The Shadow
RICHMOND (AP) – A year after an employee shot two supervisors in the kitchen of a posh Virginia resort, walked out the door and vanished, police say they will not stop searching for him.
Bath County Sheriff Larry Norfleet said crews are organizing a second search using dogs that detect human remains just in case Beacher Hackney died after he fled into the pine-covered mountains surrounding The Homestead resort in Hot Springs.
The 60-year-old Covington man is wanted on capital murder and firearms charges in connection with the March 21, 2009, shootings of Ronnie Stinnett, 60, and Dwight Kerr, 39, in the resort’s kitchen area.
Police believe Hackney shot his two supervisors because he was unhappy about being transferred to the busy dinner shift. He also had recently fought with one of the victims who accused him of using too many garbage bags.
“It sure interrupted the serenity of this area,” said Norfleet, whose department had not investigated a murder in nearly three decades.
Norfleet said he doesn’t believe Hackney is dead, but he wants to conduct another search “before snakes start running and leaves get back on the trees.” He was not sure when the search would begin.
The last glimpses of Hackney are from the resort’s surveillance cameras, showing him walking out the door loading another clip into his semiautomatic pistol. Someone told police Hackney was seen crossing the road from the resort and heading into the woods, and that’s where authorities directed their search.
Norfleet said he now believes Hackney had help escaping and the information given to police was bad. But, Norfleet believes Hackney hasn’t gone too far.
Hackney’s home offered few clues. It was immaculately clean, Norfleet said. From what authorities can tell, Hackney’s only passion was reading magazines.
“He does not require a lot to live,” Norfleet said. “That’s why somebody like that can exist for a while without sticking their head up, so to speak.”
Hackney’s family is scattered throughout Virginia and West Virginia, but none say they were close to him. He moved to Virginia from Princeton, W.Va., to work in the Southside’s furniture factories, but once they closed he got a job at The Homestead, a 483-room resort in the Allegheny Mountains known for its spas and golf courses.
He had no mental, military or criminal history. He likely was familiar with firearms, Norfleet said, but “probably no more than any country boy would be.”
Police still haven’t determined where Hackney got the .380 semiautomatic handgun.
Hackney was a loner who preferred the midnight shift where he didn’t have to talk to his co-workers in the department responsible for washing dishes, picking up trash and cleaning the kitchen. If the shuttle bus that transports workers to the parking area had other passengers, Hackney would wait for an empty one, Norfleet said.
Managers moved Hackney to the dinner shift a few months before the shootings, something Norfleet said didn’t suit his demeanor at all. It was during dinner on a busy Friday night when witnesses said Hackney opened fire without saying a word. The shots were drowned out by a band playing in the dining room.
Homestead spokeswoman Carol Stratford said Hackney had worked at the resort for five years and had no disciplinary problems.
There’s a $25,000 reward for information leading to Hackney’s capture. His story has been showcased a few times on “America’s Most Wanted,” and he was the show’s No. 1 fugitive last year.
There’s been hundreds of leads, from the probable to sightings in the Philippines, Norfleet said. Rarely a day goes by that the sheriff doesn’t think about the case.
About 100 people attended a ceremony on the one-year anniversary dedicating a stone memorial to the victims. Norfleet said he wants to catch Hackney not only for himself, but for all those in the community affected by the shootings.
“Every groundhog’s got to stick his head out of that hole sometime,” he said. “Eventually he will. We’ll catch him.”
