Jimmy Blevins 41, missing 2/24/07, (Body Found) Ashe County, NC

[nanabillie]

http://www2.journalnow.com/content/2009/feb/24/mans-disappearance-in-2007-still-a-mystery/news-regional/


Man's disappearance in 2007 still a mystery
By Monte Mitchell
JOURNAL REPORTER
CRUMPLER

The thing that tortures Janet Blevins, that robs her sleep and stalks her days, is not knowing what happened to her son.

It was two years ago today that Jimmy Blevins, 41, put his supper on to cook and vanished from his trailer beside N.C. 16 near the North Fork of the New River. Authorities say they believe that Jimmy Blevins is dead, although intense searches have turned up no trace of him.

"Some people say, ‘Well, I don't know how you feel,'" Janet Blevins said yesterday. "Well, if you've got any children and one of them disappears, that's the way you'd feel. You'd never stop looking. Never."

Jimmy Blevins' family is increasing a reward offer to $15,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of his killer.

Authorities consider Freddie Hammer a person of interest in the case, although he has not been charged in it. Hammer is in jail in Virginia awaiting a capital trial in connection with the killings Jan. 24, 2008, of Ron Hudler, his son Fred Hudler, and John Miller Jr. on the Hudler's Christmas tree farm in Grayson County.

Hammer has denied that he killed the three men on the Christmas tree farm or that he had anything to do with the disappearance of Jimmy Blevins.

Hammer is Jimmy Blevins' uncle by marriage. At the time Blevins disappeared, Hammer owed him about $1,600 for work that Blevins had done at Hammer's firewood business. Hammer was the last person known to be seen with Blevins.

Janet Blevins said that the family is increasing the reward not because they do not think that Hammer was involved in Jimmy's disappearance, but because they do not know for sure what happened. They think there might be someone out there who knows something that would help find their son.

"I'd give anything I had to find him," Janet Blevins said. "You imagine a lot of things that might have happened. You don't know where he's at. I've searched the woods so many times."

Sometimes family members have accompanied her on searches. Sometimes she has gone by herself. Her son Joe finally told her that it was not safe for her by herself, that coyotes prowl those woods, so she stopped. But she still watches when she drives, looking for some clue about her son.

The Ashe County Sheriff's Office has conducted three digs over the past year, searching for Blevins' remains based on tips, such as the time a caller described a depressed area in the woods.

"We always check out every lead we get," Ashe County Sheriff James Williams said yesterday. The result has been the same for two years now.

"Not a trace," he said.

Blevins lived in a trailer beside the home of his grandparents, Bill and Thelma Hurley. It was Saturday, Feb. 24, 2007, when Thelma Hurley saw Blevins get into Hammer's truck and ride away.

When they could not reach him by telephone that Sunday and then Monday, family members cut the lock on his trailer. The lights and TV were on. They found chicken cooking in a crock pot in a side room.

Searchers combed the nearby woods, but they never found a trace. Dogs worked scents. Divers and underwater cameras searched the river. Investigators with the Ashe County Sheriff's Office have puzzled over the case, and so has the State Bureau of Investigation.

Blevins' trailer is within a few hundred yards of another of Ashe County's most talked-about mysteries, the unsolved murder of Tim Shatley at the bridge over the river there in 2005.

For a rural mountain community to have two unsolved killings that close together within two years is so unusual that many people in Ashe think the killings are related. Ashe authorities have considered the possibility, but they have said that there is very little physical evidence in the Shatley case. They would like to talk to Hammer about both cases, they said, but they have not been able to do so since his arrest in connection with the killing of the three men at the Christmas tree farm. Hammer says he did not kill Shatley.

Last spring, the Hurleys decided to tear down Jimmy's trailer because it was a painful reminder that he was not coming home.

Neither was to ever find out what happened to their grandson. Bill Hurley died this past September and Thelma Hurley died two months later.

Janet Blevins said she once had a dream that she was on one side of a door and her son Jimmy was on another and he could not get through. But then he came around the door and they fell into each other's arms.

Blevins said she is glad she does not dream about him much.

"It makes you sad when you wake up and he's not there," she said.

■ Monte Mitchell can be reached in Wilkesboro at 336-667-5691 or at mmitchell@wsjournal.com.http://media.gatewaync.com/wsj/photos/2009/02/24/blevins.jpg

[nanabillie]

http://extras.journalnow.com/grassycreek/cases/hudler/012908.html


Grassy Creek murders
Suspect did time in 1978 killing

Authorities plan to question him in two other cases
January 29, 2008
By Monte Mitchell
JOURNAL REPORTER
CRUMPLER

The man charged with three counts of capital murder in last week's killings at a Christmas-tree farm in Grayson County, Va., served prison time after a conviction in the killing of an off-duty Philadelphia police officer in 1978, but was acquitted of the officer's death at a second trial.
Frederic Phillip Hammer, 48, of Crumpler was arrested over the weekend in Florida in connection with the shooting deaths of Ronald Hudler, 74; Hudler's son Fred and employee John Miller Jr. on Thursday.
Authorities consider Hammer a suspect in the disappearance of an Ashe County man a year ago, and also want to question him in connection with the unsolved shooting death of another man in the area.
State and local law-enforcement agents returned Hammer to Grayson County yesterday from Charlotte County, Fla., where he was arrested at his stepfather's home.

Hammer went to Florida on Friday after being questioned around midnight Thursday, said Sheriff Richard Vaughan of Grayson County.
Hammer worked construction jobs at Ronald Hudler's home.
Authorities said they believe that Hammer broke into the safe in a garage at Hudler's home and stole an undisclosed amount of cash, and that Fred Hudler and Miller were killed when they interrupted the burglary. Ronald Hudler heard the gunshots, came outside to investigate and was forced back into the house, where he was killed in his living room.

They took him into custody around 6:30 p.m. Saturday in Punta Gorda, Fla. By 3 a.m. Sunday, they had obtained enough information to seek the capital murder charges, Vaughan said.
He declined to discuss the evidence in the case.
Authorities searched Hammer's home. Officers also searched a camper in Wythe County, Va., over the weekend. Authorities say that he may have visited the camper on Cripple Creek Road the day of the killings.

Officers found partially burned clothing in a fire pit near the camper, according to court documents.
Authorities searched Hammer's property extensively last summer in connection with the disappearance of Jimmy Blevins, who sometimes worked at Hammer's firewood business, said Sheriff James Williams of Ashe County.
Williams said that they searched for Blevins' remains in a deep fire pit behind Hammer's home and sawmill. They dug 14 feet into the pit, he said.
"We did extensive searches by air, ground, cadaver dogs - you name it, we've done it," Williams said.
Complete story at link
----------------------------------------------------------------



Journal reporter Sherry Youngquist and Media General News Service contributed to this story.http://extras.journalnow.com/grassycreek/cases/caseindex.html

Additional link



© 2008 Winston-Salem Journal. The Winston-Salem Journal a Media General newspaper.

[nanabillie]

http://www.mountaintimes.com/mtweekly/2008/0214/jimmy.php3
http://www.mountaintimes.com/images/spacer.gif http://www.mountaintimes.com/images/textsize.gifhttp://www.mountaintimes.com/images/plus.gif (javascript:cs('textsizer',1))http://www.mountaintimes.com/images/minus.gif (javascript:cs('textsizer',-1))http://www.mountaintimes.com/images/print.gif (javascript:void(printSpecial()))

'That's just Jimmy'
Aunt: Missing man struggled years with alcohol addiction

By Jerry Sena
Standing behind the counter at the Riverside General Store where she tends the cash register most days, it http://www.mountaintimes.com/mtweekly/2008/0214/Jimmy_Blevins_cmyk.gifcan't be easy to sound so certain her son is dead, but Janet Blevins' unwavering voice offers no hint of doubt.
"I know he's dead. I knew it a week after he went missing. I just knew it."

Jimmy Lee Blevins would call her three or four times a day, Janet said

"Just to talk. If you was to see him in person he'd seem quiet. But on the phone he liked to talk," she said. Her voice trailed away as the occasional neighbor came through the creaky screen door to pick up groceries and settle their tabs at the wood frame store by the edge of the New River.

"The phone would ring and I'd say, 'There's Jimmy and one of them hour-long phone calls," she said. "I'd do anything to have one of those calls now."

Complete story at link

[sarahhod]

Family looks for answers
by Jesse Campbell, Staff Reporter

http://matchbin-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/public/sites/502/assets/Jimmy_Blevins.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=0B7XE4Z9Y6MDGTWDR JG2&Expires=1235685587&Signature=mHtOyi8O5CNeZ6Et3Tqui68yoak%3D (http://matchbin-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/public/sites/502/assets/Jimmy_Blevins.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=0B7XE4Z9Y6MDGTWDR JG2&Expires=1235685587&Signature=mHtOyi8O5CNeZ6Et3Tqui68yoak%3D)


Tuesday marked the second anniversary of the disappearance of Crumpler resident Jimmy Lee Blevins and authorities are still searching for clues why the 41-year-old went missing.

Blevins is believed to have disappeared sometime on Saturday, Feb. 24 2007. Family members attempted to reach Blevins by phone for two consecutive days but to no avail. Blevins’s mother, Janet, said that his grandmother, Thelma Hurley, was the last person known to see Blevins.

At the time, Hurley said that she saw Blevins get into Freddie Hammer’s vehicle and that was the last time she ever saw him. Hammer is Blevins’s uncle through the marriage of his aunt, Brenda. Hammer told authorities that he went to visit Blevins because he wanted to pay him $300 of a total $1,600 sum he owed him for past work that Blevins did for Hammer’s firewood business.

Although no one has been charged in connection with the disappearance of Blevins, authorities have questioned Hammer as he continues to be a person of interest in the case. Hammer is currently awaiting trial in the New River Valley Regional Jail in Dublin, VA and has been charged with the shooting deaths of three local men in the commission of a robbery last January on a Grassy Creek Christmas tree farm.

Authorities say that after attempting to reach Blevins’s via telephone, his family decided to break the lock to his trailer and enter it, sensing that something was not right. When the family entered Blevins’s trailer the following Monday they found the television was still on and food in the crock pot was left to cook. The following Tuesday evening, the local fire department joined in on the search and conducted a follow-up search of the area Wednesday morning. The next Sunday, the entire community enlisted their services in search for the missing man, Blevins’s mother said.

The process became so extensive, that helicopters and tracking dogs were implemented in the search for Blevins. Underwater camera equipment was also used to search nearby portions of the New River but authorities were unable to find any clues that may offer tips of what happened that fateful Saturday. As the months went by, the search for the missing Crumpler man decreased. Although family members have not conducted any recent searches for Jimmy, family members say they have remained vigilant in their own investigation.

“We had different searches at different times,” Janet Blevins said. “My son, Joe, searched for two weeks straight for Jimmy, but we never found anything.”

This past year, the family reluctantly demolished the camper-like trailer that Blevins lived in, citing that it became too painful to look at.

“My dad just couldn’t stand to look at it anymore,” Blevins said. “We just had to tear it down.”

Blevins’s grandfather, Bill Hurley, passed away in September and his grandmother’s passing followed in November.

Blevins’s disappearance has placed noticeable strain on family ties in more ways than one. Janet Blevins said that her husband, Jimmy David Blevins, and son, Joe, no longer talk to Hammer’s wife, Brenda as they are suspicious of her husband’s involvement in the disappearance of Jimmy.

Recently, the family has increased the reward offered for information concerning Blevins’s disappearance from $5,000 to $15,000.

Sheriff James Williams of the Ashe County Sheriff’s Office said that although the case has remained ‘cold,’ the department has not closed it and will continue to follow-up leads when they are presented.

Williams said that in the past year, the department has conducted three separate ‘digs’ in wooded areas searching for clues. Authorities executed the digs following tips and potential leads from area citizens who thought they may have discovered depleted areas that could possibly support shallow graves. On each occasion, authorities were unable to unearth any evidence as the only remains that they discovered are of animal origin.

“Nothing new has really come from the investigation,” Williams said. “Just an occasional lead from time to time.”

http://www.jeffersonpost.com/pages/full_story?page_label=home_top_stories_news&article-Family-looks-for-answers%20=&id=1998577-Family-looks-for-answers&widget=push&instance=home_news_lead&open=&

[sarahhod]

Killer Tells Inmate To Dig Up Murder Weapon, $10k

Media General News Service
Published: May 26, 2009

GRAYSON COUNTY, Va.—Freddie Hammer, accused of killing three men during a robbery at a Grayson County Christmas tree farm, was in jail awaiting his capital murder trial when he made a deal with an inmate who was soon to be released.
Hammer told the inmate that $10,000 was buried in a barn at a campground. A rifle was there, too, hidden under bales of fencing. Hammer told him that if he found the rifle and got rid of it, he’d give him $2,000.
Hammer’s offer ended up costing him more than he’d expected.
The inmate wrote a letter to his girlfriend saying that he was going to be coming into some money when he got out of jail. But the letter never reached his girlfriend. Instead, the inmate threw it away.
Guards found the letter in the trash. And when investigators questioned him, the inmate told them what Hammer had told him.
On May 5, investigators went to the barn at a private campground in Cripple Creek, Va., where Hammer had owned a camper.
Five feet from the inside corner of the barn, just as Hammer had described, officers dug down and found two cigar boxes filled with rolled coins, money that had been stolen from the safe at the Christmas tree farm. Beneath the boxes they found a Yadkin Valley Bank bag containing damp, moldy cash.
Beneath rolls of fence wire, investigators found the murder weapon.
It’s a .22-magnum rifle with a broken scope. The scope matched broken scope pieces found at the door of Ron Hudler’s house. A trace of the rifle’s serial number showed that Hammer had purchased the rifle new in 1994 at a hardware store in Jefferson.
Faced with the new evidence, Hammer admitted yesterday in Grayson County Circuit Court that he’d killed the men during a robbery, just as authorities had said when they’d arrested him a few days after the murders. He entered guilty pleas to five counts of capital murder and other charges in connection with the deaths and robbery.
He was sentenced to five life sentences without the possibility of parole, as well as two more life terms. He was ordered to pay fines of $600,000.
Hammer, 49, of Crumpler, went to steal a safe at Ron Hudler’s Christmas tree farm on Jan. 24, 2008, and killed Ron Hudler, 73; his son, Fred Hudler, 44; and farm employee John Miller Jr., 25. He shot all three in the head. Authorities said two other firearms were used in the crimes, and that Hammer had disposed of them.
“What happened that day should not have happened and I’m sorry,“ Hammer told the victims’ family members in court just before he was sentenced. “I went there with the intention of doing a burglary…. It was going to be in and out.“
The trial was not expected to get under way until later this year or in 2010, but prosecutors said the surprise deal was proposed to them on Wednesday. Attorneys were still negotiating details over the course of more than two hours yesterday morning.
Hammer killed three people, but there were more than three capital charges because Virginia law allows charges to be filed for various elements of the crime. And although the road to the Christmas tree farm begins in North Carolina and the case involved men with primarily Ashe County ties, the killings happened at a house about 200 yards into Virginia.
Douglas Vaught, Grayson County commonwealth’s attorney, said there was enough evidence and the crimes were heinous enough to support a jury’s verdict of death. He said members of the victim’s families were consulted before the plea was entered.
“They also voiced the sentiment that a sentence of life in prison as an admitted murderer without possibility of parole could be in some aspects a worse punishment than death,“ he said.
Inside court, some family members cried quietly when prosecutors described how Hammer had killed the men.
“I probably deserve to die, whatever,“ Hammer said. “If you read the Bible, to live is Christ and to die is for gain. Sometimes I wish I was dead for what I did, but I can’t change that. Mr. Hudler was very good to me.“
Hammer had worked as a handyman years ago for Ron Hudler. In the past, Hammer had also expressed warm feelings for Fred Hudler.
He said in court that he’d never met John Miller Jr. before the day he killed him. Miller left behind a wife and baby.
“I would ask that his wife would find it in their heart to forgive me,“ Hammer said. “It was something that never should have happened.“
Vaught also laid out new evidence in court.
He said two store clerks in Elk Creek, Va., saw Hammer when he pulled his truck in to get fuel on a road heading from Cripple Creek back to Ashe County on the day of the murders. The clerks had never seen Hammer before, but noted the truck’s sign for his Freddie P.‘s firewood business.
The sign said, “Here comes Freddie P.,“ and one of the clerks read it aloud to the other when Hammer pulled in. They noticed he had dirt and leaves on his clothes as if he’d been in the woods, Vaught said.
Authorities also consider Hammer a suspect in the disappearance and presumed death of his nephew Jimmy Blevins. Hammer was the last person seen with Blevins before Blevins disappeared on Feb. 24, 2007.
Authorities had also wanted to question Hammer in connection with the unsolved killing of Tim Shatley on Nov. 19, 2005. Shatley was shot at an N.C. 16 bridge just a few hundred yards from Blevins’ home.
Hammer said in court yesterday that he is not responsible for those deaths.
“As far as Jimmy Blevins is concerned and Mr. Shatley ... I had nothing to do with any of that,“ he said.
In the hallway after court, Ashe County Sheriff James Williams said Hammer is still the prime suspect in the Blevins case. He said there is speculation about his role in the Shatley murder, but no evidence that Hammer was involved.
“I’m glad people in Ashe County will not have to worry about Mr. Hammer anymore,“ Williams said. “We will continue pursuing the Blevins case and the Shatley case with everything we’ve got.“
Hammer had served prison time for killing an off-duty Philadelphia police officer in 1978. He’d escaped from prison, been recaptured and had his conviction overturned. One of the reasons he came to live in Ashe County was to be in a place where people wouldn’t know his past, he said in a past interview.
He wore leg shackles and had a padlocked chain around his waist yesterday. He waved to his wife as he was led away. Officers escorted Hammer’s wife from the courthouse. They said she had not known anything about what her husband had done. Hammer said the same thing in court.
Officers with assault rifles stood guard as Hammer was loaded into a jail van. He was to be transported to Richmond for processing, then sent to a prison where he’ll begin serving life without the possibility of parole.

http://www.nbc4i.com/cmh/news/state_regional/article/killer_tells_inmate_to_dig_up_murder_weapon_10k/16078/

[annalyzer]

From above link, "Hammer had served prison time for killing an off-duty Philadelphia police officer in 1978"

This man should have been sentenced to LWOP (or death) and so may lives would've been saved. :frustratedf:

[sarahhod]

Oh so true anna. What was he doing walking the streets in the first place, he should still have been locked up or worse.

[sarahhod]

Authorities to further search property where Hammer hid guns, cash

By Scott Leamon (sleamon@wsls.com)
WSLS10 Reporter
Published: May 26, 2009


10 On Your Side has learned sheriff’s deputies from Ashe County, North Carolina plan to spend several days searching a Wythe County property where Freddy Hammer hid three murder weapons and cash from a robbery.
Last Friday, Hammer pleaded guilty to three counts of capital murder in the deaths of Grayson County tree farmers Ron and Fred Hudler, as well as the Hudler’s employee, John Miller Jr.
A short time after the murders, police found several items from inside Ron Hudler’s home on property in Wythe County. Hammer was known to stay at the property , in the Cripple Creek area, from time to time.
The property is about an hour drive from the scene of the murders at the Hudler family tree farm, including items from a safe inside Ron Hudler’s home.
At least one officer at the New River Valley Regional Jail intercepted a letter from another inmate involving plans to sneak onto the Wythe County farm in order to get rid of one of the murder weapons.
Investigators said Hammer promised the inmate a portion of the cash he took from the Hudlers’ safe if the inmate took care of the murder weapon.
Once confronted with the information contained in the letter, Hammer agreed to plead guilty and give up the location of two more murder weapons he used in the crime. He had buried those weapons, along with the cash, inside a barn on the Wythe County property.
Hammer is also a “prime person of interest” in the disappearance of Jimmy Blevins from Ashe County. Blevins disappeared before the Hudler tree farm murders.
Blevins is Hammer’s nephew through marriage.
Ashe County authorities are searching the Wythe County property to see if there is any evidence connecting Hammer to Blevins’ disappearance.

http://www.wsls.com/sls/news/local/article/authorities_to_further_search_property_where_hamme r_hid_guns_cash/36157/

[Faith]

Investigators suspend search for missing Ashe man's remains

Published: June 23, 2009

Investigators today called off their search for the remains of an Ashe County man missing since Feb. 24, 2007 after digging up about 100 feet of Smithey Road, beside the North Fork of the New River.

Ashe County sheriff James Williams said today that they called off the search about 4 p.m. today and have no plans to resume.

Williams also said he has no more leads as to the whereabouts of Jimmy Blevins' remains.

Authorities say they suspect that Blevins was killed by his uncle, Freddie Hammer. Hammer is serving life in prison without the possibility of parole in Virginia after pleading guilty May 22 to killing three men on a Grayson County Christmas tree farm on Jan. 24, 2008.

"Since Mr. Hammer has been sent away for good now, as we hoped, we had folks come forward with information that led us to this spot," Williams said yesterday.

When Blevins disappeared from his trailer beside N.C. 16, he left the television on and chicken cooking in the crock pot. A witness said she saw Hammer pick up Blevins and drive off in Hammer's truck. That's the last time Blevins was seen.

Hammer has denied killing his nephew.

At the time Blevins disappeared, Smithey Road was a dirt road and the state was widening it and paving it. Heavy construction equipment was parked nearby.

A witness reported seeing Hammer in the dark, aboard one of the pieces of equipment, which was running.

"(Hammer) was seen on a track hoe here late in the night, on or about the day Blevins went missing," Williams said.

Hammer, who ran a firewood business and worked as a handyman, was an experienced heavy-equipment operator.

"Freddie's good at running them," Williams said. "In a few scoops he could have been 15 feet deep."

Investigators were working on a theory that Hammer buried Blevins under the dirt road and then let the Department of Transportation pave over the site.

On Friday, investigators with the Ashe County Sheriff's Office and the State Bureau of Investigation were along Smithey Road with a professor from N.C. State University who operated ground-penetrating radar looking for anomalies in the soil. Searchers formed a grid pattern and used those results, along with the witness's description, to target an area to dig. The spot is near where the road starts to run beside the river.

The spot where they were digging is less than 2½ miles from the Riverside store where Jimmy Blevins' mother, Janet Blevins, works. Soon after Jimmy Blevins disappeared, Hammer came to visit Janet Blevins in the store. He walked past the missing persons flyers for Jimmy, and handed her $200 he had owed Jimmy.

Just before Christmas that year, Hammer visited Janet Blevins again, this time at her home. She said she begged Hammer to tell her where Jimmy Blevins was, but he would not. But he said something that chilled her.

"I watch Court TV," he told her, "and they've been looking for a man for 10 years, and the law had walked all over his grave looking for him."

Hammer escaped the death penalty in connection with the Grayson County Christmas tree murders after entering a plea deal after investigators dug up the murder weapons and missing cash inside a barn at a private campground where Hammer had a trailer in Cripple Creek, Va. Hammer had told a fellow inmate where the items were buried.

He responded to questions from the Winston-Salem Journal with a letter he wrote from jail on Jan. 31.

"I like your biggest question, 'What happened to Jimmy Blevins'" Hammer wrote. "I'm so glad someone out there is still searching for him and the truth. It's my understanding that the police have practly(sic) given up on him. This should not happen to anyone…. Jimmy is out there somewhere and somebody knows what happened to him. Questions still need to be asked."

http://www2.journalnow.com/content/2009/jun/23/investigators-suspend-search-missing-ashe-mans-rem/news/

[Faith]

Dig for missing man called off: Sheriff vows to continue looking for answers
by Jesse Campbell, Staff Reporter
1 hr 38 mins ago

After two day of unearthing pavement and topsoil in hopes of finding a missing Crumpler man, authorities have called off a recent dig on Smithey Road and are still searching for answers concerning his whereabouts.

Following a fresh lead in the disappearance of Jimmy Blevins, agents with the State Bureau of Investigation and deputies with the Ashe County Sheriff’s Office began mapping out target areas for a potential dig on Smithey Road last week.

An archaeology professor from North Carolina State University aided authorities Friday in their search by using a ground penetrating radar system to search for anomalies underneath the roadway that may suggest the presence of human remains, the sheriff said. Williams explained that a witness came forward with new information pertaining to Blevins’ disappearance after Frederick Hammer was sentenced to consecutive life sentences for the murders of Frederick Hudler, Ronald Hudler, and John Steven Miller in January 2008. He pled guilty to the capital murder charges on May 22 after New River Valley Regional Jail guards discovered a discarded letter in an inmate’s trash can that led authorities to a Cripple Creek barn where the murder weapon was hidden. Hammer has remained a top suspect in Blevins disappearance for some time.

The witness told authorities that he saw Hammer operating a track hoe on Smithey Road around 1 a.m. of the day that Blevins was believed to have disappeared. Blevins was last seen leaving with Hammer from his home on Feb. 24, 2007. At the time of his disappearance, the road was undergoing a widening and pavement project, Williams said. The track hoe that Hammer was allegedly operating did not belong to him but he was known to be a skilled operator with this type of machinery.

On Monday morning, investigators began removing the pavement with a large track hoe. Portions of Smithey Road run parallel to the New River and authorities removed a segment of the right lane closest to the river. By Tuesday afternoon, the search area measured between 12 to 13 feet deep and over a hundred feet in length. Williams stated that the crew also removed a portion of the shoulder area and part of the roadway on the left hand side of the site as well but were unable to find any clues that may link Blevins to the site. Williams said that authorities conducted the dig after receiving what they consider a “credible lead.”

“We thought we went the extra mile in looking for him,” Williams said. “We could have missed him by only a few inches but like I said before it’s like looking for a needle in a haystack.

“The information we had was what we considered reliable enough to undertake a dig in an effort to find him,” Williams said. “We did a diligent search and did all we could do.”

The sheriff stated that authorities were disappointed that the search did not yield any evidence of Blevins presence in the area.

“It was disappointing for us and even more disappointing for the family more than anyone,” he said. “They were our main focus in this so that we could bring them closure.” Blevins’ mother, Janet, works at the Riverside Store, located approximately 2.5 miles from the dig site. Authorities were also perplexed with the costs associated with conducting such a dig.

“You start running into a quite a bit of costs when you start digging up that much roadway,” the sheriff explained.

When asked if authorities had any other leads in the case he said “nothing concrete at this time.”

Williams remains optimistic that others will come forward with new information now that Hammer is behind bars.

“Sometimes people are afraid to say things but now that he is gone for good we are hoping others will come forward,” Williams stated. “They can even remain anonymous if they desire.”

Although authorities were unable to find Blevins in this particular dig, he feels it is just a matter of time before they close the case once and for all.

“The search for him (Blevins) isn’t over by far and it never will be until we find him,” Williams said. “Sooner or later we will find him.”

Anyone with information pertaining to Jimmy Blevins’ disappearance is urged to contact the Ashe County Sheriff’s Office at (336) 846-5600. All information will be confidential.

http://www.jeffersonpost.com/pages/full_story?article-Dig%20for%20missing%20man%20called%20off-%20-Sheriff%20vows%20to%20continue%20looking%20for%20a nswers%20=&page_label=home_top_stories_news&id=2795725-Dig+for+missing+man+called+off-+-Sheriff+vows+to+continue+looking+for+answers&widget=push&instance=home_news_lead&open=&

[Grande]

Ashe sheriff expects to find Blevins' body soon
Williams: Hammer may be charged
By Joel Frady

http://i32.tinypic.com/2uo5afk.jpg
Frederick Phillip Hammer

It’s been almost two and half years since Jimmy Lee Blevins was last seen.

Since then, the search for Blevins and answers to the many questions posed by his disappearance has led to a series of dead-ends.

This week might be different — although details are few.

“We have made significant progress in this case,” Ashe County Sheriff James Williams said on Monday.

“We expect and hope to recover the body in the next few days,” said Williams. “We also expect to charge Frederick Phillip Hammer with the murder of Jimmy Blevins.”

Williams added there will probably be other charges forthcoming, but the case was still under investigation

“We’re heading in the right direction, finally, after two years and five months,” Williams continued.

In May, Williams said that Hammer has been the prime suspect in the Blevins case.

On May 22, Hammer received seven consecutive life sentences for the January 2008 murder of Ronald Frederick Hudler, Frederick Donald Hudler and John Steve Miller.

At the courthouse on May 22, Hammer said that he “had nothing to do” with Blevins’ disappearance.

Blevins disappeared on Feb. 24, 2007. A missing person report was filed on Feb. 27, 2008, and authorities who visited Blevins’ residence on N.C. 16 in Crumpler found a Crock pot on and lights on throughout the residence, but no sign of Blevins.

In the Feb. 14, 2008, issue of Ashe Mountain Times. Janet Blevins, Jimmy’s mother and owner of the Riverside General Store, said that Hammer, Jimmy’s uncle, owed her son approximately $1,600 at the time of his disappearance for his work with Hammer’s firewood business.

Jimmy Blevins was last seen driving away from his residence with Hammer. On March 15, 2007, investigators from the Ashe County Sheriff’s Office and the State Bureau of Investigation searched Hammer’s property.

Despite digging throughout the property and examining a fire pit, they were unable to find any sign of Blevins’ remains.

For months, the search has continued.

“We’ve flown from the air and (searched with) dogs multiple times on the ground and search teams and grid searches and river searches and canoe searches - even had a psychic or two up there. Just nothing. Nothing anywhere,” Williams said in the Feb. 14, 2008, AMT.

“So, we’ve just kind of run out of options now and just sitting back hoping that something will turn up.” The Sheriff’s Department dug up a site on Smithey Road in Crumpler in late June 2009, but were unable to find any sign of Blevins.

http://wataugademocrat.com/2009/0803/0804Blevins.php

[Grande]

Ashe sheriff: Body found; believed to be missing man
Williams: Hammer expected to be charged
By Joel Frady

It’s been almost two and half years since Jimmy Lee Blevins was last seen. Since then, the search for

Blevins and answers to the many questions posed by his disappearance have led to a series of dead-ends for law enforcement.

That series is finally over, however, as Ashe County Sheriff James Williams has announced that the long search for Jimmy Blevins ended Tuesday.

“We discovered today what we believe to be the remains of Jimmy Blevins,” Williams said shortly after 5 p.m. on Tuesday. The body was found in a secluded, wooded area on Highway 88 West near the Clifton community.

The find comes one week after Williams, Lt. Peyton Colvard (who was assigned to the Blevins case), Detective William Sands (assigned to the murder case of Tim Shatley) and Donna Shumate, an attorney for Frederick Phillip Hammer, traveled to the Powhatan Correctional Facility in Richmond, Va., to interview Hammer.

“As a result of that interview, the recovery was made,” said Williams.

In May, shortly after Hammer received seven consecutive life sentences for the January 2008 murders of Ronald Frederick Hudler, Frederick Donald Hudler and John Steve Miller, Williams said that Hammer was the primary suspect in the Blevins case.

After his sentencing at the Grayson County Courthouse in Independence, Va., Hammer said that he “had nothing to do” with Blevins’ disappearance.

Williams said that Hammer will be charged with murder in the Blevins case, and that there might be more charges forthcoming.

The State Bureau of Investigation’s Crime Lab is currently in the process of removing the body from the dig site. Williams said “once the body is removed, he will be transported to the medical examiner’s office in Chapel Hill for positive identification.”

For Williams, Colvard and the rest of the Sheriff’s Department, the find is a welcome end to a 29-month investigation.

“We’ve been obsessed with finding Jimmy” ever since he disappeared, Williams said. “We left no stone unturned and we’ve done everything we know to do, and finally we were able to put it together.

“I’m so happy for the family,” Williams later added. “Jimmy’s mother had no grave to go to and no idea of what happened to her son. I’m just so thankful that we could bring this to a conclusion for them.”

Hammer also confessed to the murder of Shatley, who was found at the intersection of N.C. Highway 16 and Old Field Creek Road in Grassy Creek on Nov. 19, 2005. Despite Hammer’s confession, Williams is skeptical.

“There are issues with his confession that trouble us,” said Williams. “There are certain things that we always hold back that only the murderer would know, and only we know, so that when we’re talking to somebody we know we’re talking to the one that actually did it.

“He was vague in some areas and we’re not convinced he was telling the truth about that at this point,” Williams continued. He noted that the case is still under investigation.

http://www.mountaintimes.com/mtweekly/2009/0730/bodyfound.php3

[Nut44x4]

Mystery of missing man ends: Ashe County body believed to be Jimmy Blevins, who vanished in 2007
Published: August 5, 2009

CLIFTON - Authorities dug up remains in Ashe County yesterday which they believe are those of Jimmy Blevins, who has been missing since 2007, Sheriff James Williams of Ashe County said.

"We're transporting him to Chapel Hill for positive identification, but yes, it's Jimmy," Williams said about 7:30 p.m. as the body was loaded into the back of his truck. "We're confident … Hammer told us where it was."

The body was found buried about 4 to 5 feet deep on land where the longtime prime suspect, Freddie Hammer, had done work on private property off N.C. 88 in the Clifton community near Warrensville. Clothing found at the scene matched that of Blevins'. Hammer confessed to killing Blevins and will be charged with murder, Williams said.

Hammer also confessed to killing Tim Shatley, a death that had gone unsolved since 2005, but Williams said that authorities are yet to be certain that Hammer really did kill Shatley. Williams said that the scenario Hammer described didn't quite match with what authorities believe happened, and that Hammer did not provide some of the details that the killer would have known. Authorities will continue to investigate Hammer's possible involvement in killing Shatley, Williams said.

Hammer is serving five life sentences without parole after pleading guilty on May 22 for killing three men on a Christmas-tree farm in Grayson County, Va., on Jan. 24, 2008. He admitted going to the farm to steal a safe, and killing farm owner Ron Hudler, 73; his son, Fred Hudler, 44; and a farm employee, John Miller Jr., 25.

Hammer admitted to the killings while awaiting trial after telling a fellow jail inmate where to find the murder weapon, along with $10,000 that Hammer had buried. Authorities intercepted a note that the inmate wrote to a girlfriend. Hammer confessed after authorities dug up the money inside a barn where he said it would be. They found the murder weapon beneath a heavy roll of fence wire.

The day that Hammer admitted to the tree-farm killings in court, he denied having anything to do with killing Blevins or Shatley.

Shatley was killed in his van at a bridge on N.C. 16 on Nov. 19, 2005, as he drove home from his first night's shift as a cook at a North Wilkesboro restaurant.

The spot where Shatley was killed is just a few hundred yards from the trailer where Blevins lived beside the highway.

Blevins, then 41, disappeared on Feb. 24, 2007, leaving the television on and chicken cooking in a crock pot.

A witness said she saw Hammer arrive that evening, and saw Blevins get in Hammer's truck, which then drove away. Blevins, who was Hammer's nephew by marriage, was never seen again until his body was apparently recovered yesterday.

Hammer, who owned Freddie P's Firewood business in Crumpler, owed money to Blevins for work that Blevins had done at the business. The men had been at odds about the money. Family members have said they believe that Blevins was going to tell authorities that Hammer killed Shatley.

Authorities started digging for Blevins body with a backhoe yesterday morning. The Ashe County Sheriff's Office was joined there yesterday afternoon by the State Bureau of Investigation's mobile crime lab.

Williams said that Hammer made the confessions last week to two Ashe County sheriff's officers. Lt. Peyton Colvard, the lead investigator on the Blevins case, and Detective William Sands both traveled to talk to Hammer at Powhatan Correctional Center in State Farm, Va., near Richmond. They were accompanied by Donna Shumate, an Alleghany County attorney whom Hammer asked to be present.

Williams said that Hammer made the confessions in exchange for taking the death penalty off the table and for being moved to a prison closer to home. He said that Blevins' family had agreed to not seeking the death penalty. Hammer's wife is the sister of Jimmy Blevins' father. The district attorney's office could not be reached last night to comment on the death penalty.

Hammer had served prison time for killing an off-duty Philadelphia police officer in 1978.

http://www2.journalnow.com/content/2009/aug/05/mystery-of-missing-man-ends/

[packy]

It does appear to be him and Williams said they were confidant and Hammer told them where he was. If anyone hears any different please post here.

He can rest in peace now.

[PatC]

"....Hammer is serving five life sentences without parole..." I guess this guy finally killed enough people to be put away forever.

:madranting94dp:

[Nut44x4]

Hammer demanded $15K
for location of body
By Joel Frady

Ashe County Sheriff James Williams officially announced that the remains found buried in the Clifton community on Tuesday, Aug. 4, have been positively identified as Jimmy Lee Blevins. The body was found late Tuesday afternoon and was sent to Chapel Hill for identification, where dental records proved that it was Blevins.

"When he confessed to the murder, he told us what happened, told us the story and confessed to killing him, but when it came to giving us the location of the body he would not tell us where the body was," said Williams. He wanted the $15,000 that the Blevins family had offered as a reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Blevins' killer put in a trust account for his step-granddaughter.

"As sickening and as despicable as that is, we had no choice but to come back and tell the family 'he's confessed to killing your son but he wants [the $15,000] before he'll give up where the body is,'" said Williams. "The Blevins family -- they didn't hesitate much, they said 'We want our boy.' [Blevins'] mother wants a grave to go to and know where her son is."

Williams said that the money was put into the trust account of Donna Shumate, Hammer's attorney, an action that made Hammer's wife, Brenda, "terribly unhappy.

"She does not want that money and I am hoping she can talk him into changing his mind about that [because] he's the only one" that can return the money, Williams said.

The money wasn't Hammer's only demand. Williams said that he "wanted to be moved to a prison that is closer to home" and that "he was going to be transferred anyway."

Hammer will soon be transferred to Wallens Ridge Correction Center in Big Stone Gap, Va., which is approximately a three-hour drive from Ashe County (as opposed to the five-hour drive to Powhatan Correctional Facility in Richmond).

Williams also said that he will soon meet with the State Bureau of Investigation, District Attorney Tom Horner and the Ashe County Sheriff's deputies that worked the case to determine how to proceed with the filing of criminal charges against Hammer.

He noted that Hammer will most likely have to appear in a North Carolina court to face charges, including murder, in Blevins' death.

Authorities will also continue to investigate Hammer's claim to have killed Tim Shatley on Nov. 19, 2005, in Grassy Creek.
"We will continue to investigate the leads and work toward making a decision in the Tim Shatley [murder] that he confessed to, but like I said we are not satisfied with his version of that right now," said Williams.
Despite the positive identification, the official cause of death has not yet been released. Boone Family Funeral Home in West Jefferson is handling the funeral arrangements, but no date has been set for a service.

http://wataugademocrat.com/2009/0803/0807Hammer15K.php