Summertime Reward

Swimming under the Cascades of Giles County, Virginia provides instant relief from the two mile hike in the summer heat.

Shooting on the Appalachian Trail

Wapiti Shelter, Giles County, Virginia

Luckily for two men in Southwestern Virginia, history did not repeat itself.

The Giles County Sheriff's Office conducted an investigation today into a double shooting that occurred Tuesday night. Both men survived the shooting despite wounds to the face and chest of one, and the back and neck of the second. The shooting occurred along the Appalachian Trail between Giles and Bland counties around the Dismal Creek area. Virginia State Police arrested Randall Lee Smith after he flipped a truck belonging to one of the victims not far from the shooting site.

In 1982, Smith pleaded guilty to the 1981 murders of two hikers on the Appalachian Trail. He shot Robert Mountford Jr. three times, stabbed Laura Susan Ramsay more than a dozen times as they slept in Wapiti Shelter and left their bodies in shallow, leaf-covered graves. He was given two consecutive 15-year sentences. A plea agreement halted the case just before it went to trial in Giles County. Smith was released from prison in 1996 and returned to Giles County to live with his mother, who later died in 2000. In late March, Smith was reported missing by a neighbor after he disappeared.

Smith's earlier case was the subject of a novel by Jess Carr, Murder on the Appalachian Trail.

Investigators say Appalachian Trail Killer tries to strike again

Map of Area

Turmoil in Giles County

Narrows, Virginia

One group wants to let Appalachian Power dump fly ash on a piece of land near the New River as fill material. The land would then be marketed for development. Another group says not in our back yard, or in this case, flood plain. In three weeks, the Department of Environmental Quality will weigh in on the issue. Will the propects of luring in an industry trump the concern to preserve one of Giles County's most marketable features?

Debate over fly ash use heats up in Giles

Professor concerned about fly ash plan