matched genus blood type.
Speaker 5: Now we talk about Bill King and how he hears
Speaker 5: about this and his reaction. What does he do, What
Speaker 5: does he say to Steve Epperley? What does Steve say
Speaker 5: in reaction to that tell us about that.
Speaker 3: Exchange right well. According to trial testimony as well as
Speaker 3: as police interviews, Bill King and Steve Apperley, neither one
Speaker 3: had any knowledge that the Gina had disappeared until Tuesday.
Speaker 3: Until the day after her car was found. On Tuesday,
Speaker 3: Bill King heard the radio announcement on the radio station
Speaker 3: about the missing girl about Gina Hall, and although Bill
Speaker 3: King was not well acquainted with her, he had just
Speaker 3: met her briefly that night. Immediately he knew that this
Speaker 3: was the girl that Steve Epperley was with. So Bill
Speaker 3: King somewhat frantically goes to find Steve Epperley. He finds
Speaker 3: Eppery on the campus at Bradford University working on a
Speaker 3: grounds maintenance group. Epperley gets in the car with Bill
Speaker 3: King and Bill King says, listen, Steve, I just heard
Speaker 3: that girl you're with Saturday night is missing. You need
Speaker 3: to notify the police right away that you were with
Speaker 3: her Saturday night. Otherwise they're going to think you had
Speaker 3: something to do with it, you know, or something to
Speaker 3: do with her missing. And he pretty much tells Epperly,
Speaker 3: you know, hey, you need to get out in front
Speaker 3: of this right away. So that you know, so that
Speaker 3: the police won't think you had anything to do with it.
Speaker 3: And every indication was that that at this point Bill
Speaker 3: King did not suspect Steve Epperley had anything to do
Speaker 3: in a way of foul play with Gina's disappearance. And
Speaker 3: at this point she's still a missing person, she's not
Speaker 3: believed to be dead yet.
Speaker 5: Now what is his reaction and what does he do
Speaker 5: in regards to his friend's request or demand or what
Speaker 5: his friend has said he should do.
Speaker 3: Well, that's a good question. And at that point, when
Speaker 3: Bill King tells Epperly about that Gina is missing, Epley
Speaker 3: makes the first of about five disturbing statements that are
Speaker 3: they're not confessions, but they're what attorneys would later call
Speaker 3: implied admissions. There's something that something that an innocent person
Speaker 3: would not say. That's just inappropriate. So when Bill King
Speaker 3: tells Epperly that that Gena Hall is missing, Epiley's reply was, well, Bill,
Speaker 3: who else knows about this? And Bill King says, well,
Speaker 3: I was just back down at the gym at the
Speaker 3: weightlifting club they both went to, and Bill King says,
Speaker 3: everyone there knows about it, and they're all taught talking
Speaker 3: about it. And Appley has a request for King. He says, well, Bill,
Speaker 3: will you go down there tell them to talk it
Speaker 3: down and not broadcast it. So Bill King leaves the
Speaker 3: meeting with Apperley sort of scratching his head, you know,
Speaker 3: wondering why his friend would would make a request like that.
Speaker 5: Yes, certainly. Now you introduce a couple of main characters
Speaker 5: in this in terms of the police investigation and prosecution.
Speaker 5: He talk about Austin Hall, of course, no relation to
Speaker 5: John Hall and Captain Williams. So tell us about, interestingly,
Speaker 5: how Austin Hall becomes involved with this despite not seemingly
Speaker 5: have the enough experience to be able to lead this investigation.
Speaker 5: Tell us how he comes to be the lead investigator here,
Speaker 5: and tell us about Captain Williams as well.
Speaker 3: Sure well, Austin Hall was a Virginia State Police officer,
Speaker 3: and they had joint their jurisdiction in the search for
Speaker 3: Gina along with the Radford Police Department. Austin Hall's typical
Speaker 3: duties were to patrol Interstate eighty one and the state
Speaker 3: routes in Pulaski County and the surrounding county. So percent
Speaker 3: of Austin's Hall job ninety percent of Austin Hall's job
Speaker 3: was traffic enforcement. When Gina's missing car was found, there
Speaker 3: was another murder on the far end of the county
Speaker 3: that the state police investigators were working on. So Austin
Speaker 3: Hall came to investigate the missing vehicle, and then as
Speaker 3: it turned into murder investigation, because he was already working
Speaker 3: the case, and because quite frankly, he did a really
Speaker 3: good job in the investigation, especially in the early stages,
Speaker 3: Austin Hall was appointed as the lead investigator. So he
Speaker 3: took the point in the investigation, won in the search
Speaker 3: for Gina Hall, and then it became a murder investigation.
Speaker 3: He was the lead investigator in that now. Later that day,
Speaker 3: on Tuesday, Steve Epperley, at Bill King's request, when he
Speaker 3: got off work, he went to the state Police station
Speaker 3: in the nearby town of Dublin. Trooper Hall. Austin Hall
Speaker 3: met with him there and took Epley's statement. Epley told
Speaker 3: Trooper Hall that he was in fact the guy that
Speaker 3: was with Gina Hall that Saturday night. According to Epperley's statements,
Speaker 3: they danced together, they left the night club at midnight.
Speaker 3: Gina left willingly. According to Eperley, she went back to
Speaker 3: the lake house with him willingly, and in Eperley's account,
Speaker 3: they went out to the lake. Epley went swimming, Gina
Speaker 3: did not. And then when they came back in, Epleley
Speaker 3: said he made a sexual advance toward Gina. Gina declined it.
Speaker 3: According to Eperley, Gina's statement was she'd once had a
Speaker 3: bad experience with a man, so she did not, you know,
Speaker 3: did not want to to go any further with Epperly.
Speaker 3: And according to Eperley, he told police he was quote
Speaker 3: unquote fine with that. And Epley said that then after
Speaker 3: seeing Bill King and Robin Robinson that night, which by
Speaker 3: the way, according to his account, both King and Robinson
Speaker 3: they both saw and heard Gena Hall, and Epley then
Speaker 3: gave Gena Hall a riot or they left the lake
Speaker 3: house in Gena Hall's car, Gina driving this time, and
Speaker 3: she dropped Epperly off back at his house about four
Speaker 3: in the morning, at the house he shared with his parents.
Speaker 3: He said, said good night, and they parted ways amicably.
Speaker 3: And according to Epley's story, that was the last that
Speaker 3: he saw Gena Hall.
Speaker 5: You talk about his demeanor and police normally are trained,
Speaker 5: well not normally, they are trained to look for the
Speaker 5: signs of deception. But there is that one exception, and
Speaker 5: that's the true psychopath. What was his demeanor threw out
Speaker 5: any kind of questioning.
Speaker 3: Yes, well, according to Trooper Austin Hall, especially in that
Speaker 3: first interview, Appley absolutely gave the impression of someone who
Speaker 3: had had nothing to hide. He was his appearance, whose
Speaker 3: clean cut, He was not nervous in the least, you know,
Speaker 3: was very calm, cool and collected. His account of the
Speaker 3: evening was very matter of fact. There was no doubt
Speaker 3: in his account. And according to Trooper Hall's written statement,
Speaker 3: Appley gave the impression of someone who had absolutely nothing
Speaker 3: to hide. But at the same time, Trooper Hall, certainly,
Speaker 3: with the experience he had, he knew, you know, knew
Speaker 3: to take a closer look at Epperley and certainly not
Speaker 3: to rule him out yet.
Speaker 5: Now this is a fast moving case and as a
Speaker 5: result they an investigation is worked the same way. Then
Speaker 5: an extension, an exhaustive search was conducted. Tell us about
Speaker 5: the magnitude of the search that was conducted for Gina.
Speaker 3: Well, the search and this certainly says a lot for
Speaker 3: the good folks that live in that part of the state.
Speaker 3: In Radford, Blacksburg, Christiansburg, and the New River Valley. There
Speaker 3: were hundreds of volunteers who assisted in the search. They
Speaker 3: searched the New River corridor, you know, the two or
Speaker 3: three mile stretch between Clayter Lake and Radford. There were
Speaker 3: volunteer scuba divers who came and searched both the lake
Speaker 3: and the river, as well as people searching a lot
Speaker 3: of the private land in that area. A lot of
Speaker 3: people volunteered, were people who gave up their vacation time
Speaker 3: from work, their family vacations to look for Gina. And
Speaker 3: the search went on. This was June twenty eight, whence
Speaker 3: you went missing. The search continued through July and through August,
Speaker 3: and you know, people were still out looking. There was
Speaker 3: alsolaw enforcement as it goes in these types of investigations,
Speaker 3: from surrounding counties and even surrounding states. There were many
Speaker 3: searches where there were you know, were one hundred or
Speaker 3: even a couple hundred law enforcement agents searching on weekends
Speaker 3: for Gina.
Speaker 5: In the course of this. It's very interesting all the
Speaker 5: people like you say that joined in the search. Even
Speaker 5: Gina's boss at the movie theater went for a week
Speaker 5: with his boat searching and then eventually found something of
Speaker 5: evidentiary value. But the person that didn't go on any
Speaker 5: of the searches with Stephen Epperley tell us about some
Speaker 5: of the evidence that they eventually find. It takes a
Speaker 5: while and extensive searching, but tell us some of the
Speaker 5: things that they find in these searches from these volunteers.
Speaker 3: Well, the day after Epley gave his police statement that night,
Speaker 3: Trooper Hall took him to the lake House. House was locked.
Speaker 3: Bill King was not there, you know, being in the
Speaker 3: age before cell phones, they were unable to get in
Speaker 3: touch with Bill King to get into the house or
Speaker 3: to get a search warrant. So it wasn't until the
Speaker 3: following day, that Wednesday, after Genie's disappearance, the police were
Speaker 3: finally able to get Bill King's permission to search the
Speaker 3: lake House and inside the house, at first glance, or
Speaker 3: you know, to a layman, someone not trained in investigation techniques,
Speaker 3: there was there was no sign of anything out of
Speaker 3: the way except for a large stain on the carpet
Speaker 3: on the first floor. It appeared to be a blood
Speaker 3: stain about the size of a large watermelon that someone
Speaker 3: had tried to clean up. Was faded pink. There were
Speaker 3: also when then when investigators and this was Troop Austin
Speaker 3: Hall as well as Gerald Williams, who was the head
Speaker 3: of detectives in the town of Radford, along with some
Speaker 3: other officers. When they got down on off flours and
Speaker 3: started searching, they found evidence of blood splatter, just a
Speaker 3: little small areas where there were splattered blood and certainly
Speaker 3: signs of an attack. It was also clear there had
Speaker 3: been attempt at cleaning up a lot of the blood.
Speaker 3: Like there had been a fairly substantial amount of blood.
Speaker 3: But for example, one of the areas where there was
Speaker 3: blood evidence was on a refrigerator door in that first
Speaker 3: floor there was any utility room and it appeared that
Speaker 3: someone had cleaned up, had wiped the blood off, but
Speaker 3: at the bottom of the refrigerator there was blood congealed
Speaker 3: at the bottom. Police that Wednesday they took over thirty
Speaker 3: thirty samples of blood and of hair evidence from the
Speaker 3: lake house and disturbingly there was also an ankle bracelet
Speaker 3: that Gina had worn that night. It was a favorite
Speaker 3: ankle bracelet, one that she always wore when she went
Speaker 3: out dancing. It was found on the stairway of the
Speaker 3: lake House going down to the first floor. So once
Speaker 3: all those pieces of evidence were gathered and taken into evidence,
Speaker 3: became clear that there had been a violent attack at
Speaker 3: the lake House. Of course, Stephen Epperley and Gina Hall
Speaker 3: were both both identified as being in that room, and
Speaker 3: when the blood and hair samples were tested, they were
Speaker 3: a match with Gina Hall's blood type and as best
Speaker 3: could be matched in nineteen eighty you know, the hair
Speaker 3: was consistent with Gina Hall's hair as well. Then in
Speaker 3: terms of supplemental evidence, as they searched the river area,
Speaker 3: there was two towels were found, including one towel that
Speaker 3: appeared to be similar to the towel that Robin Robinson
Speaker 3: had seen Epperly drying himself off with. There was blood
Speaker 3: on that blood on another towel that was missing from
Speaker 3: the lake house, and both of those towels were found
Speaker 3: along the New River on the opposite side of the
Speaker 3: railroad trestle from where Gina's car was found. And disturbingly,
Speaker 3: the clothing that Gina had worn that night before her
Speaker 3: outfit was found tied together into a bundle with a
Speaker 3: considerable amount of blood. Owner outfit and both of her
Speaker 3: shoes were later found in the vicinity of the Radford
Speaker 3: side of the New River as well.
Speaker 5: Now, in this investigation, what we talked about in the opening,
Speaker 5: again very unique case and story, is the reluctance from
Speaker 5: prosecutors and that being Attorney Shockley, for their reluctance to
Speaker 5: try to prosecute a case without finding Gina's body. Without
Speaker 5: finding a body, it becomes incredibly difficult. And you mentioned
Speaker 5: the precedent in other states, and you mentioned in the
Speaker 5: US and in the world even so tell us a
Speaker 5: little bit about this very interesting factor in this case,
Speaker 5: the idea that no body, no conviction.
Speaker 3: Well, that's a good point, and it's important to note
Speaker 3: first that as evidence continued to mount against Stephen Epperley,
Speaker 3: it was just an overwhelming, circumstantial case in terms of
Speaker 3: the evidence. There was witness testimony, and then there were
Speaker 3: also several other statements that Epley had made that were
Speaker 3: implied in missions. They weren't confessions, but they were things
Speaker 3: that an innocent person would not say or do. And
Speaker 3: as well as Epley's background, were two police reports of
Speaker 3: sexual assaults by Epperley that were certainly similar to the
Speaker 3: situation with Gina, and in both of them, he had
Speaker 3: choked or strangled the victims, one to the point of unconsciousness. So,
Speaker 3: given Eperley's background as well as the evidence against him,
Speaker 3: prosecutor and the investigators were one hundred percent sure that
Speaker 3: Epperly was their man. Now, as you just said, they
Speaker 3: were missing the biggest piece of evidence, and that was
Speaker 3: Gina Hall's body. As the summer progressed, it was August.
Speaker 3: She'd been missing for over sixty days. Was totally against
Speaker 3: her character her. You know, they knew she was not
Speaker 3: someone who would disappear or run away or choose to
Speaker 3: live life in absentia. So Shockley, the Pulaski County Commonwealth Attorney,
Speaker 3: was a young, ambitious prosecutor by the name of Everett
Speaker 3: Shockley Schockolet was only twenty nine years old. He had
Speaker 3: just been elected in the past year in a very
Speaker 3: close election, and was a young graduate from law school
Speaker 3: with the College of William and Mary. And interestingly enough,
Speaker 3: one of the cases he studied in a criminal law
Speaker 3: course in law school was no body murder cases, and
Speaker 3: up until that point, there had been four three other
Speaker 3: cases in the United States where someone had been convicted
Speaker 3: of murder without a body, without a confession or without
Speaker 3: an eyewitness. So Shockley and his assistant commonwealth attorney, Francister Williger,
Speaker 3: they spent some time studying the president for those cases,
Speaker 3: one of which was a landmark case in California in
Speaker 3: the nineteen fifties, and Chocolate became convinced that he could
Speaker 3: take this case to trial even though it had never
Speaker 3: been done in Virginia, had only been done three times
Speaker 3: around the country, and that with the circumstantial evidence he
Speaker 3: had he could he could get a murder conviction. Now,
Speaker 3: the advice Shockley got from his peers, from fellow commonwealth
Speaker 3: attorneys in other counties and around the state, as well
Speaker 3: as a judge who often gave him advice, was not
Speaker 3: to indict Eperly for murder. The big fear was double
Speaker 3: jeopardy that Everley would get an acquittal, and then even
Speaker 3: if Gina's body did show up, that they could not
Speaker 3: hold him accountable because he'd been tried for the for
Speaker 3: the murder once and found not guilty. So, after spending
Speaker 3: the latter part of the summer pondering it, finally Everett Shockley,
Speaker 3: basically risking his career, he decides to indict Steve Eppley
Speaker 3: for murder. In early September, Trooper Austin Hall goes before
Speaker 3: a grand jury. And an interesting note is even getting
Speaker 3: a grand jury indictment is no slam dunk. You know,
Speaker 3: they were concerned that a grand jury would not indict
Speaker 3: without the body. Everett Shockley went before the grand jury,
Speaker 3: which in Virginia it's more like a boardroom presentation than
Speaker 3: it is a you know, a trial or a testimony.
Speaker 3: So Austin Hall by himself just went in with a
Speaker 3: grand jury. He calmly and in an understated fashion, just
Speaker 3: laid out the facts of the case that Gina was missing,
Speaker 3: she was most certainly dead, and then he laid out
Speaker 3: all the circumstantial evidence against Epperly, and the grand jury
Speaker 3: voted unanisdently to indict Eperly for murder. And on September
Speaker 3: the eighth, Epley was arrested in Roanoke, Virginia, where he
Speaker 3: had moved to escape death threats that he was receiving
Speaker 3: in Radford, and he was arrested and taken into custody,
Speaker 3: charged with first degree murder.
Speaker 5: Now you also talk about that it's very interesting too
Speaker 5: that there's a prosecutorial advance in certain states and virgin
Speaker 5: is closer to New York than say, Texas. Tell us
Speaker 5: about that little bit of an advantage again, a little
Speaker 5: bit of quite a bit of a factor in this
Speaker 5: exactly well.
Speaker 3: With regard to discovery law, states vary on the amount
Speaker 3: of information that the prosecution is required to disclose about
Speaker 3: their case to the defense. And at one end of
Speaker 3: the spectrum is a state like Florida, which is a
Speaker 3: very friendly state to a criminal, where the prosecution's case
Speaker 3: is pretty much an open book and you're you know,
Speaker 3: if you're charged with the crime, your defense attorney gets
Speaker 3: every bit of information they can from the from the prosecutor.
Speaker 3: You know, it's basically an open book. The other end
Speaker 3: of the spectrum would be New York, where the prosecutor
Speaker 3: is only required to disclose just the smallest amount of
Speaker 3: information to the defense, which makes it easier to get
Speaker 3: a prosecute. Now, on that spectrum, Virginia would be closest
Speaker 3: to New York, you know, not not as extreme, but
Speaker 3: certainly with regard to discovery law, Virginia is a much
Speaker 3: more prosecution friendly state. Now, come off, attorney, Ever, Shockley
Speaker 3: very wisely took advantage of that. If he could have
Speaker 3: just gotten a murder charge through a magistrate, he would
Speaker 3: have had to have disclosed a lot of the information,
Speaker 3: a lot of the evidence that he had against Epperly,
Speaker 3: which would give Epley's attorneys plenty of time and resources
Speaker 3: to prepare their defense. But having gone the grand jury
Speaker 3: route with a grand jury indictment, there was only a
Speaker 3: minimum amount of discovery information that Everett Shockley was required
Speaker 3: to disclose to Epley's defense attorneys. And it's interesting to
Speaker 3: note Epley did not have the money for an attorney.
Speaker 3: His parents due to the fact that they had you know,
Speaker 3: had paid for his college education and had also paid
Speaker 3: for attorneys for his defense and the two Great trials,
Speaker 3: they were not only did they not have money to
Speaker 3: pay for an attorney for their son, but they also
Speaker 3: were unable to pay bail for him. So for much
Speaker 3: of the fall of nineteen eighty Epley stayed in jail
Speaker 3: and was unable to make bail, and he was appointed
Speaker 3: two public defenders who were both Kulaski County attorneys. One
Speaker 3: was Woody Lookabill and the other was David Warburton. These
Speaker 3: were two very very capable attorneys, you know, good attorneys.
Speaker 3: But it's also important to note they did not have
Speaker 3: experience in defending someone in murder charges, much less a
Speaker 3: murder of this magnitude that every indication it was going
Speaker 3: to be the trial of the century in Virginia.
Speaker 5: Now you talk about Austin Hall and his crucial role
Speaker 5: in this, and you talk about again that Bill King
Speaker 5: testified at this and even Stephen Epperley's mother sadly tell
Speaker 5: us what challenges that were at this trial that the
Speaker 5: characterized it and tell us a little bit more about
Speaker 5: what occurs at this trial.
Speaker 3: Great question. Well, the biggest challenge for the prosecution was
Speaker 3: it was as if they had to prove you know,
Speaker 3: they actually had three trials. One they had to prove
Speaker 3: that Gina Hall was in fact dead. Two they had
Speaker 3: to prove that she was murdered, and then three they
Speaker 3: had to prove that Steve Apperley did it all without
Speaker 3: any direct evidence, no eyewitness testimony, and you know, without
Speaker 3: Gina Hall's remains to prove that she was dead. So
Speaker 3: in the trial, the first thing that the Commonwealth was
Speaker 3: allowed to do was to call character witnesses. And in Virginia,
Speaker 3: interesting to note, in a felony trial, character witnesses are
Speaker 3: typically not allowed, but in this case. Given the unique
Speaker 3: nature of the no body prosecution, the judge allowed character
Speaker 3: witnesses to testify to speak to Gina Hall's character. So
Speaker 3: uh three of Gina's friends from from college and from
Speaker 3: high school testified as to you know, to her good nature,
Speaker 3: to how much she valued her friends and family. Her
Speaker 3: father testified that you know, what a what a great
Speaker 3: child she had been, and that she had not had
Speaker 3: any emotional problems growing up. And then her sister also
Speaker 3: testified at the very beginning of the trial, also testifying
Speaker 3: to her sister's character and to the to the kind
Speaker 3: of person she was. So once those six character witnesses
Speaker 3: had testified, another witness was a someone from church, their
Speaker 3: minister's wife who had worked closely with Gina in church,
Speaker 3: and so at the end of their testimony the very
Speaker 3: beginning of the trial, the feeling was that the jury
Speaker 3: came to understand that if Gina had not been heard from,
Speaker 3: there was no other alternative that that she was dead.
Speaker 3: The probably the most damning testimony at the trial came
Speaker 3: from from Epley's good friend Bill King, who King laid
Speaker 3: out Epley's whereabouts on the night in question, talked about
Speaker 3: coming in that you know that day or that evening
Speaker 3: of the murder, and then talked about Epley's behavior the
Speaker 3: next day. And Bill King also testified that about five
Speaker 3: days after Jena's disappearance, he asked Epley point blank. He
Speaker 3: asked him, said Steve, did you kill her? And Epley's reply,
Speaker 3: you know, you think what your reply would be if
Speaker 3: you were innocent someone asked you that question. Epley's reply was,
Speaker 3: I don't know. Bill will have to see. So that
Speaker 3: was another one of the implied admissions from from Epery.
Speaker 3: Now the witness and the trial that got the most
Speaker 3: that's been talked about the most interestingly was a tracking
Speaker 3: dog handler. About about two weeks after Jeane had been missing,
Speaker 3: Everett Shockley he contacted a tracking dog handler in Pennsylvania
Speaker 3: who had a German shepherd who was nationally renowned for
Speaker 3: tracking scent and known as a man tracking dog. The
Speaker 3: dog was brought to Radford. He was scented on a
Speaker 3: pair of Steve Epley's underwear, and the dog was taken
Speaker 3: to the area where Gena's abandoned car was found under
Speaker 3: the trestle. The dog alerted on Epley Scince from the
Speaker 3: underwear and tracking dog followed a trail up an embankment
Speaker 3: to the railroad track, followed the railroad track across the trestle,
Speaker 3: over the bridge over the New River into the town
Speaker 3: of Radford, and then followed about a mile circuitous route
Speaker 3: through the town of Radford. Went up to the front
Speaker 3: door of the house, alerted on the front door and
Speaker 3: sniffed the front door knob, and when the dog handler
Speaker 3: said who lives here, the answer was our prime suspect,
Speaker 3: Stephen Epperley. The dog handler's name was John Preston, testified
Speaker 3: to that, and also a few other trials that the
Speaker 3: dog had done that pointed to Epperley. Interesting to note
Speaker 3: that in later years three years later, dog handler was
Speaker 3: found to be a fraud in other cases and was disgraced.
Speaker 3: That would later give Epperley grounds for appeal in this case,
Speaker 3: although not to get ahead of our conversation, but those
Speaker 3: appeals the conviction was upheld.
Speaker 5: One more implied admission, as you describe it from a friend,
Speaker 5: this is bizarre, again, very movie esque. A guy named
Speaker 5: William Cramwell tell us about William Cramwell and what Epperly
Speaker 5: and his friends, well, what Epperly asks of William Cramwell
Speaker 5: and who William Cramwell is in relation to John Hall.
Speaker 3: Sure. William Cranwell was a businessman. He was older than Eperley.
Speaker 3: He was in his forties. He lived in Blacksburg and
Speaker 3: was a good friend of Epperly's and was also the
Speaker 3: kind of person as a successful businessman who was still
Speaker 3: pretty down to earth, had a reputation as someone who
Speaker 3: you could go to if you were in trouble and
Speaker 3: he would would give you advice or maybe put you
Speaker 3: in touch with someone to you know, to help your situation.
Speaker 3: So Epley went to him two nights after Gina disappeared,
Speaker 3: before before Gina was believed to be dead, when she
Speaker 3: was still just you know, just missing. And Epperly asked
Speaker 3: William Cranwell, whose brother happened to be an attorney in
Speaker 3: the town of Roanoke. He asked Cranwell, He said, Bill,
Speaker 3: would your brother represent me? And Cranwell said no, he
Speaker 3: would he not represent, you know, represent you in a
Speaker 3: in a murder case like this, He would touch it.
Speaker 3: And Epley said, well, will you do me a favor?
Speaker 3: And Cranwell said sure. He said, next time you see him,
Speaker 3: ask them if there's anything they can do. To me
Speaker 3: if they don't find her body, and Cranwell kind of
Speaker 3: shrugged it off, you know, didn't answer the question. And
Speaker 3: then a short time later he walked Epley and his
Speaker 3: friends out to the car, and Epley cornered him again
Speaker 3: and said, he said, and Bill, I'm serious, ask your
Speaker 3: brother what they can do to me if they don't
Speaker 3: find the body. So Cranwell was taken aback by the question.
Speaker 3: Epperley left his house. Cranmwell goes back in the house,
Speaker 3: picks up the newspaper to read a little more about
Speaker 3: this missing person case and comes to realize that Gina
Speaker 3: Hall's father, John Hall, was his former roommate and football
Speaker 3: teammate at Virginia Tech. So just an interesting, amazing coincidence there.
Speaker 3: Cranwell's next phone call was to the police. He told
Speaker 3: the police about Afterly's disturbing statement. And Cranwell also testified
Speaker 3: in the trial. He was the last witness. And I
Speaker 3: listened to the audio the trial testimony, and when Cranwell
Speaker 3: shares that information, there's an audible gasp in the courtroom.
Speaker 3: It's like the air is sucked out of the courtroom.
Speaker 3: So that was clearly a very very damning statement. In
Speaker 3: testimony from Cranwell, you.
Speaker 5: Talk about the verdict and the unanimous decision or recommendation
Speaker 5: by the jury and then the judge guilty first degree murder.
Speaker 5: And then he talked about the appeals and the rarity
Speaker 5: of a person going all the way to the US
Speaker 5: Supreme Court with those appeals. And yet that's what he did.
Speaker 5: Just tell us the conclusion of this in terms of
Speaker 5: where he is now and a little bit about the
Speaker 5: legacy of Gena. Hall and this trial.
Speaker 3: Sure well as a trial concluded. The jury only deliberated
Speaker 3: for about two hours. It was a unanimous verdict. According
Speaker 3: to jurors that I interviewed, there was not a lot
Speaker 3: of debate. It was very straightforward vote. Once they reviewed
Speaker 3: the evidence, the vote was unanimous. He was guilty. The
Speaker 3: jury recommended life in prison. The judge affirm that Epley
Speaker 3: was sentenced to life in prison. He's been in prison
Speaker 3: the last thirty nine years and the conviction. Eperly immediately
Speaker 3: appealed it. He took it on direct appeal to the
Speaker 3: Virginia Supreme Court. He was appointed two new attorneys that
Speaker 3: represented him, and the general feeling was that he had
Speaker 3: a pretty good chance to win his appeal again. Because
Speaker 3: of the unique nobody nature of the case, he was
Speaker 3: convicted of first degree murder, which means the prosecution had
Speaker 3: to prove both malice and premeditation. Now, because no one
Speaker 3: witnessed the murder there was you can make a case that,
Speaker 3: you know, you can't prove that it was premeditated. You
Speaker 3: can't prove that there was malice a forethought involved. But
Speaker 3: that was a jury's verdict and that was what the
Speaker 3: you know, the judge confirmed. So the appeal went to
Speaker 3: the Virginia Supreme Court. The conviction was upheld, at which
Speaker 3: point Epily filed a habeas corpus appeal, also in Virginia Court. Again,
Speaker 3: the case was heard again by Virginia Supreme Court justices,
Speaker 3: the verdict was upheld. Then his appeals were then taken
Speaker 3: in the federal court. In nineteen eighty six, a federal
Speaker 3: habeas corpus appeal trial was held in Radford and again
Speaker 3: the verdict was upheld. It then went to another appeal
Speaker 3: at the federal level. The conviction was upheld again and
Speaker 3: Everly's next move. By now about thirteen years had gone by.
Speaker 3: It's now the early nineties, nineteen ninety three and took
Speaker 3: the appeal to the U. S. Supreme Court, and the U. S.
Speaker 3: Supreme Court declined to hear the case. So at that
Speaker 3: point Epil's appeals were exhausted, and interestingly enough, the next year,
Speaker 3: in nineteen ninety four, he became eligible for parole. He
Speaker 3: was denied parole. The par board gave three reasons for
Speaker 3: denying the parole. Among them was that this was a
Speaker 3: person who not only killed a young lady, but continues
Speaker 3: to punish her family by not disclosing what he did
Speaker 3: with her body. Beverly has never told. He's insisted on
Speaker 3: his innocence the whole time he's been in prison, and
Speaker 3: since ninety four he's come up for parole every three
Speaker 3: years and he's been denied each time by the Virginia
Speaker 3: Parole Board. Now, like I said, he hasn't disposed where
Speaker 3: Gina Hall's remains are. In recent years, the search for
Speaker 3: Gina Hall's body was reopened. Current Radford police lieutenant by
Speaker 3: the name of Andy Wilburn has been actively searching for
Speaker 3: Gina's remains. They believe to be somewhere in a Clindestine grave,
Speaker 3: either in Radford or the surrounding area, and he's used
Speaker 3: things like ground penetrating radar, candaver sniffing dogs, and modern
Speaker 3: search techniques to find her remains. And interestingly enough, I've
Speaker 3: spoken with Lieutenant Wilburn quite often since the last month
Speaker 3: since the book has been out, and according to him,
Speaker 3: he's gotten a lot of new phone calls and a
Speaker 3: lot of fresh leads by people who have read the
Speaker 3: book and realized that maybe they they saw or heard
Speaker 3: something that might be relevant to this case. So there's
Speaker 3: a hope that someone out there has an age old
Speaker 3: lead that could, you know, could tell where where Gina's
Speaker 3: remains are and they'll be able to finally find her
Speaker 3: and give her a burial. And you know, her family
Speaker 3: after thirty nine years, they they still want closure, you
Speaker 3: know there. As I mentioned earlier there, they're good folks,
Speaker 3: Christian folks, and you know want to want to give
Speaker 3: her a burial. So there's there's hopes that all the
Speaker 3: publicity from the book might lead to the discovery of Gina.
Speaker 5: Well. I think it's a real fitting and honorable tribute
Speaker 5: to gina or family and also all of the police
Speaker 5: and volunteers involved in this incredible case. I want to
Speaker 5: thank you very much, Ron for coming on and talking
Speaker 5: about Under the Trustle, the nineteen eighty disappearance of Gina
Speaker 5: Renee Hall and Virginia's first nobody murder trial. For those
Speaker 5: that might want to see either work or find out
Speaker 5: a bit more about this book, is there a Facebook
Speaker 5: site or a website that they might refer to?
Speaker 3: Yes, indeed, Dan, thanks for asking. There's a website which
Speaker 3: is under the trestle dot com and the Facebook site
Speaker 3: and Twitter is at under the Trestle. And then probably
Speaker 3: the easiest way to get the book is on Amazon.
Speaker 3: It's available on Amazon both in Kendall ebook format and
Speaker 3: in paperbook paperback.
Speaker 5: Yeah. Well, thank you very much. It's been an absolute pleasure.
Speaker 5: Ron Peterson Junior. Under the Trustle, the nineteen eighty disappearance
Speaker 5: of Gina Renee Hall in Virginia's first nobody murder Thank
Speaker 5: you very much. You have a great evening. Good night.
Speaker 3: Well, thank you, Dan, you have a great evening as well. Thanks.
Speaker 2: Good night,