Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 18, 1995 TAG: 9504180135
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Authorities from 10 states are lining up to question Sean Patrick Goble of Asheboro, N.C., about similar murders in their jurisdictions over the past 10 years.
His latest confession was to murdering a woman whose body was found Feb. 19 off Interstate 40 in Guilford County, N.C., near Colfax, The Associated Press reported. She has not been identified.
And in Kingsport, Tenn., Police Chief James F. Keesling said Monday that Goble is a "strong suspect" in the death of a woman found there in 1991.
Keesling said members of his department would meet in a few days with representatives of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and authorities from other states to see if Goble can be connected to other killings.
Authorities will use Goble's fuel tickets and log book to chart his travel during the years women's bodies were found in Virginia, Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Florida, Kentucky, Georgia and Missouri, Keesling said.
Goble was arrested Thursday in Winston-Salem and charged with strangling Brenda Kay Hagy, 45, of Bloomington, Ind., whose body was found Jan. 23 along Interstate 81 in Washington County.
Goble said he strangled Hagy in Greene County, Tenn., and dumped the body in Virginia. Tennessee authorities have charged Goble with first-degree murder. The Virginia warrant on which he was arrested has been dropped.
Keesling said the thorough search of the Virginia crime scene by Washington County authorities identified Goble as a suspect by coming up with his fingerprint on a plastic bag.
Goble also confessed to killing a woman found in Tennessee last month. The body of Alice Rebecca Hanes, 36, of Columbus, Ohio, was found on the morning of March 19 about a mile from Interstate 81 on the outskirts of Kingsport. A preliminary autopsy showed that she died of suffocation.
Keesling said authorities managed to trace her to Salina, Kan., placing her at a truck stop there for most of the week before her death, and then to Van Buren, Ark., on March 17 and 18. She was last seen alive at an Arkansas truck stop about 1 a.m. March 18, the day before her body was found.
Hanes' body was found about a mile from the spot where the body of another woman, Margaret Sue Goins, 26, of Soddy-Daisy, Tenn., was found Nov. 14, 1991. Keesling said Goble "is a strong suspect in that case."
However, Goble is not the suspected serial killer who goes by the CB radio handle of "Stargazer," Keesling said. Goble's CB handle, painted on the front of his truck, is "Wild One."
"Stargazer" is believed to be the handle of a trucker linked to killings in several states. He was first described by a woman in Texas who was choked, but survived, in 1985, and again in 1991 by a witness in a North Carolina murder case. Based on the first description, however, "Stargazer" was estimated to be 50 to 55 by now.
Greene County, Tenn., District Attorney Berkeley Bell said Goble also will be questioned in the death of a woman whose body was found along Interstate 81 in Greene County in 1985. Because of the condition of the body, the identity and cause of death in that case have never been determined.
Goble waived extradition Monday at a 10-minute hearing in North Carolina and will be picked up and brought to Tennessee today.
A search of Goble's Asheboro mobile home reportedly yielded pornographic magazines and movies, women's undergarments and women's shoes, according to the AP.
Keesling said Hanes' pocketbook was found in Goble's truck. He would not discuss other evidence that authorities have gathered.
Some information for this story came from The Associated Press.
by CNB