Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, October 14, 1994 TAG: 9410140072
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DIANE STRUZZI STAFF WRITER NOTE: Strip
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
A primary suspect in the Vinton quadruple-murder investigation says police have fabricated a story about his involvement in the case.
In a letter to the Roanoke Times & World-News, Earl C. Bramblett says he knows he is a suspect but has no information about the murders. He says he has talked with police once but refuses to talk with them again because, he says, they have lied at least a half-dozen times to secure a search warrant.
Bramblett has been the target of two search warrants executed by investigators.
"They did not misquote me or misunderstand what I said," he wrote in his first public statement since the slayings. "They totally fabricated the whole story of when I was in the Vinton Police Department."
Later in the letter, Bramblett said, "I have stayed away from the police because they lied, and I want to establish that I intend to remain silent in their custody."
Jonathan Rogers, a Roanoke lawyer who has represented Bramblett in the past, confirmed that the letter, which bore a Roanoke postmark, was written by his former client. The newspaper's efforts to find Bramblett have been unsuccessful.
Investigators in the murder case were out of town Thursday and could not be reached for comment. Roanoke County Commonwealth's Attorney Skip Burkart said he would not debate Bramblett's claims in the newspaper.
Four members of the Hodges family were found dead in their burned-out East Virginia Avenue home the morning of Aug. 29. Blaine Hodges, 41, had been shot once in the head. Teresa Hodges, 37, had been strangled and badly burned. Their two daughters - Winter, 11, and Anah, 3 - had each been shot twice in the head.
Bramblett, 52, is described by friends as a drifter, often living out of his pickup truck. He was a frequent companion of the Hodgeses.
Days before the discovery of their bodies, he was seen painting their home. One day before the Hodgeses were found slain, Bramblett was seen at their home, Vinton Police Chief Rick Foutz said earlier this month.
The next day, Bramblett was questioned at the Vinton Police Department and almost immediately became a suspect. Bramblett has not been charged, but he remains among a handful of people who are being investigated, Foutz said.
Bramblett "was uncooperative, and that struck us as strange," Foutz said. "He was such a close friend of the family for years, [but] he offered little or no assistance" when asked about the last days of the Hodgeses.
"If he's not involved, I would certainly think he would want to come forward and clear his name, and help find the person or persons responsible," Foutz added.
In his letter, Bramblett says he has "no direct knowledge as to who did this terrible crime." He addressed his handwritten note to the Roanoke Valley, his sons and Blaine Hodges' immediate family.
Bramblett says he was staying in a nearby motel room at the time the bodies were discovered. After a friend told him about the murders, he said, he called police. A Vinton sergeant told him to come to the police station, which Bramblett did, according to the letter.
"I was in such a state of shock that I could just not focus," Bramblett said. The sergeant "then took me to Blaine's house, where we just sat. I couldn't figure out why we were there, and I told him I wanted to go."
Bramblett said he left and returned to his room. During that night or the night of Aug. 30, Bramblett said, police searched his truck and the room where he was staying. He claims that in the initial search warrant affidavit, investigators did not accurately portray his meeting with police. But he did not elaborate.
"I saw the handwriting on the wall then," Bramblett said. "I was advised by several attorneys that the best I could do was get out of Virginia and stay away from the Vinton police as long as possible. They had already showed me they intended to violate the law and the truth in this matter."
On Sept. 1, Bramblett took the search warrant affidavit to Rogers, who said he advised Bramblett not to talk with police.
"I didn't feel comfortable about a client who might be a suspect going and talking to police and being misquoted or his statements being taken out of context," Rogers said Thursday.
In 1984, Rogers represented Bramblett when he was charged with sexually molesting a 10-year-old girl in Roanoke. Bramblett was acquitted of those charges.
Investigators have executed two search warrants in their investigation of the murders. Both have been sealed from public review. According to the owner of Winter's Mini-Storage facility in Vinton, a shed rented by Bramblett was searched by police the night of Sept. 9.
It is not known what police were looking for or if they found anything in either of the searches.
Since the murders, Bramblett has been seen in the area, driving his rusting, white pickup truck and visiting sites along the Blue Ridge Parkway. He confirmed in the letter that he has journeyed throughout Virginia as well as out of state during the last month. And he said he knows law enforcement agents have been aware of his travels.
One of the last times Bramblett was seen was Sept. 26 at a motel in Botetourt County. During the last three weeks of September, Bramblett stayed there intermittently, according to witnesses.
Police apparently had been watching him. On at least two occasions, law enforcement agents carried numerous trash bags from Bramblett's motel room after he checked out, a witness to the search said. What was taken from the room is unknown.
Bramblett said in his letter that if he "had any information that could help, I would already have volunteered it."
"The Blaine Hodges family were my family, and Winter and Anah were my daily joys," he said. "It tore out my heart as I know it has the rest of the Hodges."
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