Escape from Brushy Mountain

The Appalachian Trail slices through the rugged mountains of southwestern Virginia, and is a magnet for nature lovers.  Friends Scott Johnston and Sean Farmer say they've hiked the trails and fished the streams here most of their lives.

Scott Johnston: It's just a beautiful, relaxing place to me.

But one hiker they met on the trail here last may turned on them without warning. Both men were shot at point blank range and critically wounded.

Sean Farmer: I'm just lucky.  And it was so close too.  I mean, I had powder burns all like in-- in a circular fashion around the wound.  Because, I mean, he came up from at a angle behind execution style and popped me.

Only later would they discover that this was not the first time two innocent hikers were viciously attacked on this part of the Appalachian Trail.

In the spring of 1981, hikers Susan Ramsay and Robert Mountford were murdered at the Wapiti shelter -- then buried in sleeping bags by their killer. The shocking crime drew national attention, and for the first time, a large portion of the trail was closed to the public.

Tom Lawson: When we shut that trail down, we caught holy "you know what."

Chris Hansen: Holy hell.

Tom Lawson: Yes.

Former deputy Tom Lawson says the Giles County sheriff's office closed the trail for safety's sake, while they investigated the murders.

Chris Hansen: How much pressure was on you to solve this case and get that Appalachian Trail back open?

Tom Lawson: Well, we were getting calls from the Department of the Interior--

Chris Hansen: Federal calls.

Tom Lawson: Saying-- yes-- "You all need to make a statement saying that there's no serial killer walkin' the Appalachian Trail.

Chris Hansen: So they were trying to get you to say, 'everything's good."

Tom Lawson: Go on record, give it to the media.

Chris Hansen: Did you do it?

Tom Lawson: No, sir. 

The pressure was on to find the killer, but police had just one solid piece of forensic evidence -- from a book belonging to murder victim Susan Ramsay.

Tom Lawson: We found a fingerprint-- bloody fingerprint in the book.

But that bloody fingerprint was of little use until they could match it to a suspect. And weeks after the murders,  police still didn't have one. But then a bizarre incident drew Tom Lawson's attention to a local man. The man was reported missing, and police discovered a note in his truck saying he had been kidnapped.

Chris Hansen: Did you get a name on this guy?

Tom Lawson: Oh, yeah.  They ran his tag number. Randall Lee Smith.

Lawson was immediately suspicious of Randall Lee Smith. Not only did his disappearance come shortly after the double murders, but police quickly learned the kidnap note was left by Smith himself.

Tom Lawson: So we started interviewing people who knew him, who grew up with him. And basically what we found out about Randall was-- is that-- he was very-- shy.  He basically had no friends to amount to anything. He had-- a nickname:

Sherman Smith: Oh, L.R.  "Lyin' Randall."

Lying Randall. For years, Sherman Smith -- no relation -- lived across the street from Randall Lee Smith in Pearisburg, Va. 

Sherman Smith: The tales he'd tell, and-- they were just kinda outrageous, and-- and I-- I think he-- he expect people to believe him, but-- I don't think anybody believed any of it. 

True to form, that note about being kidnapped was just another lie. No one had kidnapped Smith, he had just left town and had driven to South Carolina. Tom Lawson tracked Smith down, brought him back here to his home in Pearisburg, and noticed something -- you could walk out Smith's back door and be up on the Appalachian Trail in minutes, and it was just a short hike from the murder scene. Lawson had his suspect.

Then the pieces started to fall into place: Lawson found some hikers who saw Randall Lee Smith with Susan Ramsay the day of the murders.

Tom Lawson: We also had a hiker who had hiked with them when she purchased the book. She was with her when she purchased the book.

The book that now was stamped with a bloody fingerprint. Lawson thought Randall Lee Smith was his man -- and he had one sure way to prove it. He compared Smith's prints to that print left in the book.

Tom Lawson: The book belonged to Susan, and the fingerprint belonged to Randall Smith.

Randall Lee Smith was arrested and charged with the 1981 Appalachian Trail murders.

Chris Hansen: What do you think his motive was in this crime?

Tom Lawson: I think his motive with Susan was sexual.  I think his motive with Bob was self-pr-- self-preservation, because he knew Bob would wring his neck.

Whatever the motive, Lawson was confident a Virginia jury would sentence Randall Lee Smith to life in prison...or perhaps...even the death penalty.

Chris Hansen: Now, you thought you had a pretty good case goin'. 

Tom Lawson: From a law enforcement perspective we had a excellent case. 

Chris Hansen: You had physical evidence.

Tom Lawson: I feel like we had probably the best you could probably have.

Chris Hansen: Case closed?

Tom Lawson: We thought. 

But on the day Smith's murder trial was to begin, Tom Lawson got devastating news.

Tom Lawson: The prosecution attorney comes in and says, "I felt like that there was some holes in the case and I have struck a plea agreement with the defense attorneys."

Chris Hansen: And what did he tell you about this agreement?

Tom Lawson: Basically that Randall was gonna serve 15 years.

Chris Hansen: 15 years? How'd you accept that?

Tom Lawson: I haven't accepted it in 27 years. 

Randall Lee Smith was sentenced to 15 years in prison --  just seven and a half years for each of the murders.

Tom Lawson: How-- how in the world could a person's life not be worth but seven and a half years?

Randall Lee Smith did go off to prison, and privately, Tom Lawson hoped he would never come out.  But he did.

Chris Hansen: So, in 1996,he walks outta prison.

Tom Lawson: He walks out. Comes right back to Pearisburg, right back to his mother's house, right back to the community like it-- like-- like he never missed a beat.

And Randall Lee Smith -- now age 42 -- went right back to his old habit of prowling the Appalachian Trail.

Sherman Smith: He would walk in the mountains just about -- just about everyday when it was pretty, but I didn't know how far he went.

Did Randall Smith return to his old haunts, near the Wapiti shelter, and Dismal Creek? His neighbor didn't know. But he did notice that Randall had become obsessive.

Sherman Smith: He's-- it's s-- almost like he's a guardian of the trail, or somethin', I don't know.

In fact, Randall Lee Smith apparently became so obsessed with the trail that sometime in March of 2008, he walked up into the wild and never came back. The police became concerned, and missing persons flyers were posted around the area. Scott Johnston -- criticially wounded by a gunman on the Appalachian Trail -- would see that poster as he was being rolled into surgery.

Scott Johnston: And the state trooper brought the picture up of Randall Smith.  And he says, "Is this the guy that shot you?"

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