Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 4, 1993 TAG: 9302040217
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RON BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
MAN'S SLAYING TIED TO DRUGS, MONEY
Nobody in Grayson County seemed to know much about Albert Hamilton Sr.So when his bullet-riddled body, weighted by a cinder block, was dragged from the bottom of the New River on Saturday, authorities had to start piecing his life together.
The 68-year-old left only a thumbnail sketch of that life on the farm where he lived in the Comers Rock section of the county.
On that farm, investigators found a shed with plastic walls clear enough for the sun to shine through, yet thick enough to block visibility from the outside.
Inside the shed, police found 300 dirt-filled plastic 5-gallon buckets with remnants of marijuana plants.
Water hoses were strewn all over the farm, which had two fish ponds ready for irrigation.
Authorities started looking for Hamilton in December, after receiving a call from a worried neighbor who'd gone to his house, found a ceiling fan and heater on but Hamilton nowhere in sight.
Outside, Hamilton's truck was in the driveway with the keys in the ignition. Farm equipment purchased a week before was near the house.
Sheriff's investigators suspect that money and drugs may have been the motive for his killing.
"He kept a large amount of money with him," said Grayson County Sheriff Herbert McKnight. "He drew a pretty good pension."
That pension came from a job he'd held in Washington, D.C. A female friend would come from there occasionally to visit him. That's about all investigators know for sure about Hamilton's life.
"He'd been here for nine years, and I didn't know him," said McKnight, whose 28 years in law enforcement has brought him in contact with most of the county's 16,000 residents.
"I can go to the homes of most of them," McKnight said.
He'd never received such an invitation from Hamilton.
An investigation into Hamilton's disappearance pointed authorities to the Buck Dam area of Carroll County, just off Virginia 94 between Ivanhoe and Fries.
Dogs trained in searching water pinpointed the area were the body was found. When divers recovered Hamilton's body, it had bullet holes in the head and neck.
Four guns were found with his body, but police aren't sure any of them belonged to Hamilton.
McKnight doesn't think it was a professional killing.
"I think it was local," he said. "We're working on it day and night."