Steve Epperly: The Murder of Gina Hall and the No-Body Conviction

Steve Epperly is a former Virginia Tech football player serving a life sentence at Buckingham Correctional Center in Virginia for the 1980 first-degree murder of Radford University freshman Gina Renee Hall. His conviction was the first murder conviction in Virginia, and only the fourth in United States history, obtained without a body, a confession, or an eyewitness to the killing.¹ Now in his seventies, Epperly has been denied parole every time he has been eligible, most recently in May 2024.²

What Happened to Gina Hall

On the evening of June 28, 1980, eighteen-year-old Gina Renee Hall left her Radford apartment and drove to a nightclub at the Marriott Inn in Blacksburg, Virginia. Hall was a Radford University freshman, five feet two inches tall and 110 pounds.³ She had not previously met Epperly.⁴

At the club she met Epperly and his friend Bill King. Epperly borrowed King’s lake house on Claytor Lake in Pulaski County, and he and Hall left together.⁵ Around 1:30 a.m., Hall called her sister from the lake house to say she was with someone named Steve and expected to be home by 6:00 a.m. That call was the last anyone heard from her.³

Two days later, Hall’s car was found abandoned under a railroad trestle on Hazel Hollow Road between Claytor Lake and Radford. A ripped interior door strap and other signs pointed to a struggle.⁴ Blood and hair matching Hall’s blood type were recovered from the trunk.¹

The Evidence Against Epperly

Investigators built a wholly circumstantial case. A search of the Claytor Lake house turned up bloodstains in the utility and recreation rooms, a broken ankle bracelet belonging to Hall, and missing towels and cleaning supplies. Synthetic fibers from the house’s carpet were later recovered on Hall’s belongings.⁵

Witnesses saw Epperly at the house shortly after Hall vanished, apparently cleaning and moving things. He told friends to keep quiet about his contact with her, showed no concern when informed of her disappearance, and asked an attorney whether he could be prosecuted if “they didn’t find a body.”⁵

A dog handler named John Preston testified that his tracking dog, Harass II, followed a scent trail from Hall’s abandoned car to Epperly’s home about a mile away, eleven days after the disappearance and through several rainstorms.⁶ It was the first time tracking-dog evidence was admitted in a Virginia courtroom.¹

The 1980 Trial and Life Sentence

Epperly stood trial in Pulaski County in December 1980. Over seven days, prosecutors called 31 witnesses and introduced more than 90 pieces of forensic evidence to prove both that Hall was dead and that Epperly had killed her. The defense called no witnesses and put on no evidence of its own.⁷

On December 16, 1980, the jury convicted Epperly of first-degree murder and recommended life in prison.⁷ He was 29 years old.⁸

Appeals and the Preston Problem

The Supreme Court of Virginia affirmed the conviction on September 9, 1982. The court held that circumstantial evidence could sustain the conviction and that tracking-dog evidence did not require a prior scientific explanation to be admissible.⁹

Epperly then sought federal habeas relief. In Epperly v. Booker, decided June 15, 1993, the Fourth Circuit rejected his claims that the evidence of premeditation was insufficient, that the prosecution had suppressed exculpatory material about the tracking-dog protocols, and that the prosecutor had improperly told police officers not to speak with the defense. On premeditation, the court pointed to the duration and violence of the struggle, Epperly’s size advantage over Hall, and his efforts to conceal evidence. It found the dog-tracking material was not solely in the prosecution’s hands and was cumulative, and it treated the misconduct claim as procedurally barred.⁵

The tracking-dog testimony has drawn scrutiny in the years since. John Preston’s credibility collapsed after the trial. An Arizona judge denounced him as “a liar, a charlatan and a fraud,” other experts questioned his credentials, and multiple convictions in which he had testified were thrown out after indications he had faked results.⁶ In Florida, DNA evidence eventually exonerated William Dillon, who had spent 27 years in prison partly because of Preston’s testimony about Harass II.¹⁰

At a 1986 hearing in Epperly’s case, Preston himself admitted his dog could have tracked a police officer rather than Epperly.⁶ Epperly’s attorney, Edward Hogshire, moved for release or a new trial. The motion failed. The Fourth Circuit concluded that the dog-tracking testimony was only one part of a broader circumstantial case and was not material enough to change the outcome, even though at trial it had been described as the only evidence directly linking Epperly’s scent to the crime scene.⁵

The Search for Gina Hall’s Remains

Gina Hall’s body has never been recovered. The Virginia State Police still lists her case as active, with a designated special agent and a public tip line.³

In 2016, a farmer’s grandson contacted Radford police to report that his grandfather had seen two men dismembering a body in Meadow Creek in 1980. That tip prompted Hall’s older sister, Dlana Hall Bodmer, to launch a renewed search. Working with forensic anthropologist Dr. Arpad Vass, Bodmer used a specialized detection instrument to scan sites across the New River Valley. By 2020 she reported positive signals at eight locations, including Draper Mountain, the Claytor Lake house, Hazel Hollow Road, Meadow Creek, and Epperly’s former hunting grounds, where a portion of a bone was reportedly found.¹¹

Those findings have not been officially verified. As of 2022 reporting, the recovered materials had not been forensically confirmed as human remains or matched to Hall’s DNA, and forensic experts quoted in that reporting characterized Vass’s methods as lacking scientific validity.¹²

Parole Denials and Where Epperly Is Now

Epperly has sought parole every time he has been eligible, and the Virginia Parole Board has denied every request.¹³ The Hall family and the Pulaski County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office have participated in community and victim input hearings to oppose release, and documented denials include hearings in 2021 and May 2024.¹⁴

Because he is over 60, Epperly qualifies for review under Virginia’s geriatric parole provisions. A directive from former Governor Ralph Northam told the parole board to review cases for inmates over 60, and under that framework Epperly became eligible for annual hearings rather than the standard three-year cycle. Bodmer has asked the board to defer hearings to three-year intervals.¹⁵ After the May 2024 denial, Epperly is expected to be eligible for consideration again around 2027.¹⁶

Confirming the 2024 denial, Pulaski County Commonwealth’s Attorney Justin L. Griffith said Epperly would remain an inmate with the Virginia Department of Corrections, and that a jury spoke in 1980 and the community continues to carry that message forward.¹⁴ Epperly continues to deny responsibility for Gina Hall’s death.⁴

1
WTOP. How VA Prosecutors Got 2 High-Profile Murder Convictions Despite Lack of Human Remains
2
WDBJ7. Epperly Denied Parole Once Again
3
Virginia State Police. Cold Case – Virginia State Police Case 89-14542
4
Radford News Journal. Gina Hall’s Sister Concerned About Documentary’s Depiction
5
Resource.org. Epperly v. Booker, 997 F.2d 1
6
Roanoke Times. Epperly Case Coverage
7
Washington Post. Suspect in Slaying of Missing Radford Student Is Convicted
8
UPI. Murder Conviction Upheld in Case Where Body Never Found
9
vLex. Epperly v. Commonwealth, 224 Va. 214
10
Innocence Project. One Year Free, New Questions Raised
11
WDBJ7. 40 Years Later, Some of Gina Hall’s Remains Found in Pulaski County
12
Mother Jones. National Forensic Academy Police Training
13
WDBJ7. Stephen Epperly Denied Recent Parole Request
14
WSLS. Stephen Epperly Denied Recent Parole
15
Radford News Journal. Epperly Case Heads to Parole Board Again
16
WVVA. Convicted Killer Epperly Denied Parole Once Again