Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 15, 1995 TAG: 9504170054
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. LENGTH: Medium
``He'd always have an excuse, like that the truck broke down or the lights weren't working,'' said William Stonestreet, owner of Rocky Road Express Inc., a long-distance trucking firm. ``And he'd always make up for the lost time.''
But the disappearances made more sense to Stonestreet after Goble was charged Thursday with murdering a woman whose body was found along an interstate service road in Virginia in January.
Authorities said Goble, of Asheboro, admitted he strangled 45-year-old Brenda Kay Hagy of Bloomington, Ind., at a service station in eastern Tennessee. He said he then dumped her body along Interstate 81 in Washington County, Va.
The death fit a pattern of killings in at least seven states, although Virginia authorities wouldn't comment on any possible links.
``The fact that he is a long-distance driver, we may be hearing from some other states where police are looking at their file of unsolved murders,'' said Ron Barker, the sheriff in Forsyth County, N.C.
In 1991, the FBI and authorities in several states set up a task force to investigate unsolved highway slayings, many involving women like Hagy who frequented truck stops and whose bodies were dumped along highways.
Goble, 28, was picked up on a fugitive murder warrant about 8 a.m. Thursday as he returned to work after a delivery to Richmond, Va.
Authorities cordoned off the blue trailer where the 5-foot-10, 300-pound Goble lived alone, and confiscated his truck. ``They said they saw bloodstains in different parts of the cab,'' Stonestreet said.
Stonestreet recalled that Goble would come to the office on Friday evenings, usually bringing two large pizzas and a six-pack of soda with him. He'd eat one pizza and half of the other and drink three or four sodas, then share the rest.
``He never said too much,'' Stonestreet said. ``He would call in from the road and ask where he needed to go. He'd put in his 4,500 miles a week, every week.''
In Asheboro, residents of the trailer park where Goble lived said they rarely saw their neighbor.
Amanda Keeling, a 19-year-old neighbor, described him as a ``scary kind of fellow.''
Former park owner Earl Bower had a different opinion.
``He'd pull in late Saturday night and go out Sunday. As nice a guy as you could ask for,'' Bower said, adding that Goble paid his rent on time and never caused any trouble.
``A friendly guy,'' was how another neighbor, Johnny Heaton, described Goble. ``Jolly as Santa Claus. He was so jolly, it was weird.''
Cindy Heaton, who lives across a dirt road from Goble's trailer, said Goble didn't keep regular hours, apparently because of his job. She added that he was divorced and his ex-wife and her husband would sometimes visit him.
Reached Friday at her job at an Asheboro convenience store, Goble's ex-wife wouldn't comment.
by CNB