Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 21, 1995 TAG: 9503210103
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: KINGSPORT, TENN. LENGTH: Medium
Investigators considered the possibility Monday as they tried to identify the body of a woman found Sunday morning along the interstate on the outskirts of Kingsport.
Not quite two months ago in Washington County, Va., the body of 45-year-old Brenda Kay Hagy of Bloomington, Ind., turned up along the same highway between Abingdon and Bristol.
And on Nov. 14, 1991, the body of 26-year-old Margaret Sue Goins of Soddy-Daisy, Tenn., was discovered within a mile of where the latest victim was found.
The fact that all three women had some association with trucking or truck stops has authorities wondering whether they were victims of a trucker known by the CB handle ``Stargazer.''
His handle and general description came from a woman who was choked and left for dead in Texas in 1985 and from a witness to a 1992 murder in North Carolina. He is said to be 5-foot-8 or -9, slightly heavyset, with dark hair, and to have a Star of David tattooed on his right arm. He had a short beard and mustache, a trace of a Southern accent, and would now be 50 to 55 years old.
In Ohio, where he is a suspect in the deaths of eight women, a task force was put together in 1992 to track him down. He also is a suspect in the deaths of four women in Indiana, three in Pennsylvania and others in North Carolina and New York.
Most of the victims were beaten or, as Hagy was, strangled and dumped along a highway. Ross Sheets, an investigator with the Washington County Sheriff's Department, first speculated that Stargazer might have killed Hagy.
Chief Deputy Mark Addington of the Kingsport Police Department would not speculate Monday on the latest victim's cause of death. He said she was not shot, stabbed or mutilated, but that it was an obvious homicide.
``There are similarities, but there are some differences,'' he said. ``So we are exploring the theory of the Stargazer but we are also exploring [other] theories.
``Identification of the body will be a big part of the investigation. Once we know who she is, then we can start a background check,'' he said. ``If she hasn't got her fingerprints on file, that will be a dead end.''
No missing persons have been reported locally.
Goins, the 1991 victim, patronized truck stops but was run over by what must have been a large truck rather than strangled, he said.
``We were never able to determine whether it was an accident or a homicide. ... It may not be even connected. You know, she may have been hitchhiking out there in the dark.''
The woman found Sunday was about 35, 5-foot-2, and had shoulder-length black hair with brown roots. Her teeth were in poor condition. She wore a black T-shirt with a Washington Redskins sketch and black short stretch pants. She also had ``Dad'' tattooed on her upper right arm, a unicorn head over a semi-truck and ``Sundance'' on her upper left arm, a heart around the letter ``R'' on her right upper breast and another heart with the letter ``B'' on her left.
Anyone with information should call the Kingsport Police Department at (615)246-9111.
Keywords:
FATALITY
by CNB