ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, July 31, 1996 TAG: 9607310069
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DIANE STRUZZI STAFF WRITER
note: lede
Days after a Vinton couple and their two children were killed in their home, a close friend of the family goaded police.
"Why don't you go on and charge me with murder and get it over with?" Earl Conrad Bramblett said.
Tuesday afternoon - nearly two years later - police finally did.
They surrounded the Spartanburg, S.C., print shop where Bramblett worked and arrested him on a fugitive warrant. Earlier in the day, a Roanoke County grand jury had indicted him on charges related to the killings of Blaine and Teresa Hodges and their two children, Winter and Anah. Bramblett, 54, faces one count of capital murder, three counts of first-degree murder, three counts of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony and arson.
Investigators pieced together bits of evidence to build a circumstantial case in one of the Roanoke Valley's most compelling and complex crimes.
The Hodgeses' bodies were discovered after firefighters responded to their home at 232 E. Virginia Ave. the morning of Aug. 29, 1994. From the outset, police had to overcome a major obstacle: Most of the physical evidence at the scene had been destroyed by fire.
"This was a very deliberate and premeditated case," Roanoke County Commonwealth's Attorney Skip Burkart said Tuesday. "He planned to kill these people and destroy the evidence."
Inside the Vinton house, investigators found Teresa Hodges, 37, strangled in the living room. They discovered her husband, Blaine Hodges, 41, in a bedroom upstairs; he had been shot in the head. In another bedroom, the couple's two daughters, Winter, 11, and Anah, 3, were found. Each had been shot in the head.
The capital murder charge is based on investigators' belief that the girls were killed almost simultaneously and in the same act.
Within days of the killings, Bramblett became the focus of the investigation. He was one of the few people who knew the daily routines of the Hodgeses, according to family members. He had stayed with them on occasion and considered himself to be a member of the family.
But when police tried to talk to him, they found him "evasive" and uncooperative, according to search warrants filed in the two weeks after the killings. Searches of Bramblett's motel room, pickup truck and rented storage shed did not produce the weapon used in the killings. Evidence was sent to the FBI, but test results are unknown.
By the time of the Hodgeses' funeral, Bramblett had dropped out of sight. He resurfaced briefly Oct. 12, 1994, when he wrote a letter to The Roanoke Times saying police lied about his actions and that he was going to look for a job elsewhere.
The man who has been described as a wanderer with a talent for silk-screening found his new home in the old mill town of Spartanburg. For at least the past year he has been working at a print shop about a mile from his rented house.
As investigators pulled together their case against Bramblett, they also kept tabs on him, Burkart said. In the past several weeks they closed in, notifying local authorities and sending a team of investigators to set up Tuesday's arrest.
The team - which included Virginia State Police agents, a Roanoke County assistant commonwealth's attorney and Vinton police - arrived in Spartanburg Sunday to ready search warrants and talk with local police and prosecutors.
But exactly what motivated authorities to make their move after nearly two years is unclear.
"It is not one piece of evidence, but a conglomeration of pieces of evidences," Burkart said. Explaining the timing of Bramblett's arrest is difficult, he added, without revealing the whole case against him.
As Bramblett sat in the Spartanburg County Jail Tuesday night under a suicide watch, police searched his home. They were looking for specific pieces of evidence, Burkart said. He would not elaborate.
Minutes after Bramblett's arrest, relatives of the Hodgeses began receiving calls from Barry Keesee, the state police investigator who has worked the case full time since the killings.
"My first thought was that I rejoiced and thanked God that [Bramblett] was taken off the street and that no other family would be caused the pain he has caused us," said Brenda Lugar, Teresa Hodges' sister. "I just pray that justice is done. The maximum."
A bond hearing for Bramblett is scheduled for this afternoon in Spartanburg. Deputy Solicitor Anthony Mabry said Bramblett will fight extradition to Virginia.
LENGTH: Medium: 91 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. Earl Bramblett, a close friend of the Hodgeses, wasby CNBan early suspect in the killings. Police say he was evasive and
uncooperative. color
2. The bodies of Teresa and Blaine Hodges and their daughters Anah
(left) and Winter were found in their burned home.
3. map showing location of Spartanburg, S. C. color STAFF KEYWORDS: ROMUR