Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 8, 1992 TAG: 9201080081
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MELANIE S. HATTER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
RETIRING THEIR BADGES
AS the new year opened, two sheriff's investigators quietly closed the doors on their long law-enforcement careers.But neither Denver Stewart, who retired from the Montgomery County Sheriff's Department on Jan. 1, nor Bill Stables, who retired from the Giles County Sheriff's Department on Dec. 31, is ready to pack it all up and settle into a quiet life at home.
Stewart is considering getting a private investigator's license, and Stables is looking at his options.
As they leave their county-investigator jobs, they leave behind reputations as the best. Once they got their hands on a case, they didn't let go until it was solved.
Stables, 63, spent many a night lying awake trying to figure out a case, he said. "If there's the least inkling, I keep on it," he said. "I won't give up. If there's a will there's a way, if I think he's guilty. . . . I just don't like to lose."
Stewart's reputation even led a criminal to say to another officer, " `If Denver Stewart gets after you, go somewhere and give up, 'cause he's gonna get you,' " Stewart said with a grin. "You do the best and be the best you can be," he added. "An investigator has to do it [follow leads] when he gets it. If the trail gets cold, it's no good."
There's no substitute for experience, they said, but they believe law enforcement is better today because of police academies and formal education.
When Stewart, 64, started, he was paid $350 a month as a "meter maid." He joined Christiansburg's police in 1966, two weeks after retiring from 20 years in the Army. Stewart, a Corbin, Ky., native, worked as a Virginia Tech policeman before joining the Sheriff's Department in 1971.
"When I started, they gave me a uniform and a badge. I had to furnish my own gun. They gave me the keys to a car and that was it," he said.
Stewart showed off his first badge. It was much the same as today's badges, but instead of the colorful state seal in the center, it had a plain numeral 4.
Stables said his experience starting out as a road deputy in Giles County was much the same. At his first car wreck, he told the trooper he had never worked one before and the trooper replied, "Well, jump in there and get your feet wet."
Over the years Stables and Stewart have gotten their feet wet many times.
Stables moved to the Narrows Police Department after four years as a deputy and returned to the sheriff's office in 1981 as the county's first official investigator. On his first day, "I had a 12-gauge shotgun in my face."
He was investigating some break-ins and was visiting a woman to see if she knew anything. When he walked up to her house, she stuck the gun in his face and asked for identification.
One case that upset Stables was the slaying of 3-year-old Audra Kinder. Her father's girlfriend, Barbra Jo Archie, was convicted in June 1990 of beating the child to death. "That little girl really got to me," he said.
After her death on Feb. 4, 1989, Stables took her clothes as evidence to the sheriff's office, where news reporters were waiting for him. "I found a little drawing pad in her jeans [pocket]. It got to me. I had to move away [from the reporters] 'cause it was tearing me up," he said.
An example of Stables' dedication to a case was the 1987 murder of Tech student Meredith Mergler. It was four years before a suspect was charged with the abduction and murder, but Stables said he stuck with it every day. A jury convicted John David Lafon in October. Lafon is appealing the verdict.
"It took a month to wind down and get a night's sleep" when it was over, Stables said.
The worst case Stewart worked was the 1978 rape and murder of a pregnant nurse at her Ironto home. Buddy Earl Justus was convicted of the crime and after years of appeals was executed in December 1990.
"That was the worst . . . one of the most heinous crimes. He shot her and her baby," Stewart said. "That gave me nightmares. I can see it right now as if it were last night."
One of the most emotional cases for Stewart was the sexual abuse of a 3-year-old in August 1990. She was found in a closet, covered with blood and with her mouth taped. Delbert Lee Goins pleaded guilty and was sentenced last March to life plus 80 years.
Stewart remembered pulling off the closet door.
"I [thought] she was dead when I saw her curled up, but when she put her hands out to me, Lord have mercy," he said, shaking his head at the memory.
Stables, a Narrows native, doesn't regret not moving to a bigger town. He spent five years in the Marines and was stationed in Washington and other cities. He was more than happy to come home, he said.
And, like Stewart, he doesn't regret his choices in life. "You've got to look forward instead of regressing about what could have been," he said. "I'm satisfied with my life. I wish I had more money," he added with a smile.
Giles County has experienced more murders in the last few years than in the last two decades, Stables said. That says a lot about society today, he added. "When I went to work, I didn't know what marijuana was. I didn't know what cocaine was. Back then you'd heard about it. It used to grow wild on Peters Mountain. People just didn't know what it was."
Stables and Stewart are looking forward to slower lives, but they're keeping their fingers in law enforcement. Their advice to newcomers to police work:
"Don't emulate anyone or try to be anyone else. Learn from others and use what you can from them," Stables said. While working on murder cases, Stables was "learning right to the end."
Treat people with respect, no matter their race or religion, Stewart said. "The public is our eyes and ears."