MIRACLES STILL HAPPEN-THE WILLIAM MILLER STORY

OUR CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM NEEDS REVAMPING

2011-10-11T10:13:00.000-07:00

Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) has reintroduced the National Criminal Justice Commission Act, legisation to "create a blue-ribbon commission to look at every aspect of our criminal justice system with an eye toward reshaping the criminal justice system from top to bottom." The NCJCA, S. 306 in the current Congress, had broad and bipartisan support and passed the House of Representatives in 2010, but did not make the Senate calendar before the end of the year.

Please use our web form to urge your US Representative and your two US Senators to pass S. 306 so the commission can get started! Please follow-up by calling their offices too -- if you don't know their numbers (or aren't sure who they are), you can reach them by calling the Congressional Switchboard at (202) 224-3121. And please use our tell-a-friend form to spread the word.

LADY JUSTICE WEPT TODAY

2011-10-07T15:22:00.000-07:00

Lady Justice wept today as a killer walks free.. After 38 years we rejoiced in hearing a jury convict and state the conclusive guilt of this man that I now despise with a life sentence..

You think, justice at last!!! Well, you're WRONG! Three judges on an Appeals Court decided the 12 jurors had no right to call this man guilty..Now, this man will never be held accountable for ending a life, he will again go On with his life, like he did with the other 38 free years.

You see, no one said he was an innocent man, they state they cannot put him at the scene of the crime or find the weapon. Scott Peterson is on death row, even though they could not put him at the scene of the crime, and could not find a weapon..

One is free, the other being put to death! Justice?

ANGEL'S PENNIES

2011-09-26T07:15:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the National Day of Remembrance.. Murdered loved ones are not forgotten!

Angel's Pennies

Author: Unknown

I found a penny today
Just laying on the ground.
But it's not just a penny
This little coin I've found.

Found pennies come from heaven
that's what my Grandpa told me.
He said Angels tossed them down
Oh, how I loved that story!

He said when an Angel misses you
They toss a penny down,
sometimes just to cheer you up
To make a smile out of your frown.

So don't pass by that penny
When you're feeling blue.
It may be a penny from heaven
That an Angel's tossed to you.

ANOTHER YEAR PASSES AND STILL FIGHTING

2011-09-16T08:19:00.000-07:00

Our family continues to fight for justice, today marks the 39th year of this nightmare, when does it end??

We are still waiting for a decision from the Supreme Court, we need your prayers that a murderer will not go free, good has to prevail!

http://www.bloggernews.net/127124
http://timesupblog.blogspot.com/ ..

www.crimewiresite.com 9-10 EASTERN TIME.

Lindell and I will be on the Susan Milano and Dennis Griffin radio show October 11 at 9-9:30. He is pushing our case to get attention. Please click on the above links and leave a response to the article he posted. He will have other sites included later.

Murder conviction should be upheld

2011-08-15T15:47:00.000-07:00

Copy of the letter I sent to the Editor of the Jacksonville News. We are still waiting for a ruling from the Supreme Court in Raleigh. We need your many prayers that this long awaited conviction is not overturned..

Murder conviction should be upheld

August 10, 2011 9:00 AM

To the editor:

Our family deeply appreciates the The Daily News coverage of the courtroom trial that finally brought justice to our family. The North Carolina jury that convicted George Hayden was clearheaded and correct in its unanimous decision to convict.

The evidence, however circumstantial, was overwhelming and the facts of this cold-blooded killing still bring tears to our family. Our mother’s joy at his return from Vietnam was destroyed just weeks later when he was murdered.

Our family is now contending with the highly unusual finding of an appeals court that is trying to overturn the Hayden conviction because it was based on circumstantial evidence. The family of Bill Miller was never given the opportunity to attend the appeals court hearing, while Hayden was allowed to bring support.

The Supreme Court of North Carolina is now reviewing the case. We pray they will rule in favor of the judge and jury that heard this case in full detail and ruled so clearly.

Justice in this case was delayed by 40 years. Is it now to be totally denied? Can higher-ups on the judicial ladder overrule the jury process? Is circumstantial evidence never valid? Is that what this appeals court is saying? If so, a substantial number of people in jail would be released.

This is a dangerous and wrong-headed conclusion that the appeals court reached. We hope the state’s Supreme Court will not let the appeals court ruling stand.

Sharron Aguilar
Houston, Texas

Editor’s note: George Hayden was convicted in 2010 by an Onslow County jury of first-degree murder in the 1972 shooting death of Bill Miller along Western Boulevard. Sharron Aguilar is Miller’s sister.

PRAY FOR JUSTICE

2011-06-18T09:40:00.001-07:00

Former police chief to remain in prison until Supreme Court decision

June 17, 2011 10:27 AM

LINDELL KAY

Updated at 4:55 p.m.

The N.C. Supreme Court has issued a stay in the case of a former local police chief whose 2010 murder conviction was reversed on appeal.

George Hayden, 60, who would have otherwise been released June 27, will remain in prison while the high court determines whether it will review his case. After authorities revived the cold case, Hayden was convicted last year by an Onslow County jury in the 1972 shooting death of Marine Sgt. Bill Miller.

Hayden’s conviction was reversed by the N.C. Court of Appeals earlier this month because the three-judge panel agreed the jury should not have convicted Hayden because, the panel said, no murder weapon was ever recovered and prosecutors failed to place Hayden at the scene of the crime.

Prosecutors provided evidence at trial that Hayden was having an affair with Miller’s wife at the time that Miller was killed, made threats against Miller, claimed to have access to the type of rifle used to kill Miller and married Miller’s wife four months after Miller’s death.

The case was reopened after a series of award-winning articles about the crime appeared in The Daily News in August 2008.

Miller’s wife, Vickie Babbitt, and Rodger Gill, a Camp LejeuneMarine in 1972, were both charged with Miller’s death, but those charges were dismissed in late 2010.

“The Office of the Attorney General is continuing to handle the appeal, and I appreciate their role in requesting the stay,” Onslow County District Attorney Ernie Lee said. “I will continue to remain in close contact with the Assistant Attorney General assigned to the case and the victim’s family

WHAT HAPPENED TO JUSTICE??

2011-06-10T07:34:00.000-07:00

It is indeed a sad day for our justice system. We put our case in the hands of 12 men and women, who were elected to the jury, giving up their time to see justice carried out, now those 12 people are told it was not your right to convict this man you were wrong! It was stated that : a rational juror could not conclude that the defendant was the perpetrator of the victim’s murder.. This is unspeakable news to the 12 jurors that they were not rational..

It also states that a weapon was never produced, people are convicted every day without a weapon, it surley does not make Billy any less dead.

It also states there was not sufficient evidence to convict, well that leaves the judge in our case not capable of deciding if there was sufficient evidence or not, as he denied the defense’s motion to a mistrial due to insufficient evidence.

It makes Mr. Lee and Mr. Maultsby’s dedicated work in bringing George to trial, a mockery of justice..

At first I was devastated, now I am more determined than ever to see justice carried out, good to prevail over evil… Remember,: we believe in miracles and as a family, we are joined together in this fight, we refuse to lay down and accept this..it is in God’s hands, but that is where it always was, we have faith, this murderer is where he belongs..

I received this from a friend today, it could not have arrived at a better time, she mentions the number 12, well, we had 12 people who gave George Hayden a guilty verdict and now they are trying to overturn this. It is a sad day for justice, 12 people gave their time and heart to render a guilty verdict, now they are told they did not have a right to do that and they were wrong!!
May everyone who receives this message be blessed. There are 12 months/12 disciples/ 12 tribes of Israel / Jesus' birth celebrated in the 12th month. . Prayer is one of the best free gifts we receive. There is no cost, just a lot of reward. Make sure you pray, and pray believing God will answer. May today be all you need it to be. May the peace of God and the freshness of the Holy Spirit restore your thoughts, rule in your dreams tonight, and conquer all your fears. May God manifest Himself today in ways you have never experienced. May your joys be fulfilled, your dreams be closer, and your prayers be answered.. I pray that faith enters a new height for you; I pray that your territory is enlarged. I pray for peace, justice, healing, health, happiness, prosperity, joy, true and undying love for God.
My family needs your prayers, please do not tell me our justice system is partial to a former police chief who committed murder...

JUSTICE FOR SARA

2011-05-18T07:01:00.000-07:00

A story dear to my heart is the long awaited justice to Sara Smart, a beautiful girl who was murdered by Jerry Raney, who has avoided sentencing for his involvement for three years.
Sara was best friends with Tommye Allen's daughter. Tommye, is a friend, who I became acquainted with, when she had her prayer group offer prayers for my brother. She has fought long and hard for justice for the Smart family and finally the prayers have been answered.

May 17, 2011

Raney pleads to manslaughter
Suspect gets 15 years in killing of stepdaughter found dead in barrel
By D.E. Smoot
Phoenix Staff Writer The Muskogee Phoenix Tue May 17, 2011, 11:53 PM CDT

Members of a slain 19-year-old woman’s family expressed satisfaction her stepfather will do time for her death. But some had hoped for more.

Jerry DeWitt Raney, 47, accused of killing Sara Smart, pleaded guilty Tuesday to a reduced charge of first-degree manslaughter.

Raney, who maintains he didn’t kill Smart, was ordered to serve 15 years in prison. Raney will receive credit for the time he has served since his arrest Aug. 8, 2008, on a first-degree murder charge.

Muskogee County District Attorney Larry Moore said the plea deal was made because most of the state’s evidence is circumstantial.

“There was a chance we could take this to trial and he would walk away a free man,” Moore said. “We had a lot of witnesses who all have little bits of evidence that pointed to Jerry Raney, but there was some evidence the defense had that pointed away from him.”

Moore said there was a consensus among Smart’s family members to accept the plea deal even though there were some who wanted to see Raney serve more prison time. Raney will have to serve 85 percent of the 15 years before he is eligible for parole.

Smart disappeared Jan. 30, 2006, after Raney said he dropped her off near the McDonald’s restaurant at the intersection of Okmulgee Ave. and U.S. 69. Her skeletal remains were found six months later inside a barrel that had been dumped in a pond west of Haskell.

More than a dozen of Smart’s friends and family members attended Raney’s plea hearing. Smart’s mother, Laura Morris, wept throughout. She declined to comment about her ex-husband’s plea or sentence.

Others expressed mixed emotions about Raney’s conviction and sentencing.

“This is not exactly what I expected, but it is a conviction and we’ll take it,” said Christene Smart-Leader, the teen’s stepmother. “He deserves a lot more, but we’ll take what we can get.”

Smart’s grandmother, Margie Hannah, said the matter now is in God’s hands.

“This 12 or 15 years — whatever it comes out to — it doesn’t matter,” Hannah said, holding back her tears while clutching a heart-shaped pendant that contains her granddaughter’s ashes. “God is the deciding factor, and he (Raney) has all of eternity to pay for what he’s done to my sweet granddaughter.”

Moore said a jailhouse informant said Raney had confided in him about what might have happened to Smart. The informant, Moore said, told investigators that Raney confronted Smart about a break-in at his shop. During the confrontation, Raney began choking Smart “and things got out of hand.”

Moore also said Raney had threatened to kill three of his former wives or girlfriends and dispose of their bodies in a manner similar to what was done to Smart.

HAYDEN APPEAL ARGUED

2011-04-15T15:20:00.000-07:00

Hayden appeal argued

April 13, 2011 8:31 AM

LINDELL KAY

Onslow County prosecutors used little more than suspicion, hearsay and a positive spin on a victim’s character last year to successfully convict a former area police chief of a decades-old homicide, according to a defense appeal made this week in Raleigh.

George Hayden, 60, currently housed in Marion Correctional Institution in McDowell County, was convicted in May of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison for the 1972 shooting death of Marine Sgt. Bill Miller.

In a rare oral argument requested by the Appeals Court, Assistant Attorney General Amy Irene told a three-judge panel Monday that prosecutors presented a strong circumstantial case. She said the state proved Hayden had a motive, had made repeated threats, had access to a weapon of the type used in the shooting and admitted to being near the crime scene the night of Miller’s murder.

Miller had returned to Jacksonville from Japan in the summer of 1972 to find his wife and Hayden living together, and tossed Hayden out of his home. When Hayden left, Miller’s wife, now Vickie Babbitt, left with him, taking the 1-year-old daughter she shared with Miller, according to court testimony.

Miller said in 1972 that he was going to divorce his wife, sue for custody of their daughter and press criminal charges against Hayden for using his store charge accounts.

Miller received a phone call from his wife late on the night of Sept. 16, 1972, asking him to meet. His dead body was found shortly after that. He had been shot twice with an assault rifle, once in the back and once in the head.

Hayden married Miller’s wife four months after Miller’s death. They were later divorced, but stayed in close contact. Hayden worked in local law enforcement, becoming the police chief of Cape Carteret and Belhaven.

“From the first hours of the investigation state law enforcement and naval investigators focused on collecting evidence to connect George Hayden and Vickie Miller to the crime,” Hayden’s appeals attorney, Chapel Hill lawyer Marilyn Ozer wrote in her appeals brief. “Despite this joint effort, no forensic or witness evidence placed Mr. Hayden at the murder scene, the weapon was not found and investigators did not find an M-16 in Mr. Hayden’s possession.”

Ozer said local law enforcement tried in 1972, SBI agents tried in 1974 and Naval Criminal Investigative Services tried from 1996 to 1998, but sufficient evidence against Hayden was never found.

“In August 2008, The Jacksonville Daily News ran an article about the case,” Ozer said in her brief. “As a result, Rodger Gill was re-interviewed. According to a Sheriff’s Department news release, the 2008 interview was the basis for George Hayden’s arrest.”

Gill was a co-defendant in the case until charges against him, as well as those filed against Vickie Babbitt, were dropped by the state in December. He testified with immunity at Hayden’s trial that Hayden told him in 1972 that he had stolen an M-16 while on a shipboard deployment. Gill said he had warned Miller about it.

Fearing an ambush, Miller had brought a pistol with him to meet his wife the night he died.

The trial court should not have allowed investigators to testify from notes they took in 1974 and 1998 while interviewing Gill, because the notes amounted to uncorroborated hearsay, according to Ozer’s appeal.

Irene disagreed in her brief, saying the N.C. Supreme Court has ruled prior statements consistent and supportive of testimony are admissible in court.

Ozer also argued that Miller’s sister Sharon Aguilar should not have been allowed to testify as to pictures in Miller’s wallet recovered from the crime scene because her testimony was emotionally prejudicial.

Contrarily, Irene states in her brief that Aguilar’s identification of Miller’s wallet was relevant because it showed “the motive for his murder was not robbery.”

Ozer said Tuesday a decision by the Appeals Court usually takes a few months, but she has seen rulings in some cases take two years.

PDFs of both legal briefs are available online at http://onslowcrime.encblogs.com.

SUPPORT GROUPS FOR VICTIMS OF VIOLENT CRIMES

2011-04-14T11:59:00.000-07:00

"Victims do not choose to be victims" To be a victim is an unforgettable nightmare but to become a victim at the hands of the criminal justice system is an unforgivable travesty. ""Somewhere along the way, the criminal justice system began to serve lawyers, judges and defendants. Victims are treated with institutionalized disinterest. "The neglect of crime victims is a national disgrace "

L. H. Harrington, President's Task Force on Victims of Crime

There are countless victims out there, be it murder victims, sexual assault victims or violent crime victims of any kind, they are victims not by any fault of their own, but by circumstance. It’s never by choice they are hurting, wanting to talk with someone who understands what they are experiencing, but have no idea where to start..they need someone to listen.. Victims of crime are really overlooked in the policing and criminal justice systems, trying to navigate through it all is a nightmare, but, once ‘you know’ what it’s really like to be a victim of violent crime, you have a choice – roll over, or get up and fight. if you can’t fight for yourself, fight for the next victim’s rights. If people who can, don’t, then the bad guys win!’ And the bad guys are winning!

It does not matter if the crime happened yesterday, last week, a year ago, or 38 years ago, the wound hurts, it is always there, we can forgive which is what God teaches us to do, but we cannot forget..We need someone to talk to that relates to our situation. Trying to find help for victim’s families is a nightmare , I finally found an advocate who put me in touch with another advocate who gave me support during and after the trial.. Help for families is not an easy road to travel..but if you find that one person who cares, doors open.

With God’s help, Deacon Henkel of St. Maximilian Kolbe Catholic Community in Houston, is looking into the possibility of starting a support group with passion and respect, that assists in giving this much needed support..

Please help us by praying for the success of this opportunity..

JUSTICE IS ONLY PARTLY COMPLETE

2011-02-05T07:57:00.000-08:00

Our family is forever thankful for the work the District Attorney did in bringing George Hayden to justice.
No one thought that they would be able to convict George, we knew all along that there would be a guilty verdict. When George's trial was over, the feeling was that you were going after Vicky aggressively, the enthusiasm was high… now we hear that you don't feel you have enough evidence to convict Vicky, thanks to Gill being untruthful, what a shock there. If we don't try we will never know and our family definitely prays for that day.

The justice for Billy is only partly complete. Two others helped murder him and they have walked free for 38 years, we are asking the state to continue to pursue the case against the other two, that participated in this senseless murder.

NO ONE SHOULD GET AWAY WITH MURDER:You CANNOT take a life and not expect to pay for it in one way or another..there is no escaping the Day of Judgment. It is an appointment that we all must attend. We will not be able to call up God and give him an excuse on why we can’t make it. We cannot call In sick. We MUST all attend. Some people will be excited on that day and others will be fearful, but that day is coming.

As a friend of my stated: “We need to switch the batteries of our mind from fear to faith, from panic to calmness, by realizing that God is busy working his orchestrations in order to answer our prayers,… all in God’s time.

We will not give up fighting for justice, we always have had faith knowing that good conquers evil.

We know the truth, your friends know the truth..you cannot hide from the truth!

ALL SOLDIERS HAVE SILENT NIGHTS

2010-12-09T16:15:00.000-08:00

I previously had an article on the cold case of Sara Smart, who was murdered in Muskogee, Oklahoma. Her body was found stuffed in a barrel and placed in a pond. Her step father at the time is the main suspect, however he is in prison for a different charge and still no justice for Sara. Through this horrible loss, I became acquainted with Tommye Allen. Her daughter was the best friend of Sara, and Tommye has kept up the fight for justice.
She heads a prayer group that has given me so much support with Billy's case.

Her husband has been battling cancer and during one of their recent trips to the MD Anderson Hospital in Houston she sent me this beautiful response. I wanted to share with you all, as it is beautifully written with love:

Last night on the flight from Houston where Steve had tests at MD Anderson (praise God the tumors are gone) on the flight we were privileged to be on the airplane with the body of a soldier killed in Afghanistan. The color guard was on the plane with us also. Upon landing in Tulsa, everyone on the plane sat in silence as the color guards exited the plane, removed the casket from the cargo, marched in silence and respect as they ushered the heroic body into the presence of the waiting family sitting in cars who were accompanied by police cars with flashing lights, an ambulance with flashing lights, and a hearse.

After the awesome happening took place, the passengers on the plane exited the plane in silence and respect. All of this happened in the dark of night with only the flashing lights of the vehicles and the lights of the plane. What a wonderful experience to be a part of. However, it reaffirmed to me the horrors of war, that death is always a result of it, and families on both sides of the battle are changed forever.

Steve had a melancholy reaction because it brought back to him all remembrances of the death of his brother Morris during World War II. His mother never got over it because Morris' body was buried in France. His mother never forgave the Germans for killing her son. When Steve sees visual events like this, he still hears the deep, gut wrenching wails of his mother from her room for days and days after receiving the news that Morris had been killed. Yes, he gave his life for his country so that others might be free, but his mother was never free of the grief.

Then I realized that all the people we saw in Houston at MD Anderson are fighting their own wars, battles against cancer. They have loved ones and friends who are standing by them in support and prayers, just like the soldier did. Some of them will eventually succumb to the demon of cancer just like the soldier had to yield to death by the demon of war. They are all heroes in my eyes, the soldier in uniform in the casket and the brave soldiers fighting cancer evidenced by their bald heads, oxygen masks, masked mouths and noses, gloved hands, wheel chairs, chemo poles and frail bodies. They are all heroes to me.

GOD, PLEASE FREE US FROM THE EFFECTS OF ALL WARS, the wars for power by countries and the wars instigated by all diseases.

HEY, HE DID. AND THAT'S THE MESSAGE OF CHRISTMAS, THAT HE SENT HIS SON INTO THE EARTH SO THAT HE MIGHT THEN SEND HIS POWER INTO THE EARTH IN THE PERSON OF HIS HOLY SPIRIT to heal diseases, bring peace to all men, to comfort the broken hearted and to set the captives of addictions free. If we would only yield ourselves to His power we would end all the devastation. We've dropped the ball, God hasn't.... Tommye

http://godkisses.blogspot.com/

TOLEDO'S OLDEST COLD CASE SOLVED

2010-10-18T14:43:00.000-07:00

Being we are now past 38 years, it seems unbelievable that there is a older cold case that was solved, 43 years!
This case was solved by DNA after all these years, thank heaven, this murderer will see his day finally...

TOLEDO, OH - A judge granted prosecutors' request to postpone the murder trial of 74-year-old Robert Bowman.

Prosecutors say they just recently found new evidence of semen on the skirt that 14-year-old Eileen Adams was wearing when she was murdered in 1967.

Adams was from Sylvania Township, and her body was not discovered until a month after she went missing.

Bowman was not arrested for the crime until October 2008.

The ex-wife of Bowman testified during a pre-trial hearing in May of this year that she discovered a naked teenager, still alive, tied up in their basement in December of 1967. Read that report here: Ex-wife gives chilling testimony in NW Ohio cold case murder.

Prosecutors say they need more time to prepare for trial given the new evidence of the additional semen stain.

The trial was supposed to begin Oct. 12. A new date has not yet been set.

SEPTEMBER 16, 1972

2010-09-16T07:00:00.000-07:00

Another year has passed brother, and we are still awaiting the end of this nightmare. You are always in our prayers and I miss you terribly. Be assured we will not let you down until the last conviction is finalized!

38TH ANNIVERSARY APPROACHING

2010-09-10T15:51:00.000-07:00

I WANTED YOU TO KNOW........

I Was Sitting Here In Heaven
And Having A Wonderful Day.
I Started Thinking About You
And All The Things I Didn’t Get A Chance To Say.
I Don’t Want You To Worry About Me
And Please Don’t Shed Any Tears,
Because I Will Wait For You In Heaven,
If It Takes A Hundred Years.
Everything I Had On Earth
I Have In Heaven Too!
My First Day Here
My Body Became Brand New.
It Is Really Pretty Here
And I Love My New Home,
Although Your Heart Is Broken
Because My Body Is Gone.
My Love Will Always Be There
As You Go Along The Way,
Just Take A Peek Inside Your Heart
There Is Where I’ll Stay.
Know That I Loved My Family
And All My Precious girls too.
My love Will Be With Each Of You
Your whole life through,

In Loving Memory Of William (Billy) Miller
Who Went Home To Be With The Lord – September 16,1972

As another year slowly fades away, we are approaching the 38th anniversary of my brother’s death.
I know I have to forgive, God knows it is hard to forgive. I am a normal person struggling to find Peace, knowing what I have to do so I can heal…trusting God to find good in the wreckage of September 16, 1972. God give me strength to endure the agony of a second trial.

ANOTHER VICTORY FOR THE ONSLOW COUNTY DA

2010-08-23T15:34:00.000-07:00

A North Carolina jury today found former Marine Cesar Laurean guilty of murdering his pregnant collegue, Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach, who had accused him of rape.

Former Marine Cesar Laurean, center, is escorted to the courtroom by authorities at the Wayne County...
Former Marine Cesar Laurean, center, is escorted to the courtroom by authorities at the Wayne County Courthouse in Goldsboro, N.C., in this Aug. 13, 2010 file photo. A North Carolina jury says Laurean is guilty of first-degree murder in the death of a pregnant colleague whose remains were found under a backyard firepit. The jury deliberated just a few hours before returning the verdict.

The remains of Lauterbach , 20, and her unborn baby were found in January 2008 in Laurean's backyard firepit. Authorities determined that her body had been buried there since December 2007, when she first went missing from Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina when she was eight months pregnant.

Laurean, 23, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, according to The Associated Press.

Mary Lauterbach, the victim's mother, read a statement in court saying to Laurean, "I feel so sorry for your daughter. She will have to live with the shame that her father is in prison for murdering not one but two people," the AP reported.

GEORGE HAYDEN MOVED

2010-08-07T10:56:00.000-07:00

I was just informed that George has been moved from Central Prison to Marion Prison where he is serving life. He has to serve 20 years before being considered for probation....

This seems so surreal after waiting all these years, we are now approaching the 38th anniversary of Billy's murder. It is agony again waiting for the second phase, but now it is only a matter of months, not years!

Vickie, you will soon have to answer for your involvement!

THE MURDER WALL

2010-07-21T16:45:00.000-07:00

Murder Wall...Honoring Their Memories- Parents of Murdered Children….

“Is anger the
pain or is pain
the anger?”
—Susan Suppell

We have given Billy the honor of being added to the Parents of Murdered Children’s Murder Wall. Next month marks the 38th anniversary of his death.
God tells us that he will not test us beyond our ability to stand a trial. He also says there is a resurrection and that our loved ones will stand again . It makes it much easier, while we dry our tears and try to recover from our devastation, to know the divine purpose God has for all humanity and that we will see our loved ones again.
The reality of murder delivers a powerful blow to surviving loved ones. It knocks us to our knees and leaves us baffled, it does not fade with the passing years.

I always believed that “good outweighed “bad” and criminals, especially violent cold blooded killers, were not above the will of God or beyond the law. I never doubted that justice would prevail. The Law rights the wrongs in society and punishes the criminals....but justice is not always that simple, sadly it is often the experience of many murder victims’ families who find themselves thrown into the difficult world of the Criminal Justice System and the nightmare of trying to navigate through it impossible.

For almost 38 years, I have felt that the criminal justice system let my brother down as well as our family. As the years passed after his death, my family and I felt betrayed, ignored, hopeless, anger and above all, let down by a system that should have protected.

With a jury finally finding George Hayden guilty of murder, I find that the system does work, maybe not in our timeline, but it does work! I now understand the frustration of the detectives, NCIS agents and everyone connected with the justice system trying to get the District Attorney to agree that indeed there was enough evidence to take the case to a Grand Jury .

'GUILTY" is worth all the waiting, disappointments and frustrations … now on to the second phase, and the Justice System will again do its job.... We have faith, without a doubt!!

SISTER BONNIE'S LETTER TO GEORGE

2010-06-19T18:18:00.000-07:00

George;
When I think of you and what you did to my brother, I have anger inside. I have forgiven you on the outside, but I don’t think I have on the inside.

Reading on the internet about how Billy died and then going to your trial and hearing all the gruesome details and seeing his pictures, I am sick inside and feel like sobbing. You took someone I loved, someone who I owed my life to, he saved my life from drowning when I was twelve years of age.

In a dream, before he was murdered, I watched him get killed, in my dream he was drawn to his killer by his child. After I found out that you & Vicky, schemed to kill him, I watched you kill him over and over and I hated, I wanted revenge. I saw the suffering inflicted on my mother, a mother who loved her child and expected him to live longer then her. She watched her husband die from a heart attack knowing that it was up to her to raise her children by herself. Then she saw her three sons go to a terrible war, praying that she would see them come safely back home again, just like she prayed for her husband when he left for war during WW11 when she had two babies and one on the way, the one on the way was Billy, her first son.

She was so happy when all her sons returned, but then to get a call from Vicky saying to her. “Your son went and got himself killed.” No mercy from the one who was the judge and executioner of her own husband, the father of her child and the
father of two other beautiful little girls. The son of Emily, the brother of his siblings and the grandfather of seven children he would never get to see.

How could I have mercy for someone who showed no mercy? Then to find out later that you, a so called friend of Billy, a Marine that Billy evidently at one time trusted, a so called patriotic Marine who destroyed a precious life, a gift from God. You must have been scared to death of the one you killed.
How could I have mercy for any of you who showed no mercy? Because I love Jesus and because he gave us the Lord’s Prayer. I realized that if I was going to say that prayer, then I had to forgive others if I wanted God to forgive me.
I cannot promise that I will be able to look at you and feel love, but my goal is to try.

You have all been in prison since you murdered Billy. Justice needs to be served for your sake also, to finally stop running and hiding, to face the piper, to find God and beg him to give you the gift of faith.
Christ loves you. We give up on him, but he never gives up on us. So here is your chance to work on your faith and hopefully to bring God to other inmates.
I pray you have true peace someday and the only way to have that peace is to tell the truth because God is listening and so is the world.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY FROM YOUR GIRLS

2010-06-17T16:59:00.000-07:00

Angels were falling but you did not see
They fell from the heavens with their halos and white wings
The tears and cries for your father to come
Wipe your tears for he had none
No more pain or suffering as he did
The pain and agony is how he lived
He looks down on you with his smile so bright
He knows how you are feeling and soon holds you tight
Look to the heavens for you will see
Your father rewarded with his halos and white wings
You are special to have a father as you did
Happiness and laughter he was to be your best friend
But that was not to be someone stole that gift on a whim
Talk about the memories that might have been shared with him
He can hear your voices and see you that is all he can do
Close your eyes and speak to him for your dad hears and loves you too

THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO TESTIFIED FOR JUSTICE

2010-06-08T07:52:00.000-07:00

There were so many wonderful people that we met during the two weeks we were in Jacksonville,it was amazing, Jacksonville will always hold a special place in our hearts.

We want to thank everyone who testified on behalf of the State, including Rodger Gill, he testified, declaring that yes indeed, George told him he had an M16 that he had stolen, he did not have to do that and we appreciate that. Our family certainly wants justice, we also forgive him for any involvement and pray he does the right thing in helping us bring Vickie to justice.

We also appreciate the fact that Mr. Gill approached our family and stated that he hoped our family would hear the words we were waiting for, for that we thank him and his wife.

Our fight is only half completed, we will not rest until Vickie has to answer for
her involvement.

REMEMBERING A FALLEN BROTHER

2010-06-05T07:27:00.000-07:00

CHARLEY AND DAVID MILLER

Remembering a fallen brother

May 27, 2010 3:20 PM
LINDELL KAY

Three days of jury deliberations in a decades old murder case gave the victim’s brother a lot of time to think.

Medically retired Marine Charlie Miller, of Madison, Wis., said his brother, William Miller survived two tours in Vietnam. Their other brother, David Miller, also served in that war.

They followed in the proud footsteps of their father, a Marine who fought the Japanese at Iwo Jima. The Millers’ grandfather was a Devil Dog in World War I.

All the Millers made it home from the wars in which they fought, Charlie Miller said.

But his brother, William Miller, made it home only to be gunned down on a then-desolate Onslow County road by a fellow Marine who wanted him out of the way so he could have his wife.

“You kill for country, you kill in defense, you don’t kill for lust and greed, which is what George Hayden did to my brother Billy,” Charlie Miller said while sitting in the Onslow County Superior Courtroom on Wednesday waiting for the jury to return a verdict in his brother’s nearly 40-year-old case.

The jury came back with a guilty verdict, and George Hayden was sent to prison for life.

Charlie said he feels his soul has been restored and his spirit renewed. He said he thinks his brother will sleep in peace for the first time since being shot to death in September 1972.

“I need to say something I have never told anyone, I never told my family, something I have been struggling with for years,” Charlie Miller said in the moments before the jury reached a verdict.

He said when he returned from Vietnam in 1968 he had a falling out with William Miller over a pair of dress blues.

“I don’t think he thought I was coming back. I was a ‘combat engineer,’ but what I really did was crawl down holes in the ground and kill people. All I ever saw of the people I killed was a set of eyes. The enemy was nothing but eyes to me, but at least I didn’t shoot them in the back,” he said in reference to his brother being shot in the back by Hayden.

Charlie Miller said he couldn’t find his dress blues and suspected his brother of taking them. William Miller insisted the uniform he had belonged to him.

The brothers parted ways angry with each other and never had the opportunity to reconcile.

“When I heard he was dead …” Charlie Miller said as his right leg began to shake.

After a long pause, he said that when he learned his brother was to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery he made sure he was buried in the dress blues over which they had argued.

“My brother was a hero who deserved a lot better than to be put out like he was,” Charlie Miller said.

TOP 5 POLICE BLUNDERS OF THE WEEK

2010-06-03T10:18:00.000-07:00

Top 5 Police Blunders Of The Week: Former Police Chief George Hayden Murdered Lover's Husband

By Denise Grollmus in Lists, Police bungling Thursday, Jun. 3 2010 @ 9:00AM2

Today's edition of Top 5 Police Blunders Of The Week brings you the story of George Hayden, a former chief of police, who was recently given life in prison after he was found guilty of murdering the man who was married to the woman he loved...

It took 37 years, but George Hayden is finally behind bars for the atrocious murder he committed in 1972.
Back then, Hayden was a fresh-faced Marine hoping to reconnect with his high school sweetheart from Ohio.

That's when he drove out to North Carolina, where she was living, only to realize she was already married to another Marine, still, that didn't stop Hayden.

While Vickie Babbitt's husband, William Miller, was away serving in Okinawa, Hayden swooped in and easily wooed the new mother.

He moved into her home, which she owned with Miller and even began forging Miller's checks.
When Miller returned from overseas, he wasn't happy to find a new man in his place. He promptly gave Hayden a much deserved ass kicking before tossing him out of his home.

Hayden swore he'd get his revenge.

Despite the fact that Vickie followed him, Hayden wasn't going to let the incident go. Miller, who'd already lost custody of two daughters in a previous marriage, wasn't going to let Vickie take away their 1-year-old daughter either.

As Miller built a custody case against his estranged wife as well as a fraud case against Hayden, the couple were devising their own devious plan.

In September 1972, Vickie called up Miller and asked him to come meet her. Less than 20 minutes later, he was found dead in street, two bullets from an M-16 in his chest.

Detectives knew that Hayden was the culprit, but they could never gather enough evidence to build a case.

For the next forty years, Hayden did well for himself, too. He married Vickie and though they later got divorced, they always kept in touch. He also became the chief of police in Cape Carteret as well as Belhaven, North Carolina.

Still, every few years, detectives would come around asking where he was the night of Miller's murder.

But it wasn't until 2008, when law enforcement received new evidence and testimony from witnesses that they were able to finally charge Hayden, as well as Vickie, with Miller's murder.

Last week, after a jury found him guilty of first-degree murder, Hayden was sentenced to life in prison.

COURT VERDICT HELPS LOCAL WOMAN FIND SOME CLOSURE IN FATHER'S DEATH

2010-06-03T07:37:00.000-07:00

BY ASHLEY KEESIS-WOOD • ASHLEYKEESIS@WINDSORBEACON.COM • JUNE 2, 2010

Justice for her murdered father has been 37 years in coming for Wendy (Miller) McGee, but the Windsorite received a dose of it on May 26.

A jury in Onslow County, N.C., found George Hayden, 59, a former police chief in the area, guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Sgt. William Donald Miller.

Hayden was sentenced to life in prison.

“It was a nerve-wracking couple of weeks,” McGee said. “Now I have mixed feelings.”

McGee, 40, was almost 2 years old when her father, Sgt. William Donald Miller, was found shot to death in Jacksonville, N.C., on Sept. 16, 1972.

Authorities found Miller's car on the shoulder of a road in Jacksonville, N.C., with the engine running, the lights on, a blinker clicking and a cocked pistol on the seat. Miller was found lying in the middle of a rural road. He had been shot in the right temple and the back.

No arrests were made. For 36 years, the death of her father had been an unsolved cold case.

It looked like it might remain that way indefinitely, but in August 2008, a witness came forward with new information that allowed the case to be reopened.

The discovery of the suspects, however, has opened a door of pain for McGee.

McGee's mother, Vickie Miller Hayden Cooper Babbitt, 58, was charged along with Hayden with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

The information given by the new witness in 2008 also led to the arrest of a third suspect, Roger Gill, an ex-Marine and friend of Babbitt and Hayden’s.

“I really don’t remember much about being in the courtroom or leaving after the sentence,” McGee said. “I was there for the whole trial, but it was strange to sit and listen to them talk about me as though I wasn’t there.”

Miller and Hayden were friends in the Marine Corps. But once Miller returned from a tour in Vietnam, he found Hayden had moved into his mobile home. After kicking Hayden out, Babbitt left with him and their 1-year-old daughter – McGee.

One month later, Babbitt called Miller asking to meet her in a parking lot because of car troubles. Shortly after, motorists found Miller's body.

Four months after Miller's death, Hayden and Babbitt married. They later divorced.

“I feel bad for his (Hayden’s) family, and my brother,” McGee said, referring to her half-brother, fathered by Hayden. “They were innocent bystanders in all this, like me.”
Two more trials await McGee and the rest of the Miller family. Both Babbitt and Gill have yet to stand trial, and dates have not been set yet.

“It’s still going to be difficult for awhile,” McGee said. “But it’s a start.”

2010-06-01T06:20:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Chief found guilty of ’72 murder
By JOSEPH G. COTE

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. – The “Six Millers” got a measure of justice last week, although one of them received it posthumously.
A North Carolina jury convicted former Marine and Police Chief George Hayden, 57, of murdering fellow Marine William “Billy” Miller almost four decades ago.
Miller’s five siblings, including Hudson resident Georgia McNay, reunited last week to attend what is expected to be the first of three murder trials in the case.
“It was some very good news,” McNay said a day after the jury announced its verdict Wednesday. “It’s so exciting. We’re just so, so happy.”
It has been a long road for Miller’s five surviving siblings – a 37-year-long road.
Miller served two tours in Vietnam after following his father and grandfather into the Marine Corps. He spent a year in Okinawa, Japan, after his tours and returned to Jacksonville, N.C., in August 1972 to find his wife, now Vickie Babbitt, and Hayden living as husband and wife along with Miller and Babbitt’s infant daughter, Wendy, McNay said.
About a month after Miller reportedly beat up Hayden and threw him and Babbitt out of the house, Babbitt allegedly summoned Miller to a remote road to help her with car trouble. Hayden was lying in wait there, prosecutors said, and shot Miller, who was 27, in the back and head with an M-16 rifle.
Passing motorists found his body less than an hour later.
McNay thinks Babbitt was holding the couple’s daughter, Wendy, and that that’s why Miller wasn’t carrying his gun. Police found it on the passenger seat of his vehicle.
Hayden and Babbitt married four months later, but divorced four years after that. Hayden went on to work as a sheriff and then police chief in two small North Carolina towns. Babbitt worked as a bookkeeper in Oregon.
Miller’s murder case went unsolved until one of Miller’s sisters, Sharon Aguilar, contacted a Jacksonville Daily News reporter who was writing about cold cases. The paper ran two stories in 2008, and they are credited with prompting a new witness to come forward. That witness told police that another man, Rodger Gill, had told her about seeing the murder.
The new information breathed new life into the investigation and eventually led to three arrests. Babbitt and Gill are also facing murder and conspiracy charges. Babbitt and Gill were also in the Marines.
The week of the trial was difficult week for McNay and her family and although they avoided looking at any crime scene photos, the testimony of the medical examiner was a trial in itself. He described how Miller was paralyzed by the first gunshot to his back but was likely aware of what was happening until the second shot in the head, McNay said.
“I tell you, the way he described it was horrible. We were all crying. It was awful,” she said. “(Hayden) was a coward. He shot him in the back and then execution style, right in the head.”
Miller was the oldest of three boys in the Miller family. The boys, along with their three sisters, were known as the Six Millers as they were growing up in Wisconsin and South Dakota, McNay said.
“We have to do this for him. It just upsets me so much that they’ve lived their lives, and Billy’s was over at 27,” McNay said. “That’s what’s keeping us together – justice has to happen. I just have to believe that after all this time and a witness comes forward and the evidence, justice has to be done. I just can’t believe that after all this time that this wouldn’t happen.”
Jurors deliberated for three days before returning a verdict, and before they did, they told the judge that they couldn’t make a decision. The judge urged them to keep trying while the prosecutor warned family members to prepare themselves for disappointment.
“It was a little bit hairy there for a while,” McNay said. “We were down at that. We were a little bit nervous, but we all remained optimistic. We all kept saying, ‘It’s not over. It’s not over yet.’ We didn’t let it get us down.”
Hayden’s guilty verdict isn’t the end either, but McNay said two more guilty verdicts seem more likely now that Hayden is behind bars.
“The fear was if he had been found not guilty, everything would have ended, that there wouldn’t have been a trial for (Babbitt) or (Gill),” she said.
McNay said she plans to travel again to North Carolina for Babbitt’s and Gill’s trials, whenever those are.
She said she hopes her family’s experience, even though it isn’t over, is an inspiration to others in similar circumstances.
“I tell people not to give up hope. There’s always a chance,” she said. “I mean, 38 years. It’s just incredible. It’s so important for people who have lost a loved one and all these years go by. It’s so important that after all these years, something happens.”
Joseph G. Cote can be reached at 594-6415 or jcote@nashuatelegraph.com. Material from The Associated Press was used in this report.

Family never lost hope in Marine cold case

2010-05-29T14:23:00.001-07:00

Family never lost hope in Marine cold case

The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday May 27, 2010 10:15:42 EDT

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. — The sister of a Camp Lejeune Marine slain 37 years ago said she always believed the justice system would catch up with the man convicted of shooting her brother twice in what prosecutors said was a murder prompted by a love triangle.

"I never lost hope; I always knew we'd get here," Sharron Aguilar, who kept the case of her brother's killing alive for nearly four decades, said Wednesday after George Hayden, 57, was convicted and got a life sentence.

The Daily News of Jacksonville reported that Hayden was sentenced in the shooting death of Sgt. William Miller, 27. Hayden, a former Marine and small-town police chief, hugged his wife in the courtroom before bailiffs took him away.

Jurors had convicted Hayden earlier Wednesday of first-degree murder in Miller's death. Onslow County prosecutors said Hayden killed Miller in an ambush triggered by a love triangle involving Vickie Babbitt, who was married to Miller at the time.

Prosecutors said they think Babbitt faked car trouble to lure Miller to a secluded stretch of rural road in Jacksonville. They said Hayden was waiting in a ditch with an M-16 rifle and shot Miller in the temple and back.

Passing motorists found Miller's body Sept. 16, 1972, near Camp Lejeune less than an hour after he left home. When police found the car, its engine was running, the headlights were on and Miller's pistol remained in the front seat, unfired.

"He stole my brother's home, wife and child, and money," said Charlie Miller, the youngest of six in Miller's family. "He tried to steal his identity, and when that didn't work he stole Billy's life."

When Miller returned home from a tour of duty in Okinawa, he found Hayden living with his wife and 1-year-old daughter, The Daily News reported, based on information from the U.S. Navy's Office of the Judge Advocate General. He had the sheriff's department remove Hayden in August 1972.

But then, his wife and daughter moved with Hayden, the information showed.

Babbitt and Hayden married four months after Miller's death, then divorced four years later.

Hayden retired from the Marine Corps in 1989 and worked for the Carteret County Sheriff's Department before becoming chief for the Cape Carteret and Belhaven police departments.

The case remained unsolved until Miller's sister contacted a newspaper reporter looking into cold cases and the resulting investigation elicited new information from a 1970s baby sitter.

Babbitt, 58, and Rodger Gill, 56, an ex-Marine who was friends with the Babbitt and Hayden, have also been charged in the case. They will go on trial later this year.

HAYDEN JURY MEMBER TALKS ABOUT CASE

2010-05-28T15:26:00.000-07:00

Circumstantial case good enough
May 28, 2010 10:35 AM

LINDELL KAY
Tom Jenkins felt much more relaxed Thursday morning sitting on his Swansboro back porch watching birds fly across Queen’s Creek than he did the day before.

Jenkins was the final holdout in an Onslow County jury that convicted former Cape Carteret police chief George Hayden Wednesday of a decades-old murder.

“This was my first jury,” he said. “It was the most difficult decision of my life.”

Jenkins, who described himself as a very analytical person, said SBI ballistic experts did a poor job testifying.

“It was a very lackluster job,” he said, adding that he would have liked to have seen photographs of ballistics markings, but no comparison pictures were made.

Jenkins said he felt Hayden’s defense attorney, Jacksonville lawyer Billy Joe Morgan, was “a true southern gentleman who did an excellent job” for his client, but in the end witness testimony that Hayden threatened to shoot Sgt. William Miller before his Sept. 16, 1972, shooting death overruled everything else in the case.

The jury did not hear any evidence that postdated the Naval Criminal Investigative Service interview of Hayden in 1998. Jenkins said that left many jurors curious as to why Hayden was on trial in 2010.

Prosecutors never called FBI Special Agent Rick Sutherland and NCIS Special Agent Dan Carlin, who reworked the case two years ago when the Millers’ 1970s babysitter came forward after reading about the unsolved homicide in The Daily News in summer 2008.

Jenkins said more information about the 2008 investigation that led to Hayden’s arrest may have helped the jury understand the case better.

“We wondered why now?” he said.

Jenkins said the main point of contention in the jury room was not whether Hayden killed Miller in 1972, but whether the state proved it.

Jenkins said for him the decision came down to repeated threats witnesses said Hayden made about shooting Miller with an M-16.

Hayden made statements that he would get Miller with an M-16 in the weeks before Miller was found shot dead on a then-isolated portion of Western Boulevard with rounds consistent with an M-16, according to witness testimony by two of Miller’s neighbors and co-defendant Rodger Gill.

The information Jenkins found damning against Hayden was circumstantial. Which is just as good as a smoking gun in the eyes of the law, said Chief Assistant District Attorney Ernie Lee who prosecuted the case with Senior ADA Mike Maultsby.

Lee said there are two types of evidence in North Carolina: direct and circumstantial.

Direct evidence is eyewitness testimony to a crime and various types of forensic proof.

“A good example of circumstantial evidence is if you go to sleep and there is no snow on the ground and when you wake up the ground is covered in snow, you can say it snowed during the night even though you didn’t actually see it,” Lee said.

State law makes no distinction between the weight given to direct and circumstantial evidence. “Nor is a greater degree of certainty required of circumstantial evidence than of direct evidence,” according to state jury instructions.

Lee said the evidence was enough to show Hayden had threatened Miller, had the type of weapon he threatened to use and was near the crime scene.

“Justice was delayed,” Lee said of the nearly 40-year-old murder. “But it was not denied.”

Miller’s then-wife Vickie Babbitt is awaiting trial on first-degree murder and conspiracy charges. Prosecutors contend that Babbitt lured Miller to the spot where he was killed.

Babbitt’s attorney, Jacksonville lawyer Scott Jack, said the jury did not hear enough evidence during Hayden’s trial.

The Millers’ babysitter at the time did not testify, and Gill’s testimony was very limited.

“Plus, I understand that the jury found Hayden killed Miller,” he said. “However, that does not mean they found it was done with an M-16.”

He pointed out that state experts acknowledged during Hayden’s trial that the shell casings and bullet fragments found at the crime scene could have come from seven to 11 different bullets in existence at the time.

Babbitt’s trial date has not been set.

Lee said that while he is preparing for Babbitt’s trial, he also has several other murder trials in the hopper.

When asked about the trial, Maultsby said, “The verdict speaks for itself

HAYDEN'S CONVICTION BRINGS REACTION FROM TOWN MANAGER

2010-05-28T05:27:00.000-07:00

Hayden’s conviction brings reactions

By GREG KATSKI
Community Editor
Published: Friday, May 28, 2010 2:16 AM EDT

An Onslow County jury on Wednesday found George Hayden, a former Belhaven police chief, guilty of murdering a fellow Marine in 1972. Minutes later, Hayden was sentenced to life in prison.

Hayden was transported to Central Prison in Raleigh on Wednesday night.The verdict came after jurors earlier Wednesday told Superior Court Judge Ken Crow they were unable to reach a verdict. The Daily News of Jacksonville reported that Crow instructed the jury to continue deliberating the case of the 57-year-old Hayden. He was charged with first-degree murder in the 1972 shooting death of Sgt. William Miller in Jacksonville. At that time, both were in the Marine Corps.

Jurors deliberated Friday and Tuesday before reaching the verdict Wednesday afternoon. Earlier in the trial, Crow dismissed a charge of conspiracy to commit murder that had been filed against Hayden.

After the verdict was announced, Crow denied defense motions to set aside the verdict.

Prosecutors say Miller was killed in an ambush triggered by a love triangle involving his wife at the time.

The case remained unsolved until Miller’s sister contacted a newspaper reporter looking into cold cases.

“Wow. Oh, my goodness,” said Belhaven Town Manager Guinn Leverett, reacting to the guilty verdict.

Leverett said he fired Hayden as chief of the Belhaven Police Department in March 2008 for insubordination, adding that Hayden was an “unpleasant personality.”

Leverett said Hayden used to “buck my authority” as town manager.

“It was very odd that someone that made a career in the Marine Corps didn’t understand chain of command,” he said.
Dr. Charles Boyette, who served as mayor of Belhaven for the majority of Hayden’s tenure with the town, said Hayden always conducted himself in a professional manner.

“He related well to the people in the community. He had good relations with the members in his department,” Boyette said.

Hayden became Belhaven’s acting chief of police on May 8, 2001. He was officially named police chief on Dec. 7, 2001. He came to the Belhaven Police Department in December 2000, starting as a lieutenant.

“Belhaven citizens, including the administration, were not aware of his past involvement in any unlawful procedure,” Boyette said about Hayden.

Although Boyette and Leverett disagreed over Hayden’s work with the town’s police department, they seemed to agree on the verdict.

“Certainly the facts of the case stand on their own merit,” Boyette said. “It’s unfortunate that these things happen. However, justice seems to be recognized in due time.”

Leverett echoed Boyette’s sentiments.

“The story is so horrific. My gut reaction is that it was justice delayed for a long time,” he said. “I’m not out for blood; I just think it was the right decision.”

Hayden served as chief of the Cape Carteret Police Department in 1999 and 2000. He retired from the Marine Corps in 1989, after 21 years of service.

Hayden was arrested at his house on Portside Lane near Belhaven the night of Sept. 8, 2008. A day later, Hayden’s alleged accomplice, Vickie Miller Babbitt, was arrested in Bend, Ore., on charges of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

“Miller survived two tours in Vietnam, then returned to Onslow County, where he was not killed by the enemy with an AK-47, but by a fellow Marine with an M-16,” Chief Assistant District Attorney Ernie Lee told the jury in Hayden’s trial on Friday.

HAYDEN SENTENCED TO LIFE IN PRISON-UPDATE

2010-05-27T16:11:00.001-07:00

UPDATE: Hayden sentenced to life in prison
May 26, 2010 10:03 AM
LINDELL KAY
Updated at 3:58 p.m.

Our family finally received justice for our brother Billy. I cannot thank all of the people who made this possible. The kindness of all involved is unbelievable.
From the wonderful agents from NCIS, detectives, Sheriff Brown, the DA's Mr. Lee and Mr.Maultsby , and their assistant Peggy Johnson. Bonnie Sharpe, Lindell, and the wonderful family of Robert Fitta,whom we adore, they held strong with the truth, waiting for justice also. We could not have had a GUILTY verdict without their help. We love them all

A young Camp Lejeune Marine in the summer of 1972, George Hayden wanted to reconnect with his Ohio high school sweetheart. But she was married to another Marine.

Hayden solved the problem by putting two bullets into the back and head of 27-year-old Sgt. William Miller.

Thirty-seven years later, an Onslow County jury convicted Hayden of first-degree murder and a judge sentenced him to life in prison Wednesday afternoon. He hugged his wife for a long moment before bailiffs took away his cigarettes and led him to jail.

After the trial, the Miller family lined up along the sidewalk outside the courthouse making phone calls and talking to reporters.

“I never lost hope; I always knew we’d get here,” said Sharron Aguilar, who kept the case of her brother’s death alive for nearly four decades.

While William Miller was in Okinawa, Hayden moved into Miller’s Piney Green area home, played house with Miller’s wife and newborn, and allegedly began to sign his name to Miller’s checks.

“He stole my brother’s home, wife and child, and money,” said Charlie Miller, the youngest of six in Miller’s family. “He tried to steal his identity, and when that didn’t work he stole Billy’s life.”

When Miller returned stateside, he beat up Hayden and tossed him out of the house in August 1972. Humiliated, Hayden told Miller he would get revenge with an M-16.

Miller’s wife, now Vickie Babbitt, followed Hayden, bringing her and Miller’s 1-year-old daughter with her.

Miller had lost two daughters in a previous marriage and he was not about to lose another one so he began to build a custody case against his wife and a criminal fraud case against Hayden. He gave the alleged evidence to a neighbor for safe keeping.

On Sept. 16, 1972, Miller received a call from his estranged wife to meet him on Western Boulevard. Less than 20 minutes later, Miller was found dead in the street, shot twice with M-16 rounds.

A few days later, Hayden showed up at the neighbor’s house and took the alleged evidence Miller had collected against him, according to court testimony.

Detectives at the time suspected Hayden of killing Miller but couldn’t gather needed evidence to arrest him.

For nearly 40 years Miller’s death went unpunished. While Miller’s family fell apart, Hayden did well. He married Miller’s wife, and stayed in touch even after their divorce. He retired from the Marine Corps and joined the Carteret County Sheriff’s Department. He went on to be police chief in Cape Carteret and Belhaven.

But he couldn’t shake local, state and federal investigators who came around every few years like clockwork asking the same question: Where were you the night William Miller died?

Aguilar, living in Houston, spent years compiling documents in the case and eventually turned them over to The Daily News. Two cold case articles in the summer of 2008 elicited new information from a witness previously unknown to law enforcement. A whirlwind investigation by the Onslow County Sheriff’s Department, Naval Criminal Investigative Services and the N.C. SBI resulted in three arrests.

Babbitt, 58, and former Marine Rodger Gill, 56, also face first-degree murder and conspiracy charges. Gill was friends with Hayden at the time and testified against him last week.

Miller’s daughter, Wendy Jo McGee, called the trial a “roller coaster ride” Wednesday afternoon. “I have been a nervous wreck for two weeks.”

The jury took three days to reach a verdict. At the start of deliberations Friday jurors were split: Four thought Hayden was guilty, four believed in his innocence and four remained undecided. By Wednesday morning when the jury said they were having difficulties reaching a verdict the split had narrowed: nine guilty and three not guilty, jury members told The Daily News after the trial.

Later in the day, they had reached their consensus: guilty.

“This was the most difficult decision of my entire life,” one juror said.

Sandwiched between the guilty verdict and sentencing, N.C. Superior Court Judge Ken Crow conducted a inquiry into possible juror misconduct to determine the validity of an anonymous Crime Stoppers tip that Juror No. 3 had discussed the trial, described crime scene photographs and called Hayden “creepy.”

After interviewing the juror, Crow ruled that the allegations were groundless and the verdict would stand. Crow determined that more than likely the tip came from the juror’s estranged spouse in an attempt to skew an ongoing custody battle.

The Miller family will return to Jacksonville for Babbitt’s trial, which has not been scheduled yet.

GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY

2010-05-26T14:36:00.000-07:00

GEORGE HAYDEN WAS GIVEN LIFE IN PRISON TODAY FOR THE MURDER OF MY BROTHER!!!

UPDATE VIDEOS OF TRIAL TRIAL

2010-05-26T04:24:00.000-07:00

YOU WILL HAVE TO COPY THIS TO A SEARCH

http://www.wcti12.com//MediaStation.asp?VIDREF=mms://208.180.34.252/NewsFeatures/feat84.wmv

http://www.witn.com/home/headlines/94207944.html

Jury deliberations on hold in Hayden trial

2010-05-24T09:25:00.000-07:00

Jury deliberations on hold in Hayden trial
May 24, 2010 11:07 AM
LINDELL KAY
The trial of a former local police chief accused of the 1972 shooting death of a Camp Lejeune Marine is on hold while a judge determines what to do about a jury member who is in the hospital.

When the jury returned Monday morning for deliberations in the murder trial of former Cape Carteret police chief George Hayden, 57, the panel was one juror short.

N.C. Superior Court Judge Ken Crow put the proceedings on hold until 10 a.m. Tuesday while court officials determine the nature and extent of the jury member’s hospital stay.

Hayden is accused of the nearly four-decades-old slaying of Sgt. William Miller.

Prosecutors said a love triangle led Hayden to shoot Miller with an M-16. Defense attorney Billy Joe Morgan said his client was innocent and the only reason he is on trial is because of recent publicity surrounding the case.

Woman travels to NC for trial in brother’s 37-year-old murder

2010-05-23T05:58:00.000-07:00

Friday, May 14, 2010 Woman travels to NC for trial in brother’s 37-year-old murder
By JOSEPH G. COTE
Staff Writer

Georgia McNay's brother, Billy Miller was murdered in Jacksonville, N.C. Since that day, his case has remained open. Nearly forty years later, McNay and her husband, Jay are driving to N.C. to witness the trial of one of the three people charged in connection to the murder.

HUDSON – It can be hard to organize a family reunion when four of your siblings are now scattered around the country, never mind when a fifth sibling was murdered almost four decades ago.

Yet next week will be close to a reunion for Georgia McNay and her family when they meet in Jacksonville, N.C., for the trial of a man accused of killing their brother 37 years ago.

William “Billy” Miller was 27 when he was shot and left in a roadside ditch one September night in 1972. On Monday, George Hayden, 57, a former Marine and police chief, will go on trial for allegedly shooting Miller twice with an M-16 rifle after Miller’s estranged wife, Vickie Babbitt, allegedly lured him into an ambush.

McNay, 67, and her husband, Jay McNay, will make the 14-hour drive from Hudson to North Carolina this weekend to watch what is expected to be the first of three trials along with McNay’s four surviving siblings.

McNay said officials have said her brother’s 37-year-old murder is the country’s oldest cold case going to trial.

Miller’s life and death

The Millers grew up in Wisconsin and South Dakota. McNay was the second of three girls, Billy the first of three boys. Until late 1972, things were largely normal. The “Six Millers” went to school, grew up and eventually moved away from home to begin living their lives.

McNay finished high school in New Hampshire and around the same time, Miller left school to join the Marines, following in the footsteps of their father, McNay said.

He spent a decade in the Marines and served two tours of duty in Vietnam before being stationed in Okinawa, Japan. The last McNay heard from her brother was a letter he sent just before leaving for Okinawa, she said.

Miller was in for a nasty surprise when he returned to the United States in the summer of 1972. He found his wife, Babbitt, living with Hayden in the couple’s Jacksonville home with their 1-year-old daughter, Wendy. He reportedly beat up Hayden and kicked both of them out. They took Wendy with them.

About a month later, on Saturday, Sept. 16, 1972, court records say Babbitt called Miller and asked him to help her with car trouble. Miller borrowed a car and took his .22-caliber pistol with him. He had told his sister days before he felt threatened.

Passing motorists found Miller’s body near Camp Lejeune less than an hour later. He’d been shot twice.

Prosecutors say Babbitt faked car trouble to lure Miller to a secluded stretch of rural road in Jacksonville. They say Hayden laid in wait with an M-16 rifle and shot Miller in the back and temple. Miller appears to have been surprised: When police found the car, its engine was running, the headlights were on and Miller’s gun was on the front seat.

“It never completely goes away. It’s always there,” McNay said. “To lose one of the six Millers was horrible. That void is always there, always. It’s family.”

McNay and some of her family members have long suspected Hayden and Babbitt. Knowing the people she thought were responsible have been free hasn’t been easy.

“My feeling is that George did it, absolutely, and (Vickie) set it up,” McNay said. “The sad thing is after all these years, you don’t think anything’s going to happen, that they got away with it.”

The crime unfolds

Babbitt and Hayden married four months after Miller’s death and divorced four years later.

Hayden retired from the Marines in 1989 and worked for the Carteret County Sheriff’s Department before becoming chief for the Cape Carteret and Belhaven, N.C., police departments.

Babbitt remarried and worked as a bookkeeper in Bend, Ore.

The search for Miller’s killer eventually went cold and could have stayed that way if not for his older sister Sharon Aguilar, who continued pursuing answers and eventually found a reporter interested in cold cases.

The break in the case came in 2008 and began with a story in a North Carolina newspaper. Lindell Kay, a reporter at The Daily News of Jacksonville, was writing about cold cases and featured Miller’s murder.

It led Bonnie Sharpe, a former baby sitter for Wendy, Miller’s daughter, to come forward with key information. She told police that her former fiance, Rodger Gill, told her about witnessing the shooting, according to news reports.

The tip became a starting point for a new investigation and eventually led to the arrests of Hayden, Babbitt and Gill. All three are charged with murder and conspiracy leading with the start of Hayden’s trial on Monday.

McNay said she is bracing for the pain of the trial, but is keeping faith that justice will be done.

“We have to do this for him. It just upsets me so much that they’ve lived their lives and Billy’s was over at 27,” McNay said. “That’s what’s keeping us together – justice has to happen. I just have to believe that after all this time and a witness coming forward and the evidence, justice has to be done. I just can’t believe that after all this time that this wouldn’t happen.”

McNay said she hopes to be an example to other families whose loved ones’ deaths have gone unsolved.

“I tell people not to give up hope. There’s always a chance,” she said. “I mean, 38 years. It’s just incredible. It’s so important for people who have lost a loved one and all these years go by. It’s so important that after all these years, something happens.”

Jurors dismissed until Monday in Hayden trial

2010-05-22T06:38:00.000-07:00

By Christopher Brown | Digital Journalist
Published: May 21, 2010

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. - It’s up to a jury to decide whether a former Carteret County Police Chief is guilty of murder.
Prosecutors say George Hayden gunned down his girlfriend’s husband more than 30-years ago.
Closing arguments were made in an Onslow County courthouse today but no verdict yet in the trial of former police chief George Hayden.
The judge dismissed jurors until Monday.
For Denise Fitta the tension is almost too much to bear.
Fitta testified for the prosecution yesterday about the night prosecutors say hayden killed bill miller.
“The night that bill was murdered, how he came over, and had dinner with us, how he , sorry i get emotional cause it was the last time we’d see him,” she said.
Prosecutors argue that Hayden was involved in a love triangle with miller’s wife.
They allege that Hayden lured Miller to Western Boulevard with his wife where he was gunned down with an M 16 assault weapon.
But the defense argued that the states evidence wasn’t enough to place Hayden at the crime scene or that he was ever in possession of the weapon.
For Fitta her mind is made up.
“No doubt in my mind,” she said, “we believed it then and we still believe it now.“
But we’ll have to wait until next week to see what a jury decides

MAY 21 Jury in Hayden trial dismissed until Monday

2010-05-21T16:28:00.000-07:00

Jury in Hayden trial dismissed until Monday

May 21, 2010 1:04 PM
LINDELL KAY
Updated at 5:03 p.m.

North Carolina Superior Court Judge Ken Crowe has dismissed the jury until Monday at 10 a.m. when they will continue their deliberation.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lawyers have given an Onslow County jury their closing arguments in the trial of a former area police chief accused in a 40-year-old homicide.

George Hayden is accused of first-degree murder in the 1972 shooting death of Marine Sgt. William Miller.

During closing arguments, prosecutors called Hayden a "festering tick" that was living with Miller's wife while he was in Japan and Miller had to physically remove when he returned.

A month later, prosecutors allege Hayden shot Miller in the back on Western Boulevard.

Hayden's attorney, Jacksonville lawyer Billy Joe Morgan told the jury that while prosecutors pulled at their heart strings, they never overcame the problems in their case.

Morgan also said publicity surrounding the case was the only reason why Hayden was arrested 37 years after Miller's death.

North Carolina Superior Court Judge Ken Crow will give the jury instructions and they will begin deliberating this afternoon.

MAY 20 -- CONSPIRACY CHARGE OUT, MURDER ONE STAYS

2010-05-20T16:02:00.000-07:00

Judge dismisses conspiracy charge against Hayden

May 20, 2010 12:04 PM
LINDELL KAY
Updated at 3:49 p.m.

Conspiracy charges against a former local police chief on trial in the 1972 killing of a Marine have been dismissed.

The jury will consider first-degree murder charges.

After several hours of studying motions and accompanying case law by the defense, North Carolina Superior Court Judge Ken Crow said the state lacked evidence of conspiracy but showed motive and opportunity existed.

"Conspiracy is out; first-degree murder stays," Crow told lawyers Thursday afternoon.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The state has rested its case in the 1972 shooting death of a Camp Lejeune Marine.

Former Cape Carteret Police Chief George Hayden is on trial for charges of first-degree murder and conspiracy in the 1972 death of Sgt. William Miller.

A neighbor of Miller in 1972 testified Thursday that Hayden threatened Miller before the shooting by saying he had an M-16.

Miller was found dead Sept. 16, 1972 on Western Boulevard. He was killed with a high powered rifle.

The state could not prove that an M-16 was used in the shooting

MAY 20, 2010

2010-05-20T04:13:00.000-07:00

Testimony: Co-defendant warned man killed
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May 20, 2010 2:35 AM
LINDELL KAY
A co-defendant in a nearly four-decade-old homicide testified Wednesday against a former local police chief accused of being the triggerman in the shooting death of a Camp Lejeune Marine.

Former Cape Carteret police chief George Hayden, his ex-wife Vickie Babbitt and Rodger Gill face first-degree murder and conspiracy charges in the 1972 shooting death of Sgt. William Miller.

Hayden, 58, is the first of the three defendants to stand trial. Babbitt, 58, and Gill, 56, are free on bail. Hayden and Gill lived with Babbitt, who was married to Miller at the time of his death. All four were Marines.

SBI Special Agent Cecil Cherry testified Wednesday that Gill told him during a 1998 interview that Hayden and Babbitt were living as man and wife in 1972 until Miller returned from Japan, beat up Hayden and tossed him out of his Piney View Street home.

Babbitt followed Hayden, taking her and Miller’s 1-year-old daughter. More than three and a half decades later, the couple’s daughter, Wendy Miller-McGee sat in the courtroom Wednesday listening to testimony against her former stepfather.

Miller-McGee passed Hayden in the courthouse hallway Tuesday, coming within three feet of the man she suspects killed her father. She called the experience surreal and said she cannot think about her mother’s upcoming trial.

Granted testimonial immunity by the court, Gill, of Athens, Ill., told the jury Wednesday that Hayden told him in the days leading up to Miller’s death that he had stolen an M-16 from the military while on a deployment aboard a Navy ship. Gill also said he warned Miller about Hayden.

Investigators testified Tuesday to finding two M-16 ammunition magazines in Hayden’s Chevy Nova the day after Miller was found gunned down on a remote section of Western Boulevard in September 1972.

Hayden’s attorney, Jacksonville lawyer Billy Joe Morgan, spent Wednesday morning shooting holes through testimony from state ballistics experts who tried to link shell casings found at the scene of Miller’s death as being consistent with an M-16 assault rifle.

Under Morgan’s cross-examination, SBI crime lab experts said they could not definitely say what kind of rifle was used to fire bullets into Miller’s head and spine. Morgan rattled off more than a dozen types of bullets to which the shell casings could have belonged, leaving experts to agree each was a possibility.

Morgan also blasted witnesses from the SBI crime lab in Raleigh about an ongoing investigation by the state attorney general into how agents presented evidence at certain past trials.

But after lunch, and Gill’s testimony, prosecutors began to pile circumstantial evidence high at Hayden’s feet. Federal and state cold case investigators who worked the case in the late-1990s testified about the alleged use of Miller’s credit cards by Hayden and Babbitt while Miller was in Japan.

Cherry testified that Hayden admitted to signing Miller’s name on checks and credit card receipts, although Morgan pointed out that according to handwriting experts none of the recovered receipt samples matched Hayden’s signature.

Cherry also testified about photographs of Babbitt and Hayden engaged in sexual activity that Miller had given, along with other documents concerning Hayden’s alleged identity theft, to a lawyer for safekeeping.

Hayden’s wife and son sat quietly during Cherry’s testimony.

High school sweethearts in Ohio, Hayden and Babbitt met again while stationed at Camp Lejeune, but Babbitt was married to Miller. When she was discharged from the Marines with the birth of her daughter and Miller shipped out to Japan, Hayden moved in, according to court records.

Hayden and Babbitt married four months after Miller’s death. They later divorced, but kept in contact. Hayden told authorities in 1998 that he would have married Babbitt sooner had Miller given her a divorce, according to testimony from Sam Worth, a special agent with Naval Criminal Investigative Service.

Today, the state may call more investigators who worked the case. Also on the witness list is a 1972 Miller neighbor who has told authorities he heard Hayden threaten Miller with an M-16 the day Miller kicked Hayden out of Miller’s home.

MAY 19, 2010

2010-05-19T04:29:00.000-07:00

Evidence heard in 1972 murder trial
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May 19, 2010 2:29 AM
LINDELL KAY

Upcoming testimony of a codefendant against a former local police chief on trial in the nearly four-decade-old shooting death of Camp Lejeune Marine cannot be held against him, if a judge approves the state’s immunity request today.

As prosecutors methodically laid out their case Tuesday against retired Marine and former Cape Carteret and Belhaven police chief George Hayden — indicted last year in the 1972 shooting death of Sgt. William Miller — attorneys for Hayden’s two alleged co-conspirators sat quietly in the courtroom taking notes.

Kinston lawyer Bill Gerrans, who represents Rodger Gill, another former Marine charged in Miller’s death, held tightly to Gill’s immunity agreement. He would not elaborate, but said he was satisfied with his client’s arrangement with the state. Gill is on the state’s witness list.

Hayden, Gill and Miller’s then-wife Vickie Babbitt face first-degree murder and conspiracy charges in Miller’s homicide. Hayden, 58, is the first of the three defendants to stand trial. Babbitt, 58, and Gill, 56, are free on bail.

Chief Assistant District Attorney Ernie Lee told jurors in opening statements that Miller was shot and killed by Hayden in an ambush triggered by a love triangle involving Hayden, Miller and Babbitt.

Hayden’s attorney, Jacksonville lawyer Billy Joe Morgan, said that the state didn’t have enough evidence 37 years ago to convict Hayden and still doesn’t.

“The case is no better now than it was in 1972,” Morgan said. “The state does not know who killed Bill Miller.”

Miller’s sister, Sharron Aguilar — who kept her brother’s unsolved homicide case alive for almost 40 years after his death — testified that Miller was happy in early 1972 with Babbitt, his second wife, and their infant daughter. Aguilar said Miller wrote in letters in May 1972 that he planned to bring his wife and child to Wisconsin to meet his family and children from his previous marriage when he returned from Japan later that year. But Aguilar said when Miller returned to Jacksonville in August 1972, he found Hayden living with Babbitt. Hayden refused to leave and their argument escalated into a fight. Hayden lost and Babbitt went with him, taking her and Miller’s daughter.

Everything changed for Miller after that, Aguilar said. He became distraught and told her he felt threatened.

During cross-examination, Morgan questioned Aguilar why she didn’t tell Navy cold case investigators about her brother acting distraught and threatened in a 1996 interview. She said she was very emotional at that time and didn’t remember exactly what she told investigators, but her memory of what her brother said to her in 1972 was crystal clear.

At around 10 p.m. Sept. 16, 1972, Larry Lanier, a flight instructor at the time, found Miller’s body laying in the middle of the road on Western Boulevard, which was “just a two lane road through the woods back then,” he testified Tuesday.

Lanier described what he saw: “There was a well-dressed man, a little younger than me, in the road. He was obviously shot. There was blood and chunks of brain all over the road. You could tell it just happened because there was a still-burning cigarette at the man’s feet.”

Jim Dell, a retired agent with Naval Criminal Investigative Service testified that on Sept. 16, 1972, he was on his way to an unrelated Marine homicide in Hubert when he stopped at the site of Miller’s death. He told jury members that the shells found at the scene were consistent with those used in an M-16. He said he later found two M-16 magazines in the glove box of Hayden’s car.

The jury also heard from the original Onslow County Sheriff’s detectives investigating the case and a medical examiner who detailed Miller’s autopsy.

Testimony is expected today from Miller’s neighbor in 1972 who loaned Miller his car the night Miller died. Robert Fitta originally told detectives that Miller said he felt he might be ambushed and took his .22-caliber pistol. Fitta told NCIS agents in the mid-1990s that he was the one who suggested to Miller that he might be riding into an ambush, according to court records.

Hayden’s trial picks up today at 9:30 a.m. and is expected to last a week.

MAY 18 CONTINUED

2010-05-18T14:48:00.000-07:00

News - North Carolina & Regional - Wire
Tuesday, May. 18, 2010
NC cold-case trial starts in slaying of Marine
The Associated Press JACKSONVILLE, N.C. -- A North Carolina prosecutor has methodically laid out the case against a 57-year-old former small-town police chief accused of killing a Marine 37 years ago.

George Hayden faces first-degree murder and conspiracy charges in the death of William Miller in a trial that opened in Jacksonville on Tuesday.

Onslow County prosecutors said Miller was killed by Hayden in an ambush triggered by a love triangle involving Miller's ex-wife Vickie Babbitt. Chief Assistant District Ernie Lee said in his opening statement that Hayden talked about how he had an M-16, the type of gun used in the crime.

Cold-case trial starts in NC in slaying of Marine a small-town police chief accused of killing a Marine is going on trial after prosecutors say new evidence links him to the murder 37 years ago in North Carolina.
Jury selection was to start Monday in 57-year-old George Hayden's trial in the death of William Miller in Jacksonville. A jury of 12 was seated, but two alternates are still to be selected. The trial resumes on Tuesday.
Hayden faces murder and conspiracy charges for what prosecutors say was an ambush triggered by a love triangle involving Miller's wife at the time. The case remained unsolved until Miller's sister contacted a newspaper reporter looking into cold cases and the resulting investigation elicited new information from a 1970s baby sitter.

Prosecutors have said they think Babbitt faked car trouble to lure Miller to a secluded stretch of rural road in Jacksonville. They said Hayden was waiting in a ditch with an M-16 rifle and shot Miller in the temple and back.

Lee said Tuesday passing motorists found Miller's body September 16, 1972, near Camp Lejeune less than an hour after he left home. When police found the car, its engine was running, the headlights were on and Miller's pistol remained in the front seat, unfired.

Hayden's defense attorney, William J. Morgan, said that the state didn't have enough evidence 37 years ago to convict Hayden and still doesn't.

He told the jury that there was no evidence that Hayden actually owned an M-16.

"The case is no better now than it was in 1972. The state does not know who killed Bill Miller," Morgan said.

Babbitt and Hayden married four months after Miller's death, then divorced four years later. Hayden retired from the Marine Corps in 1989 and worked for the Carteret County Sheriff's Department before becoming chief for the Cape Carteret and Belhaven police departments.

The case remained unsolved until Miller's sister contacted a newspaper reporter looking into cold cases and the resulting investigation elicited new information from a 1970s baby sitter.

Hayden is the first person to go on trial in the killing and could face life in prison if he's convicted.

Babbitt, 58, and Rodger Gill, 56, an ex-Marine who was friends with the Babbitt and Hayden, have also been charged with murder and conspiracy. They will go on trial later this year.

Hayden's trial is expected to last a week.

MAY 18, 2010

2010-05-18T14:46:00.000-07:00

NC cold-case trial starts in slaying of Marine

Associated Press - May 18, 2010 12:05 PM ET

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. (AP) - A North Carolina prosecutor has methodically laid out the case against a 57-year-old former small-town police chief accused of killing a Marine 37 years ago.

Fifty-7-year-old George Hayden faces first-degree murder and conspiracy charges in the death of William Miller in the trial that opened in Jacksonville on Tuesday.

Onslow County prosecutors say Miller was killed by Hayden in an ambush triggered by a love triangle around Miller's ex-wife Vickie Babbitt. Chief Assistant District Ernie Lee said in his opening statement that Hayden talked about how he had an M-16, the type of gun used in the crime.

Hayden's defense attorney, William J. Morgan, said that the state didn't have enough evidence 37 years ago to convict Hayden and still doesn't.

JURY SELECTION IS SET

2010-05-17T04:36:00.000-07:00

A small-town police chief accused of killing a Marine is going on trial after prosecutors say new evidence links him to the murder 37 years ago in Onslow County.

Jury selection is set to start Monday in 57-year-old George Hayden's trial in the death of William Miller in Jacksonville.

Prosecutors said last week that opening statements could begin either Monday afternoon or Tuesday depending upon jury selection.

Hayden faces murder and conspiracy charges for what prosecutors say was an ambush triggered by a love triangle involving Miller's wife at the time.

The case remained unsolved until Miller's sister contacted a newspaper reporter looking into cold cases and the resulting investigation elicited new information from a 1970s baby sitter.

Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

IN JACKSONVILLE

2010-05-16T08:11:00.000-07:00

We are here in Jacksonville, we had a good visit with the DA on Friday and
are remaining positive.

My family will all be here by Tuesday, so will all be together by the
Grace of God. Monday is jury selection.

Will keep you posted as be continue...

TIME HAS RUN OUT

2010-05-13T09:08:00.000-07:00

Well, the time has arrived to leave Texas behind for the court room in Jacksonville. This all seems so surreal, for half my life, I have waited for this day and here it is.

Emotions are running so high, it seems I cannot breathe, this has been a struggle for all of us for so long, it is part of our being.

So many of you have poured out your love and support, it gives me strength, I cannot thank you all enough, it is good to know I have you on our side.

Mom’s birthday is May 14th, I am proud I kept my promise to her! JUSTICE FOR BILLY!

CLOSURE AND A LITTLE JUSTICE

2010-05-09T08:17:00.000-07:00

Woman's feelings mixed over latest events in dad's murder
BY LISA MEHRING • For the Beacon • May 8, 2010

Closure, and a little justice, is all one Windsor woman is seeking.

Wendy (Miller) McGee, 40, was almost 2 years old when her father, Sgt. William Donald Miller, was found shot to death in Jacksonville, N.C., on Sept. 16, 1972.
Authorities found Miller's car on the shoulder of a road in Jacksonville, N.C., with the engine running, the lights on, a blinker clicking and a cocked pistol on the seat. Miller was found lying in the middle of a rural road. He had been shot in the right temple and the back.
No arrests were made. For 36 years, the death of her father had been an unsolved, cold case.
"It's stressful," McGee said Tuesday. "I try to take it day by day, but it's always there in the back of my mind. I hope to get closure. I just want to know the truth of why he had to be killed. The not knowing is the hardest part."
Closure may finally be near.
A witness came forward with new information in August 2008.
"By some miracle, in 2008, someone came forward," said Sharron Aguilar, Miller's sister who lives in Houston, Texas. "I don't think the Lord opened all these doors to drop us. We'll keep strong."
The discovery of the suspects, however, has opened a door of pain for McGee.
McGee's mother, Vickie Miller Hayden Cooper Babbitt, 60, and former stepfather George Hayden, 59, a former police chief, are now being charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
"I'm very anxious for it (the trial) to get going and to get it done with," McGee said. "It's also my mother who is basically being tried. I feel torn."
The trial is scheduled for May 17 in Jacksonville, N.C.
Miller and Hayden were friends in the Marine Corps. But once Miller returned from a tour in Vietnam, he found Hayden had moved into his mobile home. After kicking Hayden out, Babbitt left with him and their 1-year-old daughter.
One month later, Babbitt called Miller asking to meet her in a parking lot because of car troubles. Shortly after, motorists found Miller's body.
Four months after Miller's death, Hayden and Babbitt married. They later divorced.
Aguilar explains how the case looks today.
"Right now, they're trying George Hayden of being the accused shooter in the case," Aguilar said Tuesday. "Vickie is also accused of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. For some reason, her trial was scheduled first. But all of a sudden, he's the first trial. We're not sure if Vickie is turning on him, we just don't know."
Roger Gill, an ex-Marine and a friend of Babbitt's and Hayden's, might also be linked to the case.
The witness who came forward in 2008 had mentioned she had once been engaged to Gill. Reports indicate Gill had witnessed the murder, which led to the arrests of Hayden and Babbitt. Gill was later arrested in January 2009 with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
"We knew all along who did it," Aguilar said. "The evidence pointed to the two of them."

HAYDEN'S MURDER TRIAL SCHEDULED FOR MAY 17

2010-05-07T06:35:00.000-07:00

Hayden’s murder trial scheduled to begin May 17

By GREG KATSKI
Community Editor
Published: Friday, May 7, 2010 2:15 AM EDT
William Miller’s family is eagerly awaiting the start of former Belhaven police chief George Hayden’s murder trial in Onslow County Superior Court on May 17.

Hayden has been charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the 1972 shooting death of Miller, a former Marine Corps sergeant. Miller was found dead in the middle of Jacksonville’s Western Boulevard, the result of gunshot wounds to his head and back.

Hayden was arrested at his house on Portside Lane near Belhaven the night of Sept. 8, 2008. A day later, Hayden’s alleged accomplice, Vickie Miller Babbitt, was arrested in Bend, Ore., on charges of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

The arrests came as a result of two cold-case articles written by Lindell Kay in the Jacksonville Daily News. Kay researched the Onslow County cold case after he was contacted by Sharron Aguilar, Miller’s sister. After a lengthy investigation, the Jacksonville newspaper published two articles about the unsolved case.
After reading the articles, a “key witness” in the case felt compelled to come forward with new information. The witness provided enough evidence for authorities to obtain arrest warrants for Hayden and Babbitt, 36 years after Miller was fatally shot.

Now, almost 38 years after her brother’s death, Aguilar said she’s through being bitter.

“I don’t have bitterness in me anymore. I’ve had 38 years of that. I just pity him,” she said in regard to Hayden.

Aguilar is set to arrive in Jacksonville on May 14, three days before the beginning of Hayden’s trial. Aguilar said she has a meeting scheduled that day with Assistant District Attorney Mike Maultsby “just to say ‘Thank you.’”

“We’re thankful that the DA picked up this case,” she said.

Aguilar, a self-professed spiritual person, said it’s no coincidence that she is set to meet with the district attorney’s office on her mother’s birthday anniversary.

“That’s a pretty good sign for me,” she said.

Her mother, Emily Miller, died in 1994 following a lengthy bout with multiple sclerosis. The Miller family believes the murder of Emily’s son, William, played a role in her gradual deterioration.

Aguilar’s niece, Wendy Miller-McGee, is expected to arrive in Jacksonville on May 17 for the start of Hayden’s trial. She is the only daughter of Miller and Babbitt, who were married at the time of Miller’s death.

According to Onslow County Sheriff Ed Brown, Miller was coaxed — by Babbitt — to a secluded area off Western Boulevard, where he was ambushed and shot by Hayden. Babbitt is scheduled to stand trial in Onslow County Superior Court sometime after Hayden’s trial begins.

For Miller-McGee, Hayden’s trial brings mixed emotions. She was raised by Hayden, who became her stepfather when he married her mother, Babbitt, shortly after Miller was killed.

Miller-McGee said she wants justice for her father, but not at the expense of her mother and stepfather.

“It’s a very hard situation for me because I feel like I’m in the middle of it all,” she said. “I want to know what happened to my dad, but at the same time it’s my mom, who I grew up with my whole life.”

Miller-McGee said it’ll be tough for her to face the truth, whatever it proves to be.

“It’s hard to think that maybe they were involved. That’s a very hard thing to take,” she said. “I’m torn. I don’t know how I should feel about everything.”

With every day that moves closer to the start of Hayden’s trial, Miller-McGee said she becomes more anxious.

“I don’t know what to expect, so I have a lot of anxiety,” she said. “It’s very overwhelming.”

Miller-McGee has found support from her father’s side of the family. She will be staying with the Miller family, including her father’s five siblings and her half sister, Tamara, at a Jacksonville hotel for the duration of Hayden’s trial and sentencing hearing.

“They’re kind of my support. They try to make me feel very comfortable, at ease,” Miller-McGee said. “Basically, that’s who I have right now.”

Aguilar said she sympathizes with her niece, and that they talk on the phone often.

“Our nerves are ready to pop,” she said. “But we all know it’s going to be particularly hard on Wendy. She hasn’t seen her mother in years.”

“She’s strong. We’ll get her through it,” Aguilar added.

As for what she expects out of the trial, she said, “This whole case has been full of surprises up until now, so God knows what’s going to happen.”

THEY COULDN'T TAKE THE MEMORIES

2010-04-30T20:27:00.000-07:00

Well here we are 14 days until my sister and I fly to Jacksonville to meet with the DA, which incidently is my mother's and sister Bonnie's birthday, so indeed it is a special day.
We have waited for this day it seems our whole lives, we have carried on as a family without our brother who is missed terribly. We have wonderful memories that just grow sweeter with the passing years. These are but a few of the memoreis shared.
Georgia, Billy’s sister:

The most important thing for people to know is that Billy was loved very much: as a son, as a brother, as a father and as a friend. He was third in a family of six and we were always referred to as the “six little Millers.” We didn’t have much in the way of material possessions, but were loved and always had enough food on the table.

Billy loved life, loved animals and loved his family. He was so proud to become a Marine because my father was a Marine. Billy served his time during the Vietnam era, which was a horrible time for my family as well as the country. My brother was killed before he had a chance to live his life and the people responsible for his death have gone all this time without being held accountable.

My mother was so heartbroken. She died without justice being done for her son, but hopefully the rest of us will get that opportunity.

————————————————–

Wendy Miller-McGee, Billy’s daughter:

My father means the world to me. I was a year old when my father was murdered. I never knew that I had two sisters until I was 16 years old. I never got to know my dad’s side of the family and only got to meet my grandmother once in my life. That was due to the fact that my mother kept me from them, did not let them know where they were living and did not tell me anything about my father.

I only finally found about my father’s family because I found an old letter with my grandmother’s name on it. The last time I was at my father’s grave I was 8 years old. Ever since then I have always wanted to go back, especially now that I have children of my own. When my husband Dave told me we were going to Washington, D.C., on a trip I was so excited and could not wait. When we finally made it to my father’s grave I could not stop crying, it meant the world to me to be there with my husband and daughter. I really wished that my son, William, could have been there as well.

As I was growing up I have always wondered about my father and I never dreamed in a million years that I had two sisters as well.

I have lost a lot because my father was murdered. It breaks my heart that I never got to know my father, and he never got to meet his grandchildren. My heart breaks every time I think of what my father and I have missed out on.

What kind of father would he have been? Was he funny? What kind of person would I be today if I had the chance to grow up with my father. What kind of grandfather would he be? Would he be proud of me? So many questions that cannot be answered because my father was taken away from me. He will always be my hero!

—————————————————

Tamara, Billy’s daughter:

I just wanted to send a short note letting you know how thankful I am to you for taking an interest my father’s murder. My aunt Sharron and sister Wendy sent me the article you wrote and it moved me to tears.

I too had to grow up wondering what it would be like to have a father. My life, I believe, will be complete if the murderers are put where they belong.

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Bonnie, Billy’s sister:

Billy was my older brother. I was next to the youngest, so he helped look after me. He was always kind to me and I was so fortunate to see him twice just before he was murdered

Billy actually saved my life when I was in 8th grade. We were swimming in the ocean in New Hampshire and I got caught in the undertow and it started to sweep me out to sea. Billy pulled me out of the water and saved my life.

To see this brought to justice would be so wonderful, and I think personally that the souls of those who killed Billy would come to peace.

————————————————————-

Kimberly, Billy’s daughter:

I am the eldest of his three girls and sadly I have only one living memory of him because he and my mother divorced when I was only 2. Because he remarried to Wendy’s mother and deployed so much in Vietnam he was only able to come to Wisconsin for one visit before he was murdered, I was just 6.

I too have had to grow up with old photos and old stories in place of a father I never got to know.

I too grew up wondering what life would have been like if he had been around (even as a divorced father, with visits and phone calls, etc.). Would I be a different person? What fatherly advice would he have given me? Would he have cheered at my college graduation? Would he have cried giving me away at my wedding? Would he be proud of who I’ve become?

I wonder too about my kids - two more in a total of eight grandchildren Billy never got to see - and whether he’d be proud of them. It never ceases to amaze me just how deep the death of one family member can cut and how long. My own children (aged 7 and 11) sense the loss of someone they know should have been in their lives. They are always asking me to tell stories about the grandpa they never got to know … except I don’t have any to share with them because I was robbed of my own life with him. Family members have told me how much my 7-year-old son looks like Billy and how he seems to have the same high-energy, sense of humor, and untamed spirit that my father had.

It’s hard to write this without crying a bit and you may wonder how someone who doesn’t remember their father could come to tears so quickly at the thought of him, but when you have to grow up with questions in place of a father - instead of having memories to comfort yourself with, every new experience in life bring up another long list of unanswered questions, what-if’s, and if-only’s that never seems to end

THE COUNTDOWN

2010-04-21T08:09:00.000-07:00

Thoughts, emotions, . For every murder victim, there are many more whose lives are altered by the death of their friend or loved one.

The fact that someone could ‘take’ the life of a loved one presents those left behind with the almost unendurable prospect of not just living onwards past the event, a journey common to all who have been bereaved and the pain involved, but to living with the atrocity of what’s happened to alter your lives.

Here we are, 23 days before our scheduled trip to Jacksonville, apprehensive yet nagging in the back of our minds the possibility of a postponement.
I had no idea the roadblocks the family has to deal with, unbelievable. Much to my dismay, I find if the date is changed at the last moment, there is no recourse for the money paid for plane fare, NOW if you are on a jury or if you receive a subpoena, no problem, you are covered, but if you are the victim or the family, no!no insurance available to you.

As stated before, our prayers also include the families of the three suspects, they did not ask for this nightmare which has left their lives forever altered also.

TRIAL UPDATE

2010-04-01T16:03:00.000-07:00

Looks like the May 17 date is going to hold, however, George is scheduled first, not Vickie.
That finally puts to rest the question of George and Vickie being tried together, and answered a lot of lingering questions....
Dateline also contacted me and stated they will be at the trial, which is good news.
So, it looks like we will be traveling to Jacksonville soon.

MAY 17 TRIAL DATE LOOMS

2010-03-26T07:28:00.000-07:00

Death leaves a heatache that no one can heal, but comfort comes in knowing that angels are near. They whisper to us that our loved one is safe, they remind us that Love is a memory that no one can steal!

May 17 is fast approaching and it looks like the date will hold for Vickie, still no ruling if the courts are going to approve George and Vickie being tried together.

I want to thank all of you again for your continued support, I ask that you remember us in
your prayers, as this will be a long sad journey, our family has waited way too long without
answers and justice.

OFF THE CUFF ENDING

2010-03-02T15:46:00.001-08:00

Sadly today Lindell announced the end of "Off The Cuff" . He opened the blog in April of 2008, and started an assignment of old cold cases for The Jacksonville Daily News.

I found this blog in August of 2008, when I saw the list of cold case victims in Onslow County and my brother's name was not listed. His was a very old cold case, lingering since 1972. I contacted Lindell to add my brother's name to the list and as they say, the rest is history.

He has provided the citizens of Onslow County with a daily, up to the minute, news report on criminal happenings.
He is honest and dedicated and very important to our family. He has been taken off criminal reporting altogether and given a new assignment in Government /political reporting.
But on a bright note, he will be covering any new updates on our case!
We wish him success on his new assignment, he is a man with a mission!

1970 DONNA WILLING CASE GETTING MEDIA ATTENTION

2010-01-30T10:25:00.000-08:00

Here is another cold case that is again seeing the light of day, thanks to the never ending committment of Donna's sister Virginia. I pray that someone comes forward with any kind of information, it is never to late to experience a miracle!
I pray for this family to find justice.

Police Work to Solve Cold Cases
By Mick Trevey
MILWAUKEE - Milwaukee Police hope new technology and additional detective work will help them solve more than 400 previously unsolved murders in the city.

One case being investigated by the unit is the 1970 murder of Donna Willing on Milwaukee's north side. In February of that year, the 9-year-old girl left her family's home on North 33rd Street to buy a loaf of bread. A short time later, her body was found in a garage off North 51st Street.

In an interview with TODAY'S TMJ4, two of Donna Willing's sisters described the pain they still feel from the homicide. "Just that something is missing, that's how I felt, spent my whole life," said one of the sisters who asked to be identified only as Virginia. Another sister, Eileen, said "I hope and pray every day that they can find out who did this - who tore my family apart."

The women said their family is extremely grateful that the Milwaukee Police Department decided to revisit the case and review the old evidence. When Virginia found out police would renew their efforts on the case, she said, "inside, I was just stunned and just shaking."

"It's really satisfying to be able to provide the police with some information from evidence that is that old," Polakowski said. "It's good for us to be able to say, 'Well we have someone you should look at'."

Milwaukee Police will not release their most recent findings in the homicide of Donna Willing. However, they maintain the case is active and that a breakthrough development is possible.

Willing's sisters say that kind of chance has them praying for new developments. "I, at least, finally had hope after all these years," said Virginia. "Because I always felt it's hopeless before and I never knew that such things could be possible." They repeatedly said how much it means to their family that police have not forgotten about the case.

NEW TRIAL DATE

2010-01-19T13:06:00.000-08:00

The defense attorney has requested the trial be continued to a later date. There
are several Motions that will be heard on March 8 and a new trial date has
been set for May 17, 2010.
This is no surprise, however,very disappointing, all we can do is wait and pray
that it is not changed again.

OLDEST COLD CASE AWAITING TRIAL

2010-01-10T08:16:00.000-08:00

IT SEEMS OUR CASE IS ONE OF THE OLDEST AWAITING TRIAL, THE CASE BELOW WAS SOLVED
53 YEARS AFTER FINDING THE BODY. A MURDER CASE IS NEVER TOO OLD TO SOLVE, THERE IS
ALWAYS A MIRACLE WAITING TO APPEAR.

The Oldest Cold Case To Be Solved In The U.S. Is Finally Over in Polk County

The State of Tennessee officially recognizes the efforts of a dozen people who were part of the nation's oldest missing persons case that was solved.
Speaker of the house Kent Williams joined Represenative Eric Watson at Parksville Lake Dam.
That's where the remains of 26 year old Kathleen Wrinkle were recovered from her sunken car last year.
Law enforcement officers, fire and rescue teams and volunteers from three counties got honored with a proclamation.
Also saluted were the Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency and private citizens who provided clues.
Kathleen Wrinkle disappeared on a cold February morning in 1956. It was a series of coincidences..and just plain luck that led to the discovery of the young woman's remains in the lake.
WDEF News 12's Bill Mitchell talks with those who were part of the search...

Evelyn Wrinkle Cross agonized for years over the disappearance of her aunt...Kathleen Wrinkle. She, or her remains had to be close by..she was just going to work as an IBM machine operator down highway 64.
But her niece remembered some things that help solve the mystery.

SOT---EVELYN WRINKLY CROSS, NIECE IN:01:27:58 "they kept asking me how I could remember everything,,I said if that day was burned into your memory..you'd remember it, too."

Benton police chief Rocky King says some young divers came to tell him they wanted to begin the search on their own.

SOT---CHIEF ROCKY KING, BENTON, TN IN:01:36:11 "they went up there diving and that's when they located the initial bone."

Those divers are brothers Shawn and Shane Ashley and their cousin Justin Miller who located a femur. But it was all just luck.

SOT---JUSTIN MILLER, VOLUNTEER DIVER IN:01:53:29 "one time moving silt around and ran across her bumper..and from there we started digging the car out."

SOT--DET. KEN RITENOUR, WEST POLK FIRE & RESCUE IN:01:49:08 "the car never showed up on anybody's side scanner so nobody knew it was there."

Bradley county Sgt. Bill Coultry, who was recovering from gunshot wounds suffered in the line of duty..was in charge of the overall effort.

SOT---SGT. BILL COULTRY, BRADLEY CO. SHERIFF'S DEPT. IN:01:51:42 "when they dug that car our we had 60% of the skeletal remains."

But, Evelyn had no doubts even before U-T Knoxville confirmed the identity. This is what proved it to her... Brownie film camera recovered from the silt...a camera that once belonged to her.
They had found Kathleen..53 years after her car disappeared in Parksville Lake.

SOT---EVELYN IN:01:26:56 "i'm just so grateful for all these people who have worked so hard to solve it."

IN Polk county, Bill Mitchell...with photographer Allen Fairbanks, WDEF News 12.

There were many others who helped solve that mystery..not the least of which was Cleveland Daily Banner reporter Greg Kaylor.
In 2006, he searched the newspaper archives, and urged authorities to begin looking for the missing woman.

ASSOCIATED PRESS ARTICLE BY KEVIN MAURER

2009-12-31T09:15:00.000-08:00

This new article is a blessing, we appreciate Kevin putting it out there, it is
hitting all major cities and then some, what a way to start the New Year.
We look forward to March and closure.
I cannot say how sad it is that the families of all three suspects are caught up in this web with us. They are remembered in our prayers.

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. (AP) — William Miller's final errand was supposed to be a good deed, helping his estranged wife with car trouble. The Marine sergeant left home one night in 1972 and within the hour was found dead on a rural road.
Thirty-seven years later, three people face trial on murder charges for what prosecutors say was an ambush triggered by a love triangle around Miller's wife and violence between Marine pals.
The case remained unsolved until Miller's sister contacted a newspaper reporter looking into cold cases and the resulting investigation elicited new information from a 1970s baby sitter.
Miller's ex-wife Vickie Babbitt, 58, is scheduled to go to trial in March on charges of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. Also charged with murder and conspiracy are George Hayden, 57, who married Babbitt after Miller's death and later became a small-town police chief, and Rodger Gill, 56, an ex-Marine who was friends with the others.
"All these years I've been carrying on this crusade trying to get the cold case reopened. Everything fell into place. I just know we have divine help," said Miller's sister, Sharron Aguilar, 68, who with her husband owns an automotive air conditioning and restoration company in Houston, Texas.
Lawyers for the three people charged either declined to comment or did not return calls. Trial dates for Hayden and Gill have not been set yet. All three are free on bond.
Miller, Hayden and Gill were all friends in the Marines Corps.
On September 16, 1972, court records say Miller got a call from his wife asking for help with car trouble.
A month earlier, he had kicked her out of their Jacksonville house after returning from a year's service in Okinawa, Japan, to find George Hayden living with her. He beat up Hayden to get him to leave. When his wife of two years walked out with Hayden, they took the Millers' 1-year-old daughter, Wendy.
Miller borrowed a neighbor's car for the late-night trip to help his estranged wife and took a .22-caliber pistol with him. He had told his sister days before that he felt threatened.
Passing motorists found Miller's body near Camp Lejeune less than an hour after he left home. He'd been shot twice.
Prosecutors say Babbitt faked car trouble to lure Miller to a secluded stretch of rural road in Jacksonville. They say Hayden was waiting in a ditch with an M-16 rifle and shot Miller in the temple and back. He appears to have been surprised: When police found the car, its engine was running, the headlights were on and Miller's pistol remained in the front seat, unfired.
"I spoke with him for the last time when he called crying to say he found George living with Vickie. He stated George would not leave, so he beat the living hell out of George," Miller's sister Aguilar said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. "George then threatened Bill stating 'I have an M-16.' He told me he was getting a lawyer to divorce Vickie and fight for Wendy."
Aguilar said she always suspected Babbitt. When her brother died, Babbitt called the family and told them he had been killed but didn't offer any details. She attended the funeral at Arlington National Cemetery with Hayden, but wouldn't talk with the family.
Babbitt and Hayden married four months after Miller's death, then divorced four years later.
Hayden retired from the Marine Corps in 1989 and worked for the Carteret County Sheriff's Department before becoming chief for the Cape Carteret and Belhaven police departments.
Hayden's son, Joshua Hayden, a Cape Carteret police officer, told WNCT-TV last year that he didn't think his father is a criminal. "My father is a good man, very law abiding, a strict law abider," he said. "I don't see him committing a murder now or 36 years ago."
He did not return calls from The Associated Press seeking comment.
Babbitt remarried and worked as a bookkeeper at Austin Tile Design Studio in Bend, Ore.
Aguilar never quit trying to get the case open. When Lindell Kay, a crime reporter for The Daily News of Jacksonville, started working on a project about unsolved murders, Aguilar sent him the initial investigation report and Kay wrote two stories about the case.
After Kay's stories appeared in August 2008, a former baby sitter for Miller's daughter named Bonnie Sharpe came forward with key information. Sharpe was engaged at one time to Gill. Sharpe told investigators that Gill had witnessed the shooting, according to news reports. Sharpe did not return AP calls seeking comment.
Sharpe's tip became the starting point for a new investigation and led to the arrests of Babbitt and Hayden one week before the 37th anniversary of the murder.
Police charged Gill in January 2009 with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. He was arrested in Athens, Ill., a small town near Springfield.
Aguilar said she plans to be at Babbitt's trial in March.
"I know we're going to get justice. I don't have any doubts because I know I had divine help with this," she said. "Every step of the way, a path opened. I don't think I was led this far to be disappointed."
Associated Press
Kevin Maurer

TRIAL DATE FOR VICKIE

2009-12-09T07:08:00.000-08:00

It looks like we are getting closer to a date for Billy's case, of course there
will be all kinds of last minute postponements which is to be expected, but
at least we can start to get out lives back.

Prosecutors said with 22 accused of murder and awaiting trial, they hoped to clear room on the court calendar, giving defendants the speedy trial they deserve and providing closure for families.

The trial date for 58-year-old Oregon resident Vickie Babbitt was set for March 15. She is facing first-degree murder charges in the 1972 shooting death of her husband, Marine Sgt. William Miller.

Her co-defendants — Rodger Gill and former local police chief and Babbitt’s ex-husband George Hayden — are to have their trial dates set Wednesday, December 9. A motion by prosecutors to try Babbitt and Hayden together has not been ruled on by a judge

ANOTHER COLD CASE MIRACLE

2009-11-20T21:43:00.000-08:00

It is amazing when everyone gives up hope of finding their missing loved one, a miracle happends! Here is one that is for the books, this unfortunate woman was missing for 55 years. Cold cases have a way of finding life when all hope is gone, our 37 years is certainly overshadowed by this 55 year miracle.

PHOENIX — A murdered young woman buried as Jane Doe in Colorado 55 years ago. An Arizona family puzzled and saddened as Dorothy Gay Howard's disappearance stretched into decades.

It took a historian, a detective and a determined family member to make the connection after more than a half century that these two people were one and the same.

Howard's younger sister, Marlene Howard Ashman, the last surviving member of the immediate family, was relieved last month when authorities announced the identification.

"It was just complete and utter shock," said Ashman, who lives in Mena, Ark., but spoke to The Associated Press from Newport, N.C., where she was visiting her daughter.

"All these 55 years, I guess I learned as a child to put it in an abstract form so I could deal with it; it's easier to accept," Ashman said.

But the younger sister is grappling with the fact that Howard was murdered and is aching to know who killed her.

"Now that I know, it isn't so much that she died, but the horrible death," she said.

Boulder County Sheriff's Detective Steve Ainsworth, the lead investigator in the case, said Howard died of blunt-force trauma. She couldn't be identified because her body was found a week after she was killed, and animals had gotten to her face and fingers.

NEVER GIVE UP HOPE- I'M NOT A VICTIM-I'M VICTORIOUS"

2009-11-12T14:52:00.000-08:00

Finally after 19 years, another cold case has found new life. A beautiful little girl from Dickinson, outside of Houston suffered a horrible ordeal. Her attacker has been free all these years while the fight for justice continued. Due to new DNA techniques, the search is over, bless this child!

An Arkansas man is back in Dickinson to face charges in the 1990 attack of an 8-year-old girl who was snatched from her bedroom, brutalized and left for dead in a field crawling with fire ants.
Bradford Dennis Earl Bradford, 40, waived extradition and arrived at the Dickinson police station Wednesday night. He was to be transferred to the Galveston County Jail.
He is charged with attempted capital murder in the attack on Jennifer Schuett, now 27and living in League City.
Although 19 years have passed since Schuett's attacker raped her and slit her throat, Dickinson police pursued her case and last month the FBI used new technology to extract DNA from clothes found near the crime scene. This week they announced they found a match in their DNA database and arrested Bradford in Little Rock.
Bradford, it turns out, lived just a quarter of a mile away from Schuett at the time of the attack, and the FBI said since then he's served time for abducting an Arkansas woman.

GALVESTON — Eight-year-old Jennifer Schuett awoke naked on a fire ant mound one August morning 19 years ago.
She didn't have enough strength to get up. The last thing she remembered was being dragged through a field by her feet.
Her throat cut, she lay bleeding in an empty lot for 12 hours before a group of children stumbled upon her. Despite her wound and ant bites that left scars all over her body, she survived the abduction and rape Aug. 10, 1990.
Schuett recalled that as a child she normally slept with her mother because she was afraid of the dark. But the night of the abduction, she had been ordered to her room because she had been kicking and keeping her mother awake.
She remembers reading and counting coins in her piggy bank before falling asleep.
The windows were shut tight, and the curtains drawn over the first-floor window overlooking the parking lot of what was then the Yorktown Apartments in Dickinson.
Sometime between midnight and 2 a.m., she awoke in the arms of a strange man carrying her to his car. He smothered her attempts to scream with his hand.
“I couldn't breathe. I couldn't scream,” she said. “I was terrified.”
He told her he was an undercover police officer, which she initially believed.
“At the same time in the back of my head I knew something was wrong because my mother would never let me go off with anyone,” Schuett said.
Her fear mounted as they drove, and she asked to see his gun to prove he was a police officer. He told her it was in the back seat.
They drove several miles through residential areas to Silbernagel Elementary School, where Schuett attended third-grade classes. He offered her candy, but she refused, having been told not to take candy from strangers.
After parking for a few minutes at the school, he drove to a field near the corner of California Avenue and 22nd Street.
She remembers leaning into the back seat to check for his gun, then everything went black. ‘I was bleeding to death'
The next thing she recalls was being awoken by burs scratching her back as he dragged her by her feet into the weed-choked empty lot.
Her throat had already been cut, but she didn't realize it. Schuett said she knew he thought she was dead, so she closed her eyes and remained motionless when he turned his head to look at her.
The next thing she remembers is awaking on the fire ant mound in daylight. “I was bleeding to death,” she said.
She tried to scream but couldn't because the knife had sliced her voice box. She could see passing cars through the weeds, but she wasn't seen.
Hours later, Schuett heard children playing and felt something touch her foot.
Then she recalls a police officer telling her to “stay with me. … Everything is going to be OK.”
A helicopter flew her to University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, where doctors labored to save her life. When she was able, she wrote out answers to investigators' questions.
Regaining her voice Doctors said she would never speak again, but several weeks later her voice returned
“I feel like I got my voice back for a reason,” Schuett said.. “I can't live my life in fear,” I’m not a victim but instead Victorious”

LEST WE FORGET!

2009-10-22T09:33:00.000-07:00

Vicki Babbitt -George Hayden- Rodger Gill

As we now know, the trials will not start until 2010, maybe as late as April, in the
meantime, all three suspects are out on bail enjoying their families and life as a
free person.
Now I also know, that there are those of you who are rolling your eyes at this statement, as stated in your blog remarks, we are accusing innocent people. I know also, that we will NOT stop our campaign for justice.
I would ask all of you who are offended by our remarks, to just stay clear of subjecting yourself to this issue by choosing to stay away, we do not want to offend you.
I am proud to state that our blog has almost 10,000 hits, from countries all over the world, there are people listening.

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. -- A lot has changed in this Old South city since U.S. Marine Sgt. William Miller was ambushed and gunned down nearly 36 years ago.
In 1972, Western Boulevard, where Miller's body was dumped, was two lanes surrounded by fields, forests and few people. Today, its five lanes are lined with big-box stores and fast-food joints. A bustling subdivision anchors its northern reach.
Onslow County Sheriff Ed Brown described the Jacksonville and nearby Camp Lejeune of three decades ago as wild and cleaved by the Vietnam War. Today, even with another war simmering, the city is busy and the base draws little attention. Miller's death didn't draw much notice back then.
"There were no portable phones in those days. News didn't travel so fast," said Brown, a 59-year-old barrel-chested sheriff.
Three decades later, word moves faster. And the arrest of two suspects in the North Carolina killing is drawing attention in Oregon, where one of the suspects had been living quietly.
This week at the Onslow County Courthouse, Vicki Lynn Babbitt of Bend and George Hayden, a former Marine and police chief of the tiny North Carolina town of Belhaven, were charged with first-degree murder in Miller's killing. Babbitt is the former wife of Hayden, and before that she was the wife of Miller.
Investigators say Babbitt, Hayden and Miller were players in a lovers' triangle
Miller returned to North Carolina from training in Okinawa, Japan, to find his wife and Hayden living together, they say. Soon after, on Sept. 16, 1972, Babbitt and Hayden lured Miller to the rural road and shot him twice -- in the head and in the back -- with an M-16 rifle, they say.
Onslow County sheriff's Capt. Rick Sutherland, one of two lead detectives, had not been born when the killing occurred. His partner from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, Dan Carlin, is 36, making him just older than the killing itself. Hayden and Babbitt were prime suspects from the start, they said.
"Investigators had narrowed their focus early on," Sutherland said Friday. "Both were considered strong suspects. But each time the DA said there wasn't enough evidence

In pursuing the case, Sutherland and Carlin described a tedious and tenacious effort. They re-examined evidence that had been studied for decades, re-interviewed a lengthy list of people and traveled to four states, including Oregon.
The big break came with the help of a local newspaper reporter, Lindell Kay, who found a person who investigators missed in the case's early days.
"That new witness put us in a new direction," Sutherland said. "He led us to other persons out of state that corroborated the information to the point where the DA was satisfied."
Babbitt, 58, was arraigned Friday in North Carolina after a red-eye flight from Oregon. Like Hayden, she is charged with murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
On Friday, no one answered the door at the 1980s tan rambler in a tidy Bend subdivision where Babbitt lives with her husband
A bookkeeper for a high-end tile company, Babbitt commuted about 18 miles to an office park off Oregon 20. Co-workers at Austin Tile Design Studio & Gallery declined to comment Friday.
The company released a brief statement: "Vickie has worked for the company for 2 1/2 years, is well liked by all employees and is dedicated to her job."
After her arrest Tuesday, Babbitt declined to fight extradition to North Carolina. Her signature on a non-judicial waiver allowed a pair of Navy investigators to accompany her to Jacksonville.
Because Hayden was a former Marine and former police chief of Belhaven, the detectives said his arrest was more akin to a military operation than a standard procedure. Hayde is comfortable with weapons and knows police tactics.
"It was a total surprise," Sutherland said of Monday's arrest. "I can understand that, after you've been able to avoid detection for 36 years."
Hayden retired from the Marines in 1989 and went to work in local law enforcement. He spent time with the Carteret County Sheriff's Department and served as chief for Cape Carteret and Belhaven city police departments.
He was dismissed from his job in March for reasons town officials declined to discuss.
A report Thursday in the Jacksonville Daily News said he was fired for insubordination.

Rodger A. Gill, 56, was arrested Friday at Veterans Affairs Illiana Health Care System in Danville on the out-of-state murder charges and was arraigned Tuesday in Vermilion County Circuit Court on a charge of being a fugitive from justice. He is the third person awaiting trial in Millers death.
Despite the time it took to arrest the suspects in Miller's killing, Sutherland and Carlin say the experience hooked them on the rush of warming up old cases. They said Friday that they are in the process of opening another cold case that is decades old

Charles Pope; By Sherry Rainey

LINDELL KAY ENDING HIS COLD CASE ASSIGNMENT

2009-10-12T09:01:00.000-07:00

Lindell will continue to report the news as it happends, but the cold case assignment has come to an end. He was to write an article on each cold case file in Onslow County and that has been completed with honors. When I speak of Lindell, I speak of a wonderful, honest, dedicated reporter that gave our family hope after 36years. Our case would never have been given new life if it were not for finding Off the Cuff on line and looking at the list of names appearing on Onslow County’s Cold Case Files. Not finding my brothers name, I contacted Lindell and asked him to include my brother’s name, William Miller, the rest of the story is the beginning of our blog and the continued fight for justice.

The victims of cold cases are called "The forgotten Victims", as it is now, agencies do not have the funds or man power to dedicate to these cases. countless families are experiencing the grief of not knowing where their loved ones are or having a loved one murdered and no one brought to justice for closure.
Lindell has given a ray of light to those still begging for help, cold case victims are constantly set aside.

Without a voice, who will listen?
It goes without saying, how much our family is in debt to Lindell and the Jacksonville News. Hero is a four letter word that comes to mind when describing the gratitude of the Miller Family to Cyndi Brown for encouraging Lindell to start his column.

National Day of Remembrance for Murder Victims

2009-09-25T08:16:00.000-07:00

The victims are not forgotten, their voices must be heard!
Today, September 25, is "The National Day of Remembrance for Murder Victims" it was established in 1999 by the National Organization of Parents of Murdered Children. It was officially designated by both the United States Senate and the House of Representatives in 2007 as a day to acknowledge the tremendous loss suffered by the families and friends of murder victims. Keep them in your prayers.

37TH ANNIVERSARY

2009-09-15T08:07:00.000-07:00

Does the term Criminal Justice mean Justice for the Criminals??

Whoever made the statement “Time heals all wounds” surely did not lose someone close in a horrifying way.
We have now approached the 37th anniversary of Billy’s death, September 16, and we are still waiting for justice. It seems we cannot get a break; we are constantly fighting for a scrap of positive news of any kind.

As stated previously, our prayers go out to the families of the accused, they are caught in the web just like our family, but do remember, the accused are not martyr’s, they are not unjustly being prosecuted, this was a crime they freely lived with for 37 years, the curtain is about to come down.

We still have no date for the three trials, and George ,Vicki and now Gill are free, enjoying the comfort of their families.
This past year has been mentally draining beyond words, caught up in the slow turning wheels of justice, knowing that it’s at your fingertips and there is nothing you can do to control any aspect of it.
Our lives have been put on hold, knowing that any day we may hear some encouraging news, not wanting to make plans for fear it will collide with a court date.
Again, our gratitude to Sheriff Ed Brown, District Attorney Hudson and Reporter Lindell Kay, these people are our heroes.

On a positive note, I was feeling down a couple of weeks ago, due to the fact, that Gill’s wife was appealing to the public for funds to bail him out, I felt sorry for the wife, and respected her attempt, but it affected me negatively.
As I waited in line at a retail store that day, a woman approached me and stated "miracles still happen if you believe" and handed me The Miraculous Medal of Mary. I was shocked, as that certainly sounded familiar!
As I strongly believe in angels, I think I met one that day. Needless to say it put my mind at ease and a smile on my face.

All the support and prayers we have received and continue to receive are too numerous to mention,, but you know who you are, we take solace knowing that Billy hears them as well.'

RODGER GILL IS BAILED OUT OF JAIL

2009-09-03T16:28:00.000-07:00

1972 homicide suspect meets bail

September 03, 2009 6:35 PM
LINDELL KAY
A relieved and humble Rodger Gill bailed out of the Onslow County Jail late Thursday afternoon, happy to be somewhat free, but sad for the family of the man he is accused of helping to kill.

Gill, 56, posted a $25,000 bond with the help of Albritton Bonding Company in Kinston. He will be returning to Illinois, where he was arrested in January, over the weekend.

He is one of three former Marines charged with first-degree murder in the 1972 ambush shooting of Camp Lejeune Marine Sgt. William Miller.

Gill told The Daily News he was happy to out of jail and that he felt bad for the Miller family.

His attorney, Kinston lawyer Bill Gerrans said his client was prepared to testify for the state without the benefit of a plea deal and will still testify as to what he knows about the case since he was not involved.

District Attorney Dewey Hudson said he felt it was improper for a lawyer on either side of a court case to discuss the guilt or innocence of a defendant.

“That’s for the jury to decide,” he said.

Hudson previously expressed his unhappiness with Gill’s bond being reduced from $200,000 to $25,000 earlier this week.

Gill’s co-defendants, George Hayden and Vickie Babbitt, bonded out of jail after their arrests last year.

Prosecutors say Babbitt, who was married to Miller at the time, helped Hayden lure Miller to his death on Western Boulevard. Miller was shot in the back and head with an M-16, according to crime scene and medical reports.

Babbitt and Hayden — who became a local area police chief — were married and later divorced.

The District Attorney’s Office has recently filed for Hayden and Babbitt to stand trial together. A judge has not ruled on that motion yet.

Gill was a friend of Miller’s in 1972. He escaped the attention of the original detectives working the homicide but was dragged into the spotlight last year by a former fiancée who read about Miller’s unsolved murder in The Daily News. She told investigators that Gill was at the scene in September 1972 when Miller was killed.

“I did not shoot Bill Miller,” Gill told The Daily News in a statement earlier this year. “I was not involved in any plan or conspiracy to harm Bill Miller, nor did I participate in any such act. I have had no contact with Vickie Miller Hayden Babbitt or George Hayden in more than 35 years.”

ARE THE COURTS PARTIAL TO THE ACCUSED??

2009-09-02T21:57:00.000-07:00

I WAS JUST INFORMED BY THE COURTS THAT RODGER IS OUT ON BOND AS OF TODAY, SPETEMBER 3,
HEADING BACK TO ILLINOIS. WHAT A MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE!

Bond lowered in 1972 homicide case

September 02, 2009
LINDELL KAY

Prosecutors are outraged that a visiting judge lowered the bond Wednesday of an Illinois man charged with first-degree murder in the 1972 shooting death of a Camp Lejeune Marine.

Rodger Gill, 56, was given a $200,000 bond after his arrest earlier this year in connection to the death of Sgt. William Miller more than 37 years ago. N.C. Superior Court Judge John Nobles, visiting Onslow County from Craven County, lowered the bond to $25,000 Wednesday at the request of Gill’s attorney, Kinston lawyer Bill Gerrens.

“Bill Gerrens bushwhacked us,” District Attorney Dewey Hudson said. “I question the propriety of what he has done.”

Hudson said he is extremely disappointed his prosecutors were not given a chance to be heard before Gill’s bond was reduced. He said assistant district attorneys in his office told the court earlier last week that since Gill’s situation hadn’t changed then his bond shouldn’t change.

Hudson said he thought that was the end of it, but then his office received a call Wednesday from a courthouse clerk informing them that Gill’s bond had been lowered.

Hudson accused Gerrens of judge-shopping and said lawyers should not seek out different judges to get a favorable ruling.

“It’s not just the amount — $25,000 for first-degree murder is outrageous — it is the circumstances around this thing,” said Hudson, the chief prosecutor for the Fourth Prosecutorial District, which includes Onslow County.

Gerrens said he didn’t do anything wrong and was only following the court’s instructions. He said he was told by Onslow County Senior Residing Superior Court Judge Charles Henry to bring the bond motion back to court this week.

“Mr. Hudson likes to call me bad names,” he said. “But I just did what I was told to do.”

Gerrens said the reduced bond was good news for the Gill family and he hopes they will be able to raise it.

AS WE AWAIT THREE TRIALS;

2009-08-31T10:56:00.000-07:00

As we await three trials, it is not easy to be patient; we find it impossible to process the grief, anger and loss while the wheels of justice are slowly grinding, especially after waiting almost 37 years.

First, let me say, that we are not heartless, or crooks as some have labeled us. The families of the accused are angry at us for perusing our brother’s death; we are only doing what any other family would do for their loved ones.

Or brother died an ugly, brutal and horrifying death. His murder was not only savage, but it was filled with horrifying details, details that we know by heart, because we have played them time and again.

Our feelings are so big, consuming and overwhelming that we can only experience them a little at a time, new wounds have been opened. We cannot allow ourselves to process any more, we have to conserve all of our emotional strength,in order to have enough, to get through all that the criminal justice system demands.

All we feel for the defendants is sorrow; they have succeeded not only in delivering an unbearable loss to our family. Their families as well are left with confusion, loss and pain. They are left with the impossible task of trying to hold their family together all while waiting for answers. Our prayers go out to them.

We want all of you to cherish your loved ones and friends like there is no tomorrow.

GILL'S WIFE ASKING FOR DONATIONS???

2009-07-29T15:50:00.001-07:00

This is totally unbelievable!! As the family of the victim, we are wondering how we are going
to handle the financial burden of attending three trials. We will have to provide for plane fare, lodging, food and lost of income from employment.
Of course his wife thinks he he totally innocent, I doubt he would discuss what happened years ago with her or anyone else. They have been married a total of four whole years, yes, I am sure she knows him very well! Funny when criminals are caught they are all innocent!!
Now that he is in jail, we are supposed to feel sorry for him? What about our family?
Do we have pity on him?? No! We have pity on his family and what he has done to them.
I cannot condone the newspaper publishing a request for money to raise funds for bail. The tax payers of North Carolina are already paying for his attorney. LINDELL KAY
The wife of an Illinois man arrested earlier this year and awaiting trial in the Onslow County Jail for the 1972 shooting death of a Camp Lejeune Marine is asking for help in raising money to pay his bond.
“Rodger did not have anything to do with this murder,” Bobbi Gill, the wife of Rodger Gill said. Rodger Gill was arrested by Illinois authorities and turned over to the Onslow County Sheriff’s Department in January after a grand jury indicted him on first-degree murder charges in the death of William Miller 37 year ago.
“Rodger and I have been married for four years and he is a kind and caring man,” Bobbi Gill said
Rodger Gill’s co-defendants both received bonds in the hundreds of thousands but were able to put up property as collateral and have been out of jail for several months. An Onslow County judge set Gill’s bond at $200,000 — an amount his family said they cannot afford.
“It's with great sadness that I write this but, we are in need of financial assistant,” Bobbi Gill said last week in an e-mail to The Daily News.
She said it is not fair that her husband’s co-defendants get to make bail while Rodger Gill — who she said has cooperated in every way with law enforcement — is still locked up.
Gill was brought to the attention of cold case investigators when a former fiancée of his told Sheriff’s detectives last year that Gill was present on Western Boulevard in September 1972 when Miller was gunned down.
“Bill and I were friends,” Rodger Gill told The Daily News earlier this year in a statement passed along by his attorney, Bill Gerrans.
In the statement, Rodger Gill said he was stationed with Miller at Camp Lejeune and lived with Miller and Miller’s wife Vickie in their home.
Vickie Babbitt has also been charged in Miller’s death. Investigators believe Vickie helped another then-Marine George Hayden — a former Cape Carteret police chief — to lure Miller to his death.
Miller was shot in the back and head with an M-16, according to crime scene and medical reports.
Babbitt and Hayden attended Miller’s funeral together and were married four months after Miller’s death. They later divorced.
Babbitt and Hayden both passed polygraph tests administered by Naval Criminal Investigative Services concerning Miller’s death, according to information provided by the Navy Judge Advocate General’s Office.
Investigators claim Gill made incriminating statements during 2008 interviews that make him culpable in Miller’s death, said Dewey Hudson, the district attorney for the Fourth Prosecutorial District, which includes Onslow County.
“I did not shoot Bill Miller,” Rodger Gill said in his statement. “I was not involved in any plan or conspiracy to harm Bill Miller, nor did I participate in any such act. I have had no contact with Vickie Miller Hayden Babbitt or George Hayden in more than 35 years.”
Rodger Gill was arrested on the way out of an Illinois hospital after knee surgery.
“I have not received the rehabilitation treatment I needed for my knee,” Gill said. “I fear my knee may never heal.”
While in jail, Gill was bitten by a brown recluse spider and had to be hospitalized, according to family

THE GRIEF OF PARENTS IS A LIFETIME JOURNEY

2009-07-24T08:23:00.000-07:00

A parents grief is boundless. It touches every aspect as they grieve for the rest of their lives. Their grief becomes part of them...They live with an empty space.

Through my journey of telling Billy's story, I have encountered many many kind people, who share their prayers and stories. It opened me to the hurt and helplessness one feels when their loved ones are taken in horrible ways, by uncaring sociopaths. Even after the murder, the hurt that effects families, as the years go by, continues to grow.

One story that touched my heart was the senseless murder of beautiful Sara Smart. Her story was brought to my attention through the prayer group of Tommye Allen, a friend of the mother in law of Billy's daughter. Tommye's daughter was Sara's best friend.
Sara was murdered in Muskogee, Oklahoma by her stepfather, who placed her body in a 55 gal. barrel. The barrel was deposited in a pond which formerly belonged to the stepfather, they searched for her until a year later, her body was discovered . Her stepfather who had been in jail on other charges, was formally charged in Sara's murder on July 1 . The father of the victim (Sara) committed suicide as a result of grief last year, and Sara's brother died of an accidental drug overdose. Three deaths in less than two years in that family seems unbelievable, as I stated the list of people suffering from a senseless murder keeps growing. This family needs your prayers and Sara needs justice. The following are two links to the story, please keep her in your heart.
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=14&articleid=20090202_298_0_MSOEnt388777
http://s2.excoboard.com/exco/thread.php?forumid=124565&threadid=2046728

The second story that I found a connection to was of Denise Huber, her father Dennis, went to high school with me. After hearing about Billy, he contacted me and recounted the horrifying murder of his beautiful daughter Denise, who disappeared one evening after getting a flat tire. They searched for three years until her frozen body was found in a freezer at the killers house.
The horror these parents had to endure, there are no words to describe. Please pray for the families of these girls, there is no closure for them.
Denise received a long awaited justice, Sara has not.
http://articles.latimes.com/1997/sep/06/local/me-29351

WE WILL NOT JUST LET IT GO!

2009-06-16T16:48:00.000-07:00

Cold case/ unsolved murders is a national priority; and a national disgrace, the Bureau of Justice Statistics does not even keep track of the number. It is almost as though people do not want to know the scope of this problem.

Missing in action, as the numbers of unsolved murders have mounted into the tens of thousands has been the Justice Department. Not only is the issue of unsolved homicides missing from the list of top federal law enforcement priorities, funding for cold cases are cut back each year, until they are all but non existent.

As belonging to a family that has fought the system for 36 years, fighting for justice is next to impossible if you don’t have money, money is the name of the game. It opens doors, hires private detectives, hires excellent attorneys, but for the majority of cases, they are at the mercy of the justice systems, whose wheels turn slowly. Everyone with a loved one’s case sitting in cold case files, deserve to be heard, they will not go away! Pray for these people to find Justice for their loved one.

We are still fighting for justice, it amazes me that people want us to “just go away”, “get over it”, tell us we should” turn the other cheek”, I could go on and on, these statements hurt, this is not something we would wish for anyone to have to go through. I ask if it was your brother that was murdered by cowards, would you just get over it? On the other hand, I cannot thank the many many people, too many to count, that continue to give us encouragement with their prayers. It is comforting to know you are all out there behind us.

I totally understand the families of the suspects being in shock, they do not know that side of them, however, my brother did not shoot himself, and there is evidence that naturally is not going to be printed on the internet. A grand jury decided there was enough evidence to hold them for trial, and then a jury of their peers will decided their fate.

Attacking our family will not change the outcome; it will be in the jury’s hands and God Be with Us!

BOND

2009-05-19T14:35:00.000-07:00

Rodger Gill was granted bond, however, he was unable to meet the required amount for release, so will remain in custody.

George Hayden's attorney was released, he is now waiting for the State to appoint a new one.
George and Vickie continue to be free on bond.

FAMILIES DESERVE RIGHTS!

2009-05-18T14:21:00.000-07:00

As justice starts it’s slow journey, the emotional, physical, psychological and financial ramifications of a crime can be devastating to the family left to deal with the daily fight for justice.
While Criminals have a whole list of constitutional rights, victims are in most
cases left out in the cold. We ask, how can justice be obtained by hearing” the truth , the whole truth, and Nothing but the truth” when the families do not seem to be heard?
Every painful step of the way, it becomes evident that the families feature little in this process

The “whys’ and hows’ are withheld from the family, necessary so it seems, to safeguard the prosecution case.

There is so much to cope with, the investigation, the arrest, the court appearances and finally the trial.process.
As the trials start, the family has to sit in a courtroom and try to control their
emotions while they face the person accused of murdering their loved one, this is so the jury will not be swayed.. They have to be silent and endure the Defense Attorney tearing their loved one apart. They have to be patient while the Defense files again and again for court changes. When the accused is found guilty and the judge pronounces the sentence, it is not a true sentence, as the criminal becomes eligible for parole in one-half or one-third of the length of the sentence.

More resources need to be made available for all families of murder victims, In a perfect world, the victims have as many rights as the accused.

RODGER GILL'S ORIGINAL STATEMENT 6/5/1973

2009-04-30T16:13:00.000-07:00

CLICK ON THE IMAGE AND YOU WILL BE ABLE TO ENLARGE TO SEE BETTER

RODGER GILL STATMENT OF APRIL 21,2009

2009-04-21T20:27:00.000-07:00

Seeing the picture of the three suspects in the courtroom is a look at local justice from the inside and ouside. Out family will get what they have been waiting for all these years, JUSTICE.

In order to achieve JUSTICE, it is essential to know the truth, the truth is stronger than fiction and fiction is what is constantly coming out of their mouth, every time they open it.

Gill will have a bond hearing Monday, his attorney thinks his bond should be smaller, as he has few assets!!

RODGER GILL STATMENT OF APRIL 21,2009
I am Rodger Gill. I know William “Bill” Miller. Years ago, we in the same unit in the US Marines Corps. I shared quarters in the off base housing,with Bill, his, wife Vickie, and their little girl Wendy. Bill and I were friends.

I did not shoot Bill Miller. I was not involved in any plan or conspiracy to harm Bill Miller, nor did I participate in any such act.

I have had no contact with Vickie Miller Hayden Babbitt or George Hayden in more than 35 years. I do not understand why I am charged with these crimes. I was arrested as I was being released from the hospital for knee surgey. I have not received the rehabilitation treatment I needed for my knee. I fear my knee may never heal. This ordeal hurts me deeply.

I hope and pray that the Justice System in Onslow County, North Carolina is fair, as I am innocent of these charges. I did not harm Bill Miller in any way.

Yours Truly,
Rodger Gill

TRIO PLEADS NOT GUILTY

2009-04-21T16:48:00.000-07:00

All three co-defendants in the 1972 William Miller homicide case entered a plea of “not guilty” Monday during their arraignments - THIS IS A BIG SURPRISE!!

April 21, 2009 - 2:59 PM
LINDELL KAY
One by one, three co-defendants in the 1972 shooting death of a Camp Lejeune Marine entered pleas of "not guilty" during their arraignments Monday.
Rodger Gill, 56, George Hayden, 57, and Vickie Babbitt, 58, recently indicted on charges of first-degree murder and conspiracy in the death of Sgt. William Miller more than 36 years ago, each said they were innocent.
Investigators say Babbitt, now of Bend, Ore., and Miller were married at the time of Miller's death. Authorities say Hayden, now of Belhaven, moved in with Babbitt while Miller was deployed overseas. When Miller returned to Jacksonville in September 1972, he forcibly tossed Hayden out of his home and Babbitt went with him, according to court records.
Miller was found gunned down on Western Boulevard on Sept. 16, 1972. He had been shot once in the back and once in the head.
Investigators say Babbitt lured Miller to his death and that Gill, now of Athens, Ill., was present when Hayden - a former police chief in Carteret County - allegedly shot Miller with an M-16.
Gill's attorney, Kinston lawyer Bill Gerrans, provided The Daily News on Monday with a statement from his client.
In the statement, Gill says that he and Miller were friends and coworkers, and that Gill lived with him and Vickie in 1972.
"I did not shoot Bill Miller," Gill said in the statement. "I was not involved in any plan or conspiracy to harm Bill Miller, nor did I participate in any such act."
Gill said he has had no contact with Hayden or Babbitt in more than 35 years.
"I hope and pray that the justice system in Onslow County, North Carolina, is fair as I am innocent of these charges," Gill said in his statement. "I did not harm Bill Miller in any way."
Gill reentered the scope of local investigators after his fiancée, the babysitter of the Miller's toddler child in 1972, came forward and told authorities Gill was there the night Miller was killed. She later told The Daily News she felt she had gotten a dear friend in trouble.
Babbitt's sister-in-law, Jan Babbitt told reporters that she flew to Jacksonville to support her sister-in-law, who she believes is innocent. She described her sister-in-law as "confident and caring."
She said she wanted to see evidence in the case.
"So far, all it's been is talk and innuendo," she said.
All three defense lawyers have been sorting through the prosecution's evidence in the last week - more than 6,000 pages of documents, statements and electronic recordings.
Hayden and Babbitt have been released on bail. Gill is being held in the Onslow County Jail without bond. His attorney asked Onslow County Superior Court Judge Charles Henry to set Gill's bond low because his client does not own property for the court to hold in collateral.
Henry said he would make a decision by Monday.
State law precludes prosecutors from seeking the death penalty in the case since capital punishment had been declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court at the time of the homicide.

PROUD MILLER WOMAN

2009-04-12T14:54:00.000-07:00

I felt the need to post a response by brother David's wife Debbie. She had a hard time reading all of the responses to various posts on the Dateline blog, by people who get sidetracked by other non-essentials. They seem to miss the point about the message the story is telling. There were several negative remarks about the Dateline story, which is to be expected, people are entitled to their opinion, but then so are we.

Here is her response. I too am proud she is a Miller woman

I met my husband - Billy's brother - just about two weeks after he attended Billy's funeral. I never got to meet my brother-in-law, but I was a first-hand witness to the devastation his murder evoked. Through the years I have seen the scars left behind on all of the family members, especially the ones who had the privilege of knowing William Donald Miller. I know that "the devil is in the details," but I am greatly disappointed to see the number of people focussed on the name that appears on the tombstone at Arlington National Cemetary. There is a very simple explanation ... William Donald Miller (Wendy's father) was named after his father, William Kenneth Miller (Wendy's grandfather). She visited both grave sites - not such a bizarre behavior for someone trying to re-establish her relationship with her father's family. What I do find bizarre is that so many would miss the point ... there is a grave that contains the body of Wendy's, Tammy's, and Kim's father, who was stolen from their lives by a murderer.

As for Keith Morrison's questions ... There were litterally hours of interview time. I believe he knew the answer to that question before it was posed to the girls. He simply tried to lead them into telling the viewing public - in their own words - why it is important to them. This story was about the grief of three daughters and a sister that have waited 36 years to see someone brought to trial ... and the story is not over. There are three trials coming soon in which the accused murderers will have the opportunity to present a defense. Maybe at that time a story could be done about those accused of the murder. Until then, I am very proud of the way the Miller women told their side of the story. I applaud Wendy for holding up under the pressure of knowing that her mother ... the mother that she grew up loving and trusting ... is accused of murdering her father.

I am impressed by a young woman who had the courage to tell her newly discovered sister the story of their father's murder. And, I am amazed at the tenacity of a woman that spent 36 years following every avenue she could locate to keep open the investigation that would lead to an arrest of the suspect(s) that robbed her (and the rest of her family) of the brother she loved.I only married into this family, but I am proud to be a Miller woman!

TWO INDICTED BY GRAND JURY

2009-04-08T07:25:00.001-07:00

Two indicted in 1972 slaying
April 7, 2009 - 3:01 PM
LINDELL KAY
An Onslow County Grand Jury indicted a former police chief and his ex-wife Tuesday on a charge of murder in the 1972 shooting death of a Camp Lejeune Marine.

George Hayden, 57, of Belhaven, and Vickie Babbitt, 58, of Bend, Ore., were indicted on charges of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the death of Sgt. William Miller.

Another suspect, Rodger Gill, 56, of Athens, Ill., was indicted on murder charges in Miller's death in January and extradited to North Carolina last month.

"The next step is an admin session of Onslow County Superior Court scheduled for April 20," said Chief Assistant District Attorney Ernie Lee.

During that hearing, attorneys will address discovery - the process in which the prosecution turns over copies of all its evidence in a case to the defense - and set a date for an arraignment where the defendants will enter their pleas to the court.

Babbitt's attorney, Jacksonville lawyer Scott Jack said now that his client had been indicted, he was anticipating the discovery phase.

"I look forward to seeing some evidence," he said. Jack had previously voiced his concerns in open court that the prosecution's only evidence against Babbitt was a statement made by Gill 36 years after Miller's death.

Jack told The Daily News on Tuesday that his client had no involvement in Miller's death.

"Vickie Babbitt is innocent of the charges against her," Jack said. "She was interviewed extensively by agents from the Naval (Criminal) Investigative Service in 1972 and willingly took and passed a polygraph administered by NCIS agents."

Babbitt still mourns Miller's passing, Jack said.

Miller and Babbitt were married at the time of Miller's death. She later married and divorced Hayden.

Hayden and Babbitt have been released on bail. Gill remains in the Onslow County Jail without bond. All three suspects are former Marines.

Hayden and Babbitt allegedly began a relationship while Miller was on assignment overseas and the three had a falling out when Miller returned in September 1972. Miller kicked Hayden out of his home and Babbitt went with him, according to court records.

Witnesses gave statements at the time that Hayden said he would get revenge on Miller, according to information from the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General's Office.

Prosecutors said Miller contacted a lawyer and began building a case against Hayden and Babbitt for running up his credit while he was deployed.

Authorities say Babbitt lured Miller into an ambush on what was then a secluded area of Western Boulevard and Hayden shot him in the head and the back with an M-16.

Authorities found Miller's car on the shoulder of the road with the engine running, the lights on, a blinker clicking, and a half-cocked pistol on the seat, according to a Daily News archived report.

Gill, a Marine at the time, was allegedly at the scene. Authorities first considered him a witness when they learned last year of his supposed involvement.

"After examining all the evidence and reviewing the applicable laws, I decided he should be charged also," said Dewey Hudson, the district attorney for the 4th Prosecutorial District, which includes Onslow County.

Gill was engaged to the babysitter of Millers' infant daughter in 1972. The babysitter, Bonnie Sharpe, told detectives Gill had witnessed the shooting. She said she came forward after 36 years of silence when she read an article in the Aug. 10, 2008, edition of The Daily News about the unsolved homicide.

I BELIEVE IN ANGELS!

2009-04-01T13:53:00.000-07:00

As anyone who knows me or saw the Dateline story, with out a doubt, know that I believe in Angels! They have guided my life since I can remember, watching out for me and my family.

I always ask them to surround the plane when I fly, because I don't like flying. They whispered in my ear it was time to again pursue justice for Billy. They guided me to Lindell Kay and again when two arrests were made three weeks after I contacted him and one week before the Anniversary of Billy's death. They will be there during our three trials to see that justice is carried out. They guide my life and comfort me in so many ways daily!

THE STORY OF ANGELS

"Angel" in Biblical Hebrew is mal'ak . Its main meaning is "messenger".

For thousands of years people have looked up in the hope of seeing an Angel. In times of strife or confusion people have always looked to the Angels for comfort and reassurance. Children's bedtime prayers ask the Angels to watch over them. These celestial messengers of Peace & Love remind us that there is always hope. The Angels Michael, Gabriel and Moroni are familiar to man, but there is an increasing interest in Angels that bring Special Blessings. Angels are positive affirmations of faith and enhance the power of prayer. Many doctors have begun to recognize the healing power of prayer and are prescribing it as part of their patients treatment. Angels are a wonderful way to support a Loved One's recovery. They are celestial beings who are constantly in God’s presence.

Each of us has an invisible Guardian Angel who watches over us and intervenes in the nick of time. Many Miracles have been attributed to these celestial beings. Many people have become Angel Collectors and are always looking for that special Angel piece. You can never have too many Angels around you!
As we enter the second Millennium, more and more people are reporting contact with Angels. Not since the Middle Ages has there been such an outpouring affection for these heavenly beings.

GILL AWAITING BOND HEARING

2009-03-30T14:08:00.000-07:00

By GREG KATSKI Staff Writer-Washington Daily News
March 29, 2009

The third suspect in the 1972 shooting death of former Marine Corps Sgt. William "Billy" Miller was placed in the Onslow County Detention Center on Thursday night by investigators with the Onslow County Sheriff's Office, according to Cpt. Rick Sutherland with the department. Rodger Gill, 56, of Athens, Ill., had been contesting his extradition to North Carolina while being held at the Vermilion (Ill.) County Jail. He was arrested by Danville, Ill. police Jan. 16 at the Veterans Affairs Illiana Health Care System and charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the death of Miller.

Former Belhaven police chief George Hayden was arrested at his home near Belhaven in September and charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. Days later, Miller's ex-wife, Vickie Babbitt was arrested in Bend, Ore. and received the same charges. The two suspects were held in the Onslow County Detention Center before posting bail late last year. Hayden, Babbitt, Miller and Gill were all enlisted in the Marine Corps and stationed at Camp Lejune at the time of Miller's death. While Miller was stationed abroad, Hayden and Babbitt allegedly began dating. When Miller returned from assignment in September 1972, he found Hayden living at his house with Babbitt. Miller kicked out Hayden and Babbitt, who took her and Miller's 1-year-old daughter. Miller and Babbitt separated shortly thereafter. A custody battle over the couple's daughter ensued. In the midst of the dispute, authorities say Babbitt set Miller up to be ambushed by Hayden on a country road in Jacksonville.

Gill was allegedly at the scene when Hayden shot Miller in the head and back with an M-16. He was originally considered an eyewitness, but Onslow County District Attorney Dewey Hudson said he found enough evidence to charge Gill. Gill made his first appearance in Onslow County Superior Court on Friday, and was told his rights and probable cause for the arrest, said Onslow County Assistant District Attorney Mike Maultsby. Maultsby said that Gill's attorney has yet to file for a bond hearing."But I would expect him to file a motion soon," he said.

MAN ACCUSED IN COLD CASE LOSES EXTRADITION FIGHT

2009-03-25T15:33:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: RODGER GILL IS NOW IN ONSLOW COUNTY, HE WILL APPEAR IN COURT TODAY MARCH 27, 2009!! HORRAY FOR SHERIFF BROWN AND NCIS,
THANK YOU LORD!!

March 25, 2009 - 11:41 AM
LINDELL KAY
A former Marine has lost his fight against extradition and will be returned to Onslow County to stand trial for murder in connection to a 1972 shooting.
Rodger Gill, 56, of Athens, Ill., was indicted in January by an Onslow County grand jury for first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the homicide of Marine Sgt. William Miller, who was shot on Western Boulevard more than three decades ago.
A Vermilion County, Ill., Circuit Court judge ruled Tuesday that Gill should be "returned to North Carolina as soon as is practical," according Illinois court records.
A court clerk there told The Daily News by phone Wednesday that Gill is ready to go and will be turned over to North Carolina authorities as soon as arrangements are made.
Vermilion County State's Attorney Randy Brinegar said he filed a governor's warrant that expedited Gill's return to North Carolina.
Gill has been in jail in Danville, Ill., under a $5 million bond since his arrest in January.
The Capital Defenders Office in Raleigh has temporarily assigned Kinston attorney Bill Gerrans to represent Gill until it is established whether he will retain a lawyer or have the court appoint him one.
When Gill is returned he will be arraigned and his attorney situation will be determined, said Dewey Hudson, the district attorney for the 4th Prosecutorial District, which includes Onslow County.
"Then we will see where we go from there, but getting Mr. Gill back to North Carolina will obviously speed up the court process," Hudson said.
He said he expects the Onslow County Sheriff's Department to travel to Illinois and bring Gill back with a week.
Gill was the third former Marine charged in Miller's homicide.
Former Cape Carteret police chief George Hayden and Bend, Ore., resident Vickie Babbitt were charged in September by the Onslow County Sheriff's Department with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in Miller's death.
Miller and Babbitt were married at the time of the crime. She later married and divorced Hayden.
Investigators say Babbitt lured Miller into a Western Boulevard ambush where Hayden shot Miller in the head and the back with an M-16 assault rifle.
Gill was engaged Bonnie Sharpe at the time. She was the babysitter of the Millers' infant daughter in 1972.
She told Sheriff's detectives in 2008 that Gill had witnessed the shooting. She said she came forward after 36 years of silence when she read an article in the Aug. 10, 2008, edition of The Daily News about the unsolved homicide.
Gill told investigators "he was at the crime scene when Vickie Miller flagged William Miller down on Western Boulevard and when George Hayden ambushed and shot William Miller with a rifle," according to a probable cause affidavit.
Authorities first considered Gill a witness when they learned last year of his supposed involvement.
"After examining all the evidence and reviewing the applicable laws, I decided he should be charged also," Hudson said in January.
Hayden and Babbitt have been released on bond. Prosecutors expect to present their cases to a grand jury in early April.

NEPHEW KENNETH MCNAY WANTS JUSTICE

2009-03-16T13:44:00.000-07:00

We must treasure and honor the memories of the dead. We must tell their stories and make sure they are not forgotten. We must keep close to our hearts, the memories we have . We must tell the children stories of our loved one. The path of grief is difficult and lonely. It is not easy to know what to do or how to do it, we all stumble down that path in our own way. As I mentioned previously, the loss of Billy has affected so many lives, it has brought his memory
into the lives of our children who did not have the honor of knowing Billy, but regardless still
feel the sting of his loss.
Sister Georgia's son Kenneth, was just six years old at the time of his death, he does not remember him, but strongly voices his feelings for justice, upon viewing Dateline's story.
he remarked--

I thought Kimberly, Tamara, Wendy and my Aunt Sharron did an outstanding job being interviewed. I never met my Uncle Billy, I was just 6 when he died. My mother told me what she knew about his death a long time ago. It angered me knowing it was unsolved and suspicious in nature, and not having the closure to the obvious answer why made it worse. It now seems he was killed because someone wanted revenge for the beating he received for stealing my Uncle's family and his money, and his own wife was a more than willing accomplice. And to think this individual was allowed to become a chief of police? Oh what sick pride these two must have had, needing his blood to satisfy their wounded egos. The saddest part of the story is all the families whom this act effected, and how my Uncle could receive the honor of Arlington National Cemetery for serving his country, but couldn't receive the help his case needed until 36 years later, and only then because of the love of his sister who couldn't accept the case staying closed.

I got angry all over again watching Dateline, and It was hard to edit my words for the blog I responded to, but until the case is brought to court I didn't want to express all that ugliness that I feel towards his killers. I don't even like using their names. How the military could have dropped the ball on his case is regrettable. It seems ridiculous, to think that a case like this would go unsolved today, with just the circumstantial evidence alone. ,I didn't even know an M - 16 was used in the crime until I recently read it, there had to have been a short list of people, even back then, who would have access to that weapon, and how that was overlooked or thrown away I'll never understand. Her calling him to meet her prior to his murder should have sealed it as well.

I hate to think they are clever enough to have killed him and concealed it, that's why I feel the ball was dropped because these people are no brain surgeons. Billy kicked his ass, and for good reason, and G couldn't live with that so he wanted Billy dead. The other stuff about the money and Child custody was in my opinion secondary, and only thought of after he had already made his mind up to kill Billy. Coward!

The police chief thing shows he likes having power and control over people, and that he presumably took great pains to make sure this never came back to haunt him. Given his background, I'm at a lost how he even got the job being a prime murder suspect. The whole thing disgusts me.

I was so proud of you and my cousins, it takes some nerve letting the world come into your life I'm sure.

COULD IT REALLY BE A GOOD OL'E BOY'S COUNTRY?

2009-03-13T09:14:00.000-07:00

This article was brought to my attention and I was so amazed that I had to contact Ryn to ask her permission to print it. It was as if the words poured out of my mouth, her speculations were right on the money. We need people like her in our corner, the "Good ol'e boy country was certainly in full gear the night of September 16, 1972.

Hayden's Cold Case Hayday
January 04, 2009 by
Ryn Riddle

Setting Bond for Police Chief George Hayden in Jacksonville, NC the Alleged Murderer of Sgt. William Donald Miller
Could it really be a good ole boy's county?

I enjoy reading the Sunday paper, sitting on my couch with a warm cup of coffee in my hand. I enjoy the conversations my husband and I have together. Also, I particularly like when they become a discussion or debate - unfortunately for my husband I became enraged with
one newly solved cold case file.

Back in August of 2008 our local paper The Jacksonville Daily News, ran an article about a young girl who's father was murdered when she was one year old. I was saddened reading her poor story of growing up without her real father. I too grew up without my biological father as he was hit by a train when I was two years old. So I related to everything this poor girl was saying about missing her father. Her fathers body was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery, see her father was a United States Marine.

Now if you have read any of my poems or articles you will know I am married to a United States Marine and believe me when I tell you the military is always close to my heart. The veterans that fought before my time, as well as the active duty of today. So when I am reading this article I find out the victim was a US Marine and he was shot down in cold blood my heart starts hurting. His body being found on a deserted road, - being shot in the back and in the head. Tears started flowing down my cheek while visions of this body were created in my head. Laying in the dirt, alone on a September evening. I wondered did he suffer, did he try to get back to his car? I have a great imagination and my mind really ran with this thirty six year old cold case event.

One month later a breaking news story Former police chief charged in 1972 homicide. What? A Police chief? And then the story thickens. Back in 1972 our victim who was active duty and married to a Marine, they both were stationed here at Camp LeJeune, NC. Our victim "Miller" returned from a deployment in Okinawa only to find his best friend (also an active duty marine) had moved in with his wife while he was deployed. Could you imagine the heart break? Your best friend moving in with your wife and family while you are deployed? I don't' know who to despise the most... the wife or the best friend... both were "Brothers in Arms". What happen to Semper Fi? Always Faithful?

Of course Miller did the correct thing - he kicked his best friend out of his house - amazingly his wife followed her new lover out the door. One month later our victim, a father of three, a United States Marine was found dead. NCIS and Jacksonville Police Department worked the case and had some leads like: Millers body was found shot in the head and back on Western Boulevard, about an hour after he was scheduled to meet with his wife, according to investigative reports. Hmm... something sounds fishy on the home-front however nothing was ever proven and the case went unsolved for 36 years. The little girls' lives where changed for 36 years.

The widowed wife was held up at the funeral by the best friend/lover - doesn't that just disgust you? Millers poor family - what did his Mom think watching the mother of her granddaughter fall and being picked up by the lover/ ex-friend? Little did the family know another shocker was just four months after Millers death. The widow Babbitt and the best friend Hayden were married.

Due to this love triangle the Sheriff's Department, the SBI, the Marine Corps and NCIS investigated the Hayden's for more than a year before Miller's homicide case turned cold. Investigators at the time could not find enough substantial evidence to arrest Hayden, according to the JAG letter. Amazingly when this cold case article was published in the paper – someone’s heart also broke - a witness to the crime.

News crews went crazy and my heart sank even deeper. Hayden (the lover) retired from the military after 20 years of service. He worked as a reserve officer for the Cape Carteret Police Department beginning in 1985 and joined the Carteret County Sheriff's Department shortly after retiring. He returned to Cape Carteret in 1994, all according to Daily News archived reports. Hayden joined the Belhaven Police Department in May 2001. He was fired as police chief in March of this year after an accusation he had been insubordinate to the town's manager, according to WITN-TV.

Here is a man, who for more than a year, was under suspicion for murder and he goes on to finish his career as a US Marine and then later become a Police Chief? What kind of world are we living in? Didn't anyone check the records before nominating Hayden to the position? Doesn't anyone do research any more? If you found out a man running for Police Chief had been investigated for over a year as a main suspect in a murder case would you elect him chief of police? Even if there wasn't enough evidence to convict Hayden, would you want him on your police force?

At this point in the cold case I am floored until the next day when I read: Miller's wife at the time of his death, Vickie Miller Hayden Babbitt, is expected to be arrested by Sheriff's Capt. Rick Sutherland and Naval Criminal Investigative Services Special Agent Dan Calin later today, said Onslow County Sheriff Ed Brown. She also will be charged with murder and conspiracy to commit murder, I knew it!! I knew she was involved. Grieving widow my butt!

WOW!! My heart is elated, they both got what they deserved, locked up - throw away the key. Finally!!! These two took a life needlessly - left a human being they knew and I assumed loved at some point in time to die in the dirt and then they walk around free for 36 years. Good Job CSI. The judge felt the nudge in his heart as well and stated bail was denied. Yes!!! My head is screaming inside, Yes Yes Yes, lock them up and throw away the key. Hurry let's get this trial over with and give them both a life sentence.

No,,, here comes another wrench... Former Cape Carteret and Belhaven Police Chief George Hayden, 57, of Portside Lane in Belhaven, was released on a $350,000 bond Nov. 7 What?? Excuse me? Why?? How?? I am fuming. I am ranting to my husband, I am calling my mother up long distance and hollering about the injustice and I even went so far to bring it up at the family reunion during Thanksgiving. My husband is so tired of hearing about this subject. I continue to fight for the Good Ole Boy rules coming into play. You know someone knew someone and then said - "Let him out" Let him spend a few more months with his family - if we put his house and his grandchildren's house up he won't skip, he is a good guy and will not leave his grandchildren high and dry. How do you know? He left Millers daughter high and dry without her real father. He didn't give Miller a chance to spend the rest of his life with his family - so why should we let him out on bail?? Because he is not a flight risk, we took his passport.

What do you think he could do in 3 months time in the computer age that he couldn't do in one night back in 1972? Then my voice raised and my husbands eyebrows raises at the same time. Now I am pacing in my living room - outraged - why let him bail out? Then ** poof ** the answers is right before me - its a good ole boys network. We live in a town full of retired military members and somehow we never grew out of the Good Ole Boy syndrome? Ohh give me a break.

He's running y'all - bet me - he is leaving - he is plotting - he will not stay here. Heck he doesn't even have to give up his own computer - you know he is plotting for another passport. I am amazed at our local Judge in our town of Jacksonville, NC. How could he do this to our community? To Millers daughter? What about the witness's safety? I thought this only happened on TV - guess I was wrong.

SEMPER FIDELIS "ALWAYS FAITHFUL"

2009-03-06T14:27:00.000-08:00

About week ago I was watching the HBO movie “Taking Chance”with Kevin Bacon. About a Marine officer who volunteered to escort a fallen marine home.

This on my part was not a good idea as I got pretty teary eyed. As I am watching this movie, my mind goes back 36 years , preparing for the departure to my brothers funeral. I see the caring respectful way the military morgue handles the body, preparing for their final resting place, making sure the dress Blues are perfect and all ribbons in place. As the departure begins, my mind goes back to our family at the airport, preparing to leave for Washington DC. As we were flying, the airplane was cold, I remember thinking is Billy on a plane about the same time, and is he cold also, is any one with him? The movie answered a lot of my questions after all these years.

The body is never alone, it is always treated with respect and dignity. As we arrived in Washington the day before the burial, it was one of the saddest days of our lives. Brother David was in horrible shape, not only had he lost his brother, but a few months earlier he lost his beloved infant daughter to a crib death. We were a sad lost bunch.

As we left for Arlington National Cemetery where my father is buried, we wondered what lay ahead. We watched as the wagon carried his flag draped casket, as it was removed and taken to it's resting place, the gun salute, it was all a blur, something out of a horror movie, not believing but forever burned into our memory.

After seeing this movie which was very moving and informative, I am at ease knowing my

brother was in the good hands of a loving Marine brother. For anyone who has lost a loved one in the military, this movie will put you at ease, as far as respect shown your loved one.

As stated below by a Marine brother: " Bill will always be my Marine Brother,......that is the creed and it is comforting to those of us left " Semper Fidelis

MEMORIES OF BILLY

2009-03-05T07:53:00.000-08:00

THE SIX LITTLE MILLERS

Lindell Kay Closer Look, Cold Cases Saturday, February 28th, 2009

I felt it necessary to post Lindell's responses to questions of what Billy as a brother or Billy as a dad meant to those who love and miss him. Dateline did a wonderful job of telling the story leading up to his death. These are from the heart memories of Billy the man he was, who also had five siblings. The following responses voice my own.

Throughout my work on this case, I have gathered statements from various members of Marine Sgt. William Miller’s family. This in thier own words, is what Bill Miller meant to them.

Georgia, Billy’s sister:

The most important thing for people to know is that Billy was loved very much: as a son, as a brother, as a father and as a friend. He was third in a family of six and we were always referred to as the “six little Millers.” We didn’t have much in the way of material possessions, but were loved and always had enough food on the table.

Billy loved life, loved animals and loved his family. He was so proud to become a Marine because my father was a Marine. Billy served his time during the Vietnam era, which was a horrible time for my family as well as the country. My brother was killed before he had a chance to live his life and the people responsible for his death have gone all this time without being held accountable.

My mother was so heartbroken. She died without justice being done for her son, but hopefully the rest of us will get that opportunity.

————————————————–

Wendy Miller-McGee, Billy’s daughter:

My father means the world to me. I was a year old when my father was murdered. I never knew that I had two sisters until I was 16 years old. I never got to know my dad’s side of the family and only got to meet my grandmother once in my life. That was due to the fact that my mother kept me from them, did not let them know where they were living and did not tell me anything about my father.

I only finally found about my father’s family because I found an old letter with my grandmother’s name on it. The last time I was at my father’s grave I was 8 years old. Ever since then I have always wanted to go back, especially now that I have children of my own. When my husband Dave told me we were going to Washington, D.C., on a trip I was so excited and could not wait. When we finally made it to my father’s grave I could not stop crying, it meant the world to me to be there with my husband and daughter. I really wished that my son, William, could have been there as well.

As I was growing up I have always wondered about my father and I never dreamed in a million years that I had two sisters as well.

I have lost a lot because my father was murdered. It breaks my heart that I never got to know my father, and he never got to meet his grandchildren. My heart breaks every time I think of what my father and I have missed out on.

What kind of father would he have been? Was he funny? What kind of person would I be today if I had the chance to grow up with my father. What kind of grandfather would he be? Would he be proud of me? So many questions that cannot be answered because my father was taken away from me. He will always be my hero!

—————————————————

Tamara, Billy’s daughter:

I just wanted to send a short note letting you know how thankful I am to you for taking an interest my father’s murder. My aunt Sharron and sister Wendy sent me the article you wrote and it moved me to tears.

I too had to grow up wondering what it would be like to have a father. My life, I believe, will be complete if the murderers are put where they belong.

————————————————–

Bonnie, Billy’s sister:

Billy was my older brother. I was next to the youngest, so he helped look after me. He was always kind to me and I was so fortunate to see him twice just before he was murdered

Billy actually saved my life when I was in 8th grade. We were swimming in the ocean in New Hampshire and I got caught in the undertow and it started to sweep me out to sea. Billy pulled me out of the water and saved my life.

To see this brought to justice would be so wonderful, and I think personally that the souls of those who killed Billy would come to peace.

————————————————————-

Kimberly, Billy’s daughter:

I am the eldest of his three girls and sadly I have only one living memory of him because he and my mother divorced when I was only 2. Because he remarried to Wendy’s mother and deployed so much in Vietnam he was only able to come to Wisconsin for one visit before he was murdered, I was just 6.

I too have had to grow up with old photos and old stories in place of a father I never got to know.

I too grew up wondering what life would have been like if he had been around (even as a divorced father, with visits and phone calls, etc.). Would I be a different person? What fatherly advice would he have given me? Would he have cheered at my college graduation? Would he have cried giving me away at my wedding? Would he be proud of who I’ve become?

I wonder too about my kids - two more in a total of eight grandchildren Billy never got to see - and whether he’d be proud of them. It never ceases to amaze me just how deep the death of one family member can cut and how long. My own children (aged 7 and 11) sense the loss of someone they know should have been in their lives. They are always asking me to tell stories about the grandpa they never got to know … except I don’t have any to share with them because I was robbed of my own life with him. Family members have told me how much my 7-year-old son looks like Billy and how he seems to have the same high-energy, sense of humor, and untamed spirit that my father had.

It’s hard to write this without crying a bit and you may wonder how someone who doesn’t remember their father could come to tears so quickly at the thought of him, but when you have to grow up with questions in place of a father - instead of having memories to comfort yourself with, every new experience in life bring up another long list of unanswered questions, what-if’s, and if-only’s that never seems to end.

A PERSONAL THANKS FOR SUPPORT

2009-03-03T14:33:00.000-08:00

I wanted to personally thank everyone, who wrote with encouraging coments and offers of prayers for justice. You continue to amaze me, it brings me to my knees, to feel the love and support for my family, I cannot thank you enough. I also wanted to thank Dateline, Vince, Keith Morrison and everyone associated with bringing Billy's story to millions of people, they did an awesome job.
Those angels are working overtime!
The following is one comment that especially touched my heart. It is important to me because it comes from a brother Marine, which was Billy's great love.

I am a Vietnam Marine whom served in “I Corps, ” like your brother William; I may have even served with him on operations? He is lucky to have a resolute family that refuses to let him be swept away in time. No one left behind! We Marines are tied together by a strong brotherhood that never dies; the coward, whom hid in ambush for William, is indeed a coward and no longer can bear the title of Marine; He relinquished that title the day he plotted to cut down a brother of our beloved Corps~! I was forced to retire from the Corps due to wounds 67/68 and had a loving wife and family to bring me fully home. Our prayers are with your family and we pray that after these many years, justice will prevail and that inner peace and a sense of closure will come to all of you. Our Marine families know more than others on how to tend to the wounds that bind us all together. You have brought your brother to many people and forever touched our lives; You have shown him to be an honorable father trying to keep his family together by going into harms way. God rest his soul! May peace and a sense of closure find you all! Semper fi, Well done!

Bill will always be my Marine Brother,......that is the creed and it is comforting to those of us left behind;
William had honor and that is something his killers wouldn't even know to spell! I bet he is still standing watch over all of you and his pride in your initiative sustains him.
Peace and Solidarity,

DATELINE IS AIRING FRIDAY FEBRUARY 27

2009-02-23T16:14:00.000-08:00

OUR LONG AWAITED AIRING IS FRIDAY FEBRUARY 27TH, EVERYONE BE SURE TO WATCH, WOULD LOVE TO HAVE FEEDBACK. DATELINE DID THIS STORY WITH DIGNITY AND RESPECT AND I THANK VINCE STURLA FOR ALL HIS HELP AND ENCOURAGEMENT.

OUR FAVORITE REPORTER {AKA OUR ANGEL} RECEIVED A HIGHLY DESERVED RECOGNITION

2009-02-15T16:03:00.000-08:00

Lindell stated on his blog, the following:
"I won 2nd Place in the state in the investigative reporting category for my work on the William Miller homicide. Am I proud of that, you damn right I am!
At the first of the week, I will be posting a collection of stories and memories about Bill Miller from his sisters and daughters. If it doesn’t tear you up, I’d be worried about it"

What wonderful news, of course we all think he was cheated and should have won 1st place!!
I am so happy for him and his family, he is so dedicated to his reporting and so deserving of the award.
What more can I say, that I have not already said about this kind caring person. Before the story on Billy is ended, this reporter will have won first place on this memorizing crime case.
Congradulations Lindell.

A LITTLE BRAGGING ABOUT OUR FAMILY

2009-01-31T10:11:00.000-08:00

Tamara and Kimerly with Keith Morrison of Dateline,
which incidentally wrapped up filming on Friday the 29th, as we look forward to
air time hopefully in March, the story continues….

This picture makes me ponder about how all this has changed the lives of so many involved, directly or indirectly. We all want justice and we are certainly ALL becoming impatient.
I can’t help but know how proud Billy is of his three daughters, in spite of terrible odds, they have turned out to be beautiful strong women.
Aunt Sharron is like a mother hen with them and know how, against the odds, they have struggled to survive and make their way, without their dad. Wendy in a complicated life created by her mother, has blossomed into a beautiful flower. Despite the odds of a teenage marriage, to husband Dave, who by the way, has given Wendy positive support, they have held fast and just celebrated their 20th anniversary, I am so proud of them. Son William named after his grandfather and daughter Ashley, two children who would make any parent proud.
Then there are Tamara and Kimberly, which in addition to being without their dad , lost their mother too early to a horrible illness.
These girls now have children of their own, Tamara has husband Chad, who is a gem,
he is what husbands are all about. She has son Tyler, daughter kennede and twin
daughters Karsyn and Camryn, almost like triplets, as they are a year younger than Kennede. Kimberly and her children Alex and Marlee, darling loving additions to the Miller Family.
I look at how our family has grown; the “Six Little Millers” are now five, children and grandchildren have been added to this bunch, we have stayed a close family with love and respect. We have all gone our separate ways and are spread throughout the United States, but our hearts are strong and we stay close thanks to this new thing called “the internet”. .
I look at my two beautiful daughters Dee Dee and Dawn, my grandchildren Jayna and
Derek and devoted son-in-law Steve. I am blessed and could not be more proud, I certainly did something right in my life! Finding my loving husband Jay was frosting on the cake.

My other nieces and nephews and their families are growing leaps and bounds, Brother Charley and nephew Ian who proudly serves in Afghanistan and who is scheduled to return soon (thank God) and his beautiful daughter Ellen. Brother David, wife Debbie and daughter Rebecca and now a new Grandchild little Charley, what a gift he is!
Sister Georgia and her better half, another Jay, he has to be okay in my book. What a great family they have, daughter Valerie and husband Yves, with grandchildren Emily, my mothers namesake and Livia and Nathan. Son Kenneth and wife Lisa with sons Glynn and Willem. My sister is so blessed she has all her family so close, but then they all have a gem in Georgia.
And last but not least my dear sister Bonnie and husband Dean, she has been
my rock, we are so alike. Her daughter Kristin, who is my third “daughter” she is so appreciated.! She has daughter Sherae and son Christopher. Their son Father Dean
is a Catholic Priest and a more loving sincere person would be hard to find, I admire his faith.
Well, there it is, the entire cast of the Miller family. As I stated previously, we are one
tough bunch, we give each other love and support and are the extended voices for
Billy and yes, you can tell how proud I am of all of them!

NOW WE COME FULL CIRCLE

2009-01-23T09:15:00.000-08:00

We now see a picture of this man who witnessed a horrible murder and did nothing and I use the word MAN loosely. In his own words, he saw Vickie flag Billy down and George shoot him, what was his part in this whole set up? Through all of my years of trying to get information as to this act and running into brick walls, I now know what a farce the investigation was back then. Why was Gill not a person of interest? Why was the babysitter and her parents not interviewed? Why was the fact that both George and Vickie not having an alibi and statements that did not mesh looked into more thoroughly? How did a person of interst become a police chief?

Here I go again-- that will all come out, I am just thankful that this time around, Bonnie came forward, that NCIS and Sheriff Brown and his detectives worked together for the purpose of putting this to rest. I might add, wonderful police strategy! Then the fact that Lindell Kay took this story and ran with it. Now we have come full circle with the help of the above mentioned.

Billy's day is close and I long for a date to finally look these cowards in the face. "God is Good" As an added bonus, people have come out of the wood work to support us. Niki of "Juror Thirteen.", who has encouraged me and keeps the story up to date. Greg Katski of " Washington Daily News," who has taken the story to heart and keeps submitting wonderful articles because he cares about justice. And of course I cannot forget "Someone close but not so close anymore" This person knows with insight to the character of Vickie, they have been a staunch supporter of the Miller Family and I appreciate it. Justice4All ,you go--you are tireless, in your blog support for justice. I am going on and on-- I appreciate you all and thank you!

THE THIRD PIECE OF THE PUZZLE IS NO LONGER FREE!

2009-01-22T16:19:00.000-08:00

Man arrested in Danville fights extradition to North Carolina
By Tracy Moss
Thursday, January 22, 2009 7:03 AM CDT
DANVILLE – Law enforcement officials in North Carolina are seeking a governor's warrant for an Athens, Ill., man who's fighting extradition after he was arrested last week in Vermilion County on murder charges in a 36-year-old case.
Rodger A. Gill, 56, was arrested Friday at Veterans Affairs Illiana Health Care System in Danville on the out-of-state murder charges and was arraigned Tuesday in Vermilion County Circuit Court on a charge of being a fugitive from justice.

The Illinois charge allows authorities to hold him while the extradition process takes place.
Gill lives in Athens, a small town northwest of Springfield, but last week was undergoing a procedure at the Danville hospital when he was arrested by Danville police on the North Carolina murder warrant.
The warrant was issued last week by an Onslow County, N.C., superior court judge for Gill's alleged involvement in the 1972 shooting death of William Miller, a Marine sergeant who was stationed near Jacksonville, N.C., at Camp Lejeune in 1972.
The 36-year-old case broke open last year when Gill's former fiancee told North Carolina law enforcement officials that Gill had witnessed Mr. Miller's shooting death. The former fiancee's tip was prompted by a news story in the Jacksonville, N.C., area, highlighting local cold cases.
In 1972, Mr. Miller, a Marine sergeant who had just returned from a tour of duty overseas, was found shot in the back and the head along a road near Camp Lejeune. Mr. Miller's wife, Vickie Babbitt, who now lives in Bend, Ore., was questioned in the case but never arrested. The couple had a toddler daughter at the time, and her babysitter was Gill's fiancee.
When the case broke last summer, Capt. Rick Sutherland with the Onslow County sheriff's department, and another investigator traveled to Athens to question Gill.
Babbitt was questioned again in the case and investigators also questioned George Hayden of Cape Carteret, N.C., a former Marine who married Babbitt after Mr. Miller's death. Babbitt and Hayden later divorced.
After the renewed investigation was complete, Sutherland said, the information was turned over to the Onslow County district attorney's office, which then charged Babbitt and Hayden with Mr. Miller's murder. That was in October.
Then a few weeks ago, Sutherland said, an Onslow County grand jury also indicted Gill in the case on charges of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
Sutherland said he and another investigator returned to Athens last week to carry out the warrant for Gill's arrest on the indictment and learned that he was receiving medical treatment in Danville. They traveled to Danville and with assistance from Danville police and VA police arrested Gill.
Vermilion County Sheriff Pat Hartshorn said North Carolina law enforcement officials will apply to the Illinois governor's office for a governor's warrant that would be served on Gill, demanding that he be sent to North Carolina to face the charges against him.
Sutherland expects Gill, who's being held at the Vermilion County Jail on a $5 million bond, to be in North Carolina in a matter of weeks to face the charges

THIRD ARREST BRINGS US CLOSER TO JUSTICE

2009-01-19T07:13:00.000-08:00

Well, Well! the story continues, the fact of the matter is, Rodger has admitted to being at the murder site, he puts both George and Vickie there also. I know there will be a lot of accusing each other, but important to me, is his statement that Vickie flagged Billy down. Billy would be alive today if Vickie had not flagged him down, I knew this all along, as Billy would not stop his vehicle for anyone else.

January 18, 2009 - 3:34 PM
LINDELL KAY
Illinois police have arrested a third former Marine in connection to the 1972 shooting death of a Camp Lejeune Marine sergeant in Jacksonville.
Rodger Gill, 56, of Athens, Ill., was taken into custody by Danville, Ill., police Friday afternoon on an indictment handed down by an Onslow County Grand Jury earlier last week. The court-sealed indictment charges Gill with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the homicide of William Miller who was gunned down by an M-16 more than three decades ago.
at the time, was allegedly at the scene. Authorities first considered him a witness when they learned last year of his supposed involvement.
"After examining all the evidence and reviewing the applicable laws, I decided he should be charged also," said Dewey Hudson, the district attorney for the 4th Prosecutorial District, which includes Onslow County.
An Onslow County Superior Court Judge sealed the indictment and arrest order for Gill. The Daily News learned Sunday of Gill's arrest from his sister who was concerned about him because he was arrested at a hospital upon being released following knee surgery.
Gill is being held in the Vermilion County Jail without bond. He is awaiting an appearance in front of a judge Tuesday morning, according to the Vermilion County Sheriff's Department.
Hudson said he does not know whether Gill will fight extradition.
"We will know more after Tuesday," he said.
Onslow County Sheriff's Capt. Rick Sutherland and Naval Criminal Investigative Services Special Agent Dan Carlin were in Illinois last week to assist in Gill's arrest, Sutherland confirmed after inquiries from The Daily News.
Gill admitted "he was at the crime scene when Vickie Miller flagged William Miller down on Western Boulevard and when George Hayden ambushed and shot William Miller with a rifle," according to an affidavit attached to a search warrant of Hayden's Belhaven home.
Hayden and Babbitt have been released on bond.
Babbitt's lawyer, Jacksonville attorney Scott Jack questioned the evidence against his client during her bond hearing, saying the only thing that has changed in 36 years is Gill's statement

FOUR HEARTS AS ONE

2009-01-13T09:13:00.000-08:00

Tamara sent me a message stating that her husband Chad's mother, did a wonderful
thing for her and her sisters for Christmas. She gave the girls a beautiful locket as a rememberance of their father. What a loving gift, I can't think of anything they would cherish more.
Her mother-in-law has a blog named "The Happy News Lady" and to quote her blog-
"When I saw the small oval locket whose cover was engraved with "In My Heart Forever'" I knew what to do immediately. It was like spiritual CPR....I ordered three! The Angels will go before those girls to clear and pave the way, for Justice to come finally for William Billy Miller, Their Father who was physically stolen forever. They grew up without him. Yet here we are full circle, battling evil with Love..... We all know which one always wins....especially with agreement."
You can find more on this story at her blog.
I personally wanted to thank her for this wonderful jesture!

TRIALS TO BE SET 36 YEARS AFTER MARINE'S DEATH

2009-01-02T19:37:00.000-08:00

Trial set 36 years after Marine’s slaying

By Trista Talton - Staff writer-Marine Corps Times
Posted : Sunday Dec 28, 2008 8:51:26 EST

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. — Sgt. William Miller was home barely a month from a yearlong deployment to Okinawa when motorists found his body on a roadway not far from Camp Lejeune, N.C., in September 1972.

He had been shot with an M16 — once in the head and once in the back — and left there to die. Authorities made no arrests in his murder.

But 36 years later, a story in a local newspaper highlighting cold cases in the Jacksonville area prompted a witness to come forward. In early September, authorities in North Carolina and Oregon arrested two former Marines in connection with Miller’s death: his widow and the man she later married.
Vickie Lynn Miller Hayden Cooper Babbitt, the mother of one of Miller’s three daughters, and her alleged accomplice, George Hayden, a former police chief once married to Babbitt, face charges of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
Babbitt, 58, was arrested at her home in Bend, Ore., and extradited to North Carolina, where she remained in jail until Dec. 9. She was released on a $400,000 bond. She agreed to turn over her passports and submitted to electronic monitoring. Hayden, 57, was arrested at his home in Belhaven, N.C., and released from jail Nov. 7 on a $350,000 bond.
Both now await trial, but dates have not been set. Miller’s family, meanwhile, hopes justice will soon come full circle.
“The anticipation now is driving me crazy, and to think we have to wait now for a year or however long — you never have closure,” said Miller’s sister Sharron Aguilar, who lives in Houston.
To his family, Sgt. Miller, born in January 1945, was “Billy.” He spent the first 10 years of his life with his five blue-eyed, blonde-haired siblings in Weyerhaeuser, Wis., a small, remote town about 60 miles east of the Minnesota border.
He was a typical boy, his sister said. He enjoyed riding his bike, fishing, climbing trees, playing with his brothers and picking on his little sisters. When Miller was in his early teens, the family moved to Herreid, S.D., where he worked for free on a horse ranch in return for his love of riding.

At 17, Miller convinced his father, a former Marine, to sign the papers allowing him to join the Corps. The elder Miller, who was in poor health at the time, hoped his oldest son would realize his dream of working in a top-secret position that required the highest level of security clearance. He died before his son’s murder.
Billy Miller divorced his first wife Janice, with whom he had two daughters, and eventually married Babbitt, a fellow Marine who would give birth to Miller’s third daughter. Aguilar said she doesn’t remember how her brother met Babbitt, but she remembers the first time he brought his new girlfriend home to Wisconsin to meet the family.
“You talked to her, and she’d barely answer,” Aguilar said. “She acted kind of shy.”
While in Okinawa, Miller wrote letters to home saying he was eager to bring his wife and new daughter to Wisconsin to introduce the baby to his mother and two older daughters.
“He had no idea that there was any problem in the marriage,” Aguilar said. Babbitt “didn’t give him a clue. His letters were positive about coming home and seeing his daughters. He was just excited."

Parting words:
Miller anticipated a happy reunion with his wife, but when he came home from Okinawa in August 1972, he found Hayden living in his trailer with his wife, Aguilar said.
“I can’t even imagine the pain he felt when he found George there,” Aguilar said. “Naturally, he wanted George out. ... Billy called me, stating what he had found and that he wouldn’t be coming home because he was using his furlough time to find an attorney. That was the last time I spoke to him."
About a month later, on Sept. 16, his car was found on the shoulder of Western Boulevard, according to a report in The Daily News of Jacksonville, N.C. The engine was running, the lights were on and a turn signal was blinking. A pistol was on the seat.

“When he was murdered, Vickie called my mother in the middle of the night and stated, ‘Billy got shot and he is dead,’ and she hung up,” Aguilar said.
The family searched for answers. Aguilar called local authorities and her brother’s command. Neither would give her information.
Babbitt and Hayden attended Miller’s funeral at Arlington National Cemetery, but she “wouldn’t speak to us and we couldn’t figure out why,” Aguilar said.
Authorities questioned Babbitt and Hayden after the murder, but could not link them to the crime.
Aguilar eventually contacted her congressman, who helped her obtain a Judge Advocate General’s report about her brother’s death.
Relief, not sadness:
Babbitt and Hayden married three months after Miller’s death. They had a son together and were later divorced.
Hayden went on to become police chief in two small towns in eastern North Carolina. In March, several months before his arrest Sept. 8, he was fired from the Belhaven Police Department in an unrelated matter, according to media reports.
Babbitt has been living on a small orchard with her husband in Bend, Ore., said her attorney Scott Jack. At the time of her arrest Sept. 9, she was working as a bookkeeper for a local business.
Authorities say they got the evidence they needed to arrest Babbitt and Hayden in August. A witness came forward after The Daily News ran a story about Miller’s unsolved murder.
Hayden’s lawyer, Bob Coxe, could not be reached for comment.
Babbitt took a polygraph test in 1972 and passed, her attorney said. Authorities questioned her again about 10 years ago.
“She told them she knew nothing about her husband’s murder then, and that’s what she told them in 1972,” Jack said. “She absolutely has maintained her innocence for 36 years.”

Aguilar said she and Miller’s other siblings, as well as his daughters, plan to be present when Babbitt and Hayden are put on trial.
“It’s very hard to explain our feelings,” Aguilar said. “The feelings are not of sadness; it’s relief that this is finally coming to a head. Losing a brother or any sibling is devastating. We are a very close family so it took a lot out of us.

“We’ve been waiting for this for a long, long time.”

WENDY LOOKS FOR CLOSURE IN HER DAD'S DEATH

2008-12-21T09:10:00.000-08:00

A 36-year-old cold case is coming to a close, but that closure is causing very mixed feelings for a Windsor woman.
Wendy McGee was not quite two years old when her father, Sgt. William Donald Miller, was found shot to death in Jacksonville, N.C., on Sept. 16, 1972.
The case was cold for years, until a witness came forward in August with new information that eventually cracked the case.
McGee’s mother, Vickie Miller Hayden Cooper Babbitt, 58, and her former stepfather George Hayden, 57, have since been charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
“The whole thing is still sinking in,” McGee said. “When I first found out, I was unable to work for three days.”
She admits that she had an idea several years ago about the circumstances of her father’s death.
“I was finally able to begin meeting members of his family, including daughters he’d had before me, in 1992,” McGee said. “I guess you’d call them half-sisters, but to me they’re just sisters.”
In 1994, McGee received an anonymous letter in the mail detailing circumstances of her father’s death.
“My mom had never wanted to talk about it,” McGee said.
The story has been on the front pages of the Jacksonville Daily News, the local paper, for several months. In addition, Dateline NBC has chosen to feature the family’s story. The piece has been filmed and is going through the editing phase, and will air in January or February 2009.
Babbitt had kept her daughter from meeting most of Miller’s family, and she still hasn’t met all of them.
“I feel very close to the family members I have met,” she said.
“When I was flying to meet my sisters, I was worried because I wouldn’t know what they looked like. They told me, ‘you’ll know.’“And I did.
But while McGee may have a new family, she said the arrests have torn another family apart.
“My half-brother, who is my mom’s son with my former stepfather, and who I grew up with, won’t speak to me,” she said. “I can’t really blame him because these are his parents. “It’s really hard.”
Just this last April, McGee, her husband Dave and daughter Ashley, took a trip to Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C., to visit her father’s grave. It was the first time McGee had been there since she was eight years old.
“I always wondered about my dad,” she said. “How different would things have been? How different would I be?”
For her father’s sake, McGee is grateful for the turn of events.
“On the one hand, I’m happy to learn my dad will finally have justice,” she said. “But, she’s my mom.”
McGee hasn’t spoken to her mother for several years after learning how her father died.
“This needs to be done,” McGee said. “My dad’s story needs to be told.”

THE MILLER FAMILY IS ONE TOUGH BUNCH,WE GROW STRONGER EACH DAY!

2008-12-12T09:12:00.000-08:00

I wanted to express some of my concerns and emotions,. There has been a lot of negative remarks about Billy’s character, I know in a case like this, positive and negative remarks are always surfacing. The innocent victims on both sides are naturally defending their loved ones which is the way it is expected to be, also, the speculation innocent until proven guilty has to be of utmost importance.
That being said, people commenting do not know my brother or my family, and to bashthe witness that came forward whether it was now or 36 years later, do not know her circumstances either, all I know is that I and my family will be eternally grateful to her and I feel the need to defend her also.
They bash Billy’s daughter Wendy, who has always been an innocent victim, she grew up without a father as did Billy’s other two daughters Kimberly and Tamara, this was not their choice, two people were Billy’s judge and jury and he was not given a fair trial and his sentence was death!
Now I state two people, we have known all along whom the suspects were, and yes, I know the term suspect does not mean they are guilty. They will have their day in court and most will not welcome the verdict, but will have to abide by it that is the law! Who am I to disagree with that, but I do know in my heart what the verdict will be, I have no doubt. This is my opinion which I am entitled to.
My main issue here is that my family is being treated like criminals; Billy has been accused of everything from being involved in drugs to having a marriage of convenience 70’s style and having a personal gun, which a large majority of Americans do.
Let me set some things straight, I spoke with my brother which I might add, was the last time, and was informed he had just arrived home from Okinawa to find George living with Vickie. He tearfully regretted not being able to visit Madison to see his other daughters which he dearly missed and giving my mother the opportunity to meet and hold her granddaughter Wendy His main concern at the time was Wendy, he was going to hire an attorney for a divorce and fight for custody.
I might add, seeing my mother, did not happen until Wendy was 18 years old, due to the fact Vickie kept her from my mother and our family. We respect the fact that Vickie is her mother regardless and we know she has good memories and well as bad and we would never expect her to brush those aside. We love her dearly and grieve for the years that were lost.
My brother was accepted into Officers school, he would never do anything illegal or inappropriate to hurt this, as this was his dream, he was so proud and looking forward to it.
All said, people are entitled to their opinions, I respect that, but I have to defend my family, nothing will ever give back what they have lost, including the death of our mother, which was directly related to her son’s death.
The arrest of George and Vickie has brought our family closer, our children and Grandchildren who had only heard about Uncle Billy are now involved with the case, showing love and support and proud of belonging to the Miller family!
So, in ending, let it be said, we love our brother, we are proud of him, we will never give up achieving justice for him, and good WILL overcome with God’s help!

SHARRON

BROTHER DAVID STATES:FINALLY A HOPE FOR JUSTICE

2008-12-10T08:36:00.000-08:00

WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 10, 2008

COLD CASE: Arrests made in 36-year-old case of Hemet man's slain Marine Corps brother.

By CHARLES HAND

The Valley Chronicle

It may have been 36 years since Marine Sgt. William Donald Miller was gunned down on a North Carolina road outside Camp Lejeune, but his family has never given up on bringing the killer to justice.
Nor has there been any doubt in the minds of Miller's brother, David Miller of Hemet, and sister, Sharron Aguilar of Texas, who the killer is.
They believe their brother's wife at the time, Vickie Miller Hayden Cooper Babbitt, 58, of Bend, Ore., lured her husband to a quiet road where he was ambushed by George Hayden, 57, of North Carolina.
One shot severed Miller's spine and another struck him in the right temple.
He was found by a passing motorist lying face up in the road.
Miller said his brother returned from a year of training in Okinawa to find Hayden had moved into his house and was living with his wife and 1-year-old child Wendy.
Hayden and Babbitt were also in the Marines.
Though Miller talked Hayden into moving out of the house, his wife went too and took their child, said David Miller.
“We know she did it,” said Miller.
In fact, Miller said, a witness who could put the finger on Babbitt and Hayden, has remained silent out of fear of Hayden for three and a half decades.
The reason she feared Hayden, said Miller, is that, after he retired from the Marine Corps, Hayden became a police officer in a nearby town and eventually became police chief.

Even now, the witness does not want to be identified because she fears for her own life and the lives of family members, Aguilar said.
Hayden and Babbitt are charged with first-degree murder.
The offense would carry a potential death penalty today, but the death penalty was suspended by the Supreme Court at the time Miller was killed so prosecutors are seeking sentences of about 10 years.

Miller said it has been frustrating waiting for someone to take an interest in the case.
“Every-body dropped us,” he said.
The Marine Corps wrote it off as a civilian matter because Miller was killed off the base, while civilian authorities saw it as a Marine issue, Miller said.
Aguilar said the case would probably still be languishing had it not been for a reporter at a North Carolina newspaper who wrote a story about the case.

The witness's mother was laying newspapers on the floor for a puppy when she saw the story about the cold case. “Here was this story staring up at her,” Aguilar said. “Within three weeks, they were in jail.”
Hayden is out on $350,000 bail and Babbitt's bail hearing is scheduled for Monday.
“We've known who they were all these years,” Aguilar said.
A half-cocked .22-caliber pistol lay on the seat of the borrowed car Miller drove to the rendezvous, according to documents released by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, Aguilar said.
Two spent assault rifle casings lay near the body, according to the report from the Navy.
“We think (Babbitt) had the baby with her and enticed him out of the car with the baby,” Miller said.
According to a North Carolina newspaper report, Bonnie Sharp, who baby-sat Miller's infant daughter in 1972, gave police information she had kept to herself for 36 years after the first story was published.
That information led to investigators to an eyewitness to Miller's death, according to an affidavit attached to a search warrant for Hayden's home. The affidavit said a witness admitted “he was at the crime scene when Vickie Miller flagged William Miller down and when George Hayden ambushed and shot William Miller with a rifle.”

Authorities initially refused to identify Sharp, but she decided to speak to a reporter because she knew the defendants knew who she was.
Miller said the arrests have brought his family the prospect of closure.
“We want to be able to face ‘em,” he said.
He said he last saw Babbitt several years ago when she was living in Corona.

“She's been through three husbands since then. She ended up being an alcoholic and that's probably why,” he said.B

SISTER BONNIE REMEMBERS

2008-12-06T18:39:00.001-08:00

Cold Case Solved: Rockford Woman Finds Some Closure After 36 Years Dec 5, 2008 04:47 PM PST ]Cold Case Solved Sgt. William Miller For the past 36 years, Bonnie Russell, Sgt. Miller's sister, has hoped that police would find her brother's murderer. Vickie Babbitt (center) was arrested in September for the 1972 murder of her husband, Sgt. William Miller. George Hayden, is the other suspect arrested for murdering Sgt. Miller. By Samantha Ptashkin ROCKFORD- A Rockford woman finds closure 36 years after her brother was murdered. Sgt. William Miller was shot at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina in 1972. Police just arrested two suspects this past September. Sgt. Miller, often referred to as "Billy" went to train at Camp Lejeune when he was 25-years-old. There he met and married his second wife, Vickie Babbitt. Bonnie Russell, Billy's sister, was the last in the family to see him, when she visited Billy at Camp Lejeune one year before his murder. That's when she met Babbitt."It did strike me that she was very distant, she seemed distant. She wasn't really friendly," Russell said. About one year later on September 16, 1972, Billy was killed. Bonnie says she didn't get any answers from police, so she wrote a letter to President Ford begging for help. She was told the investigators' theory was that Babbitt and had a lover, a fellow marine named George Hayden, together murdered Billy. "So the story goes is that, Vickie had called Billy, saying she needed help, that her car had broken down. When Billy got there, they shot him," Bonnie said, "There's no doubt in my mind it was them." But with no proof, police couldn't arrest anyone. Shortly after the murder, Hayden and Babbitt married. They soon divorced and eventually married other people and went on with their lives. "How do you live with doing something like that? I can't imagine someone living day to day, even if you're raising another family, who's done a horrendous crime like that," Bonnie said. Then this past September, Bonnie's family found out police had arrested George Hayden and Vickie Babbitt for murder. Someone saw local news coverage of Billy's murder and came forward as a witness. "There's always hope and ya know, we never gave up," Bonnie said. "I loved my brother and there's not a day I don't think about him and pray for him." Sgt. Miller left behind two daughters, Tamara and Kimberly, from his first marriage. He had one daughter, Wendy, with Babbitt. Wendy was only two-years-old when her father died. Bonnie says Wendy believes that her mother and Hayden killed her father. George Hayden's family recently bailed him out of jail. Vickie Babbitt is still in jail awaiting her bail hearing. They've pleaded not guilty and are awaiting their trial. http://www.wrex.com/global/story.asp?s=9467652

HAYDEN BEING OUT ON BAIL STIRS EMOTIONS

2008-11-24T08:09:00.000-08:00

Potential witness, victim's family angry Hayden out on bail Case starting to take its toll on those close to victim, By GREG KATSKI Staff Writer -Washington Daily News 11/19/2008

ANGER AND DISAPPOINTMENT : two emotionally strained words that sum up the feelings of Marine Corps Sgt. William "Billy" Miller's family, as well as a potential witness in the case, about former Belhaven Police Chief George Hayden posting bail. Hayden, who is charged in the Sept. 16, 1972 shooting death of Miller, was released on a $350,000 bond from Onslow County Jail on Nov. 7. Vickie Babbitt, Miller's wife at the time of his death, is also charged with murder and conspiracy to commit murder. Shortly after Hayden posted bail, Bonnie Sharp, a key witness in the case, contacted the Jacksonville Daily News, according to the paper's crime reporter, Lindell Kay. Sharp used to babysit Miller and Babbitt's infant daughter, Wendy, before Miller's death. Sharp confirmed that she was the previously unidentified witness that provided information to the Onslow County Sheriff's Office to break the case. She came forward after reading an article in the Aug. 10 edition of the Jacksonville Daily News about the unsolved homicide, according to an article in the paper. Sharp said she chose to speak to the Jacksonville Daily News after Hayden was released because the defendants in the case knew who she was. Sharp told the Jacksonville Daily News that she is afraid of Hayden and that keeping her information about the case secret has affected her mentally, emotionally and physically, said an article in the paper. The case has also taken its toll on Sharron Aguilar, Miller's oldest sister. Aguilar has been at the forefront of the 36 year investigation into her younger brother's death. She was deeply disturbed by news that Hayden would be granted release on bond, and even more upset when he made bond one month later. To ease the pain of the news from Hayden's bond hearing on Oct. 2, she started a blog in memory of her beloved brother and to track his case, which has been 36 years in the making. The blog, miraclesstillhappen36yearslater.blogspot.com, features pictures of Miller from childhood to the Marine Corps, news articles about the cold case, and heart wrenching comments from the family. The blog has been dominated lately with commentary on Hayden's release. Aguilar is worried that the Onslow County District Court system might be playing favorites. She said the system seems like a league of "good ol' boys," and Hayden's just part of the gang. "Was he given a little better favor because he was the chief of police?" said Aguilar. Hayden served as Belhaven's police chief for about seven years. Prior to his stint in Belhaven, he was Cape Carteret's chief. "I'm questioning everything," she said. "You know, one of the things the judge took into consideration was that (Hayden) had never been in trouble before. Well shoot, how do we know what he did? Maybe he just didn't get caught. He was the chief of police." Aguilar said that Hayden's bail, set at $350,000, was not enough. Now Miller's sister hopes that Babbit, who is still in pretrial confinement, will turn on Hayden. Even still, Aguilar feels no remorse for her former sister-in-law. "For that case, I have no sensitivity for (Vickie)," she said. "Supposedly, (Hayden) talked her into it. But she stood there while he was murdered." Aguilar said that her family is very upset and vocal about Hayden's release, but "I'm still positive that this is going to have the outcome that we're looking for." Aguilar's daughter, Deanna Shirley, said that the news of Hayden's arrest and subsequent release has worn on her mother. "Emotionally, the last couple of months has kind of taken a toll on her," said Shirley. "Maybe it's a little overwhelming for her right now." Shirley said that her mother has never let up on the case for 36 years. As the oldest of six children, Aguilar took it upon herself to find Miller's killer. "My mom has kind of been the one to take charge," said Shirley. "And I think, for her mother's sake, she wanted to find the killers and finally put an end to it." What Shirley recalls most is the enduring effect Miller's death had on her grandmother, his mother, Emily Miller Captain. After her husband died of a heart attack at 39 years old, Miller Captain was left with four children to take care of. Shortly after his death, her three sons joined the Marines. Then Miller was killed, not at war, but at home in Jacksonville. Determined to not let her mother down, Aguilar began her 36 year quest to find her brother's killer. "She never did let up," Shirley said. "As long as I can remember, she was always pushing to find someone that would listen to her." Aguilar refused to let up even when her own daughter cast doubts. "We came to a point where I told her, 'We don't have a famous name and we don't have a lot of money, and a lot of times it's just not that interesting.'" said Shirley. But the cold case proved interesting, and intriguing, and upsetting the more people found out. " There's so many people involved," said Shirley. "You take two people that did this horrible thing, and look at all the other people that are involved in it."

2008-11-20T14:41:00.001-08:00

marine-sgt-william-miller

THE WILLIAM MILLER STORY-MIRACLES STILL HAPPEN AFTER 36 YEARS

2008-10-12T19:57:00.000-07:00

William Donald Miller Sergeant, United States Marine Corps

Family remembers death of a Marine some 36 years ago BY LINDELL KAY Courtesy of JDNews.Com of Jacksonville, North Carolina
The family of a Camp Lejeune Marine shot dead on Western Boulevard 36 years has not forgotten him and do not want anyone else to forget him, either.
Motorists found the body of Sergeant William Donald Miller lying in the middle of the road on Western Boulevard halfway between Marine Boulevard and County Club Road on September 16, 1972. He had been shot, according to an incident report of the time.
Authorities found Miller's car on the shoulder of the road with the engine running, the lights on, a blinker clicking, and a half-cocked pistol on the seat, according to a Daily News archived report.
No arrest was ever made in the case.
One of Miller's three daughters, Wendy Miller-McGee, who now lives in Colorado, told The Daily News in an e-mail interview last week that she will never forget her father.
"My father means the world to me," she said. "I was 1 year old when my father was murdered."
Miller-McGee said she last visited her father's grave in Arlington National Cemetery when she was 8 years old.
"Ever since then I have always wanted to go back, especially now that I have children of my own," she said. "When my husband Dave told me we were going to Washington, D.C., on a trip I was so excited and could not wait."
Miller-McGee, her husband David and their daughter Ashley took the time while on an April business trip to visit the cemetery.
Miller-McGee said she could not stop crying when they found her father's grave among the seemingly endless rows of tombstones.
"Growing up, I have always wondered about my father," she said. "I have lost a lot since my father was murdered. It breaks my heart that I never got to know him, and he never got to meet his grandchildren."
Miller-McGee said her heart breaks every time she thinks about how she missed out on a relationship with her father. She said she is left with questions that can not be answered.
"What kind of father would he have been?" she asked. "Was he funny? What kind of person would I be today if I had the chance to grow up with my father? What kind of grandfather would he be? Would he be proud of me?"
Miller's sister, Sharron Aguilar, who now lives in Texas, said her family has been permanently affected by the death of her brother.
"Our family, who has experienced the violent death of a loved one, has been forever changed into a ‘new normal,'" she said. "We can never go back to how things were, we have to integrate this tragic loss into our lives and move on without our loved one. We will never get over William's significance and importance in our lives."
Aguilar said Miller's death affected his entire family, especially since the case has never been solved.
"Since there has never been closure, parts of our hearts are buried at Arlington National Cemetery," she said. "My brother was not able to watch his three daughters grow up into fine young women. He did not walk them down the aisle at their weddings. He is not here now to kiss his four beautiful grandchildren."
Miller was the oldest of six children, who were always referred in their neighborhood as the "six little Millers."
He grew up in a small Wisconsin town called Weyerhauser, "the biggest small town in the state," according to a town billboard.
Miller was always looking for adventure, his sister said.
"He loved riding his bike, climbing trees, fishing, animals, playing cowboys and Indians with his brother David and picking on his sisters," she said.
When Miller was 10, the family moved to Herreid, South Dakota. Miller became obsessed with horses and worked for free at a small ranch just to be around the animals. He eventually became good enough at riding to break horses for the ranch owner, his sister said.
Miller was also in the school band and played trumpet like his father, who his sister said he idolized. As soon as he could, Miller followed in his father's footsteps and joined the Marines. His family said Miller was focused on being the best Marine he could be and planned to make a career out of it. His untimely death put a stop to that.

DAD GIVES BLESSING FOR HAND OF DAUGHTER

2008-10-12T19:46:00.000-07:00

TAMARA AND CHAD

The reason I am writing this is because Tamara told me, after all these years... that my son Chad was in D.C. on business several years back, and while there he went to Arlington National Cemetery, without telling anyone, got a map, and found Tamara's Father's grave. He then sat down amongst the many rows of white cross's all looking alike yet a different story a-surrounding each individual one. He sat and talked to the physical and spiritual remains of William Miller for awhile, then asked him for his daughter Tamara's hand in marriage as well as assuring him he would take care of her. A very touching moment in time when one wonders if anyone noticed besides William Miller? If there were an Angel present, or any other ancestors unseen? Whichever, I was deeply touched by the story and image in my mind. My son Chad, is the most compassionate of all the family. Well besides me of course. He was born that way and remains for the most part that way. He is kind and gentle and loving and patient with most everyone. I think his visit to Arlington National Cemetery goes down in my history book somewhere along with Casablanca ..... Jackie Onassis ......... Princess Diana.....and maybe, we'll see...

BILLY'S THREE BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTERS TODAY

2008-10-12T15:53:00.001-07:00

KIMBERLY, WENDY AND TAMARA

THREE WEEKS AFTER STORY HITS PAPER, AN ARREST!

2008-10-12T15:49:00.000-07:00

ONSLOW COUNTY, NC -- A former police chief arrested today!

George Hayden was arrested Monday night for the 1972 murder of Bill Miller. Since getting out of the Marine Corps, Hayden has been a police officer, most recently chief at Belhaven.
The D.A. says because the crime happened 36 years ago, the law at that time has to be applied today. In 1972 North Carolina did not have a death penalty.
"You have to look at what the punishment is at the time of the crime not the arrest, in 1972 we had no death penalty in America because the United States Supreme Court had ruled all death penalties at that time unconstitutional," Hudson tells WITN.
Hayden's ex-wife, Vickey Babbitt, will also not face the death penalty if convicted.
Babbitt and Miller were married at the time of the murder. Deputies say when Miller returned from a deployment, he found that Hayden had moved into his home. He asked the two to move out.
Several weeks later authorities say Babbitt lured her husband to a Western Boulevard parking lot where Hayden ambushed him, shooting the Marine twice.
Hudson says his team of lawyers are starting the process of looking for other witnesses from 1972 who may know about the crime, as well as crime scene investigators and pathologists from 36 years ago.
Wednesday's StoryA second person has now been arrested for a 36 year old murder mystery in Onslow County.
Vickey Babbitt, who was married to Bill Miller when he was murdered in 1972, was arrested at her home in Bend, Oregon last night.
After Miller's death Babbitt married George Hayden who was charged Monday night with the murder. Until this past March Hayden was police chief in Belhaven, and prior to that in Cape Carteret. Hayden and Babbitt have since divorced and both have remarried.
Deputies say it wasn't until August 20th that authorities got long awaited evidence they needed to charge the couple. A witness came forward after the Jacksonville Daily News ran a series of articles on the cold murder case.
Sheriff Ed Brown says since then investigators have worked around the clock reviewing the 3,000 pages of case file and re-interviewing witnesses from the 1972 homicide.
Brown says the two were always suspects in the murder. He says when the 27-year-old Miller came back from Marine Corps training in 1972, he found his wife and Hayden living together in Miller's Onslow County house. Brown says the two moved out of Miller's home.
The sheriff says Babbitt later coaxed her husband to a wooded area on Western Boulevard so Hayden could ambush him. Brown says Hayden then shot Miller in the head and back with a M-16 rifle. The sheriff says Hayden and Babbitt were married three months later.
Hayden is in the Onslow County jail without bond, while Babbitt is in the Deschutes County, Oregon jail awaiting a hearing to return to North Carolina.
Tuesday's Story
A former chief of police in the Beaufort County town of Belhaven and Cape Carteret in Carteret County is now accused of killing a fellow Marine in 1972.
Hayden, age 57, was charged by the Onslow County Sheriff's Office. Police say Hayden's ex-wife, 58-year-old Vickey Miller Hayden Babbitt, will be arrested later today. Officials say Babbitt was married to the victim at the time of the murder.
Sheriff Ed Brown tells WITN News when the victim, 27-year-old Bill Miller, came back from Marine Corps training in 1972, he found his wife and Hayden living together in Miller's house in Onslow County. Brown says the two moved out of Miller's home.
The sheriff says Babbitt later coaxed her husband to a wooded area on Western Boulevard so Hayden could ambush him. Brown says Hayden then shot Miller in the head and back with a M-16 rifle. The sheriff says Hayden and Babbitt were married three months later and that Hayden has always been a suspect in the murder.
Until March, Hayden was the police chief in the Beaufort County town of Belhaven. Before that, he was a police chief in Cape Carteret.
Hayden now lives with his family on Portside Lane in Belhaven, where he was taken into custody Monday night by representatives from the Beaufort and Onslow County Sheriff's Offices, NCIS, US Marshals and the SBI.
He was taken to Onslow County, charged and locked up. Hayden was committed to the Onslow County Jail just one week shy of the date of September 16, 1972, the date he and Babbitt are accused of killing Vickey’s husband on Western Boulevard in Jacksonville. Officials note the murder occurred on Western Boulevard back before Western Boulevard was a part of the City of Jacksonville.
Babbitt is expected to be arrested at her home in Oregon today.
Earlier this year, in March, George Hayden was fired from the Belhaven Police Department in an unrelated matter, along with a police lieutenant. The two are appealing their dismissal and are taking their case to court. Belhaven Mayor Adam O'Neal told WITN News he had no comment on the former chief's arrest. The mayor said Hayden is gone from Belhaven and that's history now.
Onslow County has a press conference scheduled for Wednesday at 1 p.m.
"Regardless of the case type or age of a case, interaction, assistance, and teamwork of those in the judicial system is necessary," said Onslow County Sheriff Ed Brown.
"I wish to express many thanks to the District Attorney’s Office, and all Agencies and their Agents for everything they did to bring this case thus far. Additional teamwork will be required, however, to bring this case to a resolved disposition. Family, friends, and citizens may consider a case cold, forgotten, or even dismissed, but as for law enforcement and those responsible for justice a case may be cold and old, but never forgotten or dismissed," said Sheriff Brown. "Much credit for new life being breathed into this case goes to the Jacksonville Daily News Reporter, Lindell Kay. It was two separate cold case articles Mr. Kay did in the Jacksonville Daily News that inspired a key witness to come to the Onslow County Sheriff’s Office with specific evidence that lead to the solving of William “Bill” Miller’s murder that occurred on September 16, 1972. Mr. Kay’s articles were in the Sunday, August 10th, and August 17th, 2008, publication of the Jacksonville Daily News."

MIRACLES STILL HAPPEN-THE WILLIAM MILLER STORY

OUR CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM NEEDS REVAMPING

LADY JUSTICE WEPT TODAY

ANGEL'S PENNIES

Angel's Pennies

ANOTHER YEAR PASSES AND STILL FIGHTING

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www.crimewiresite.com 9-10 EASTERN TIME.

Lindell and I will be on the Susan Milano and Dennis Griffin radio show October 11 at 9-9:30. He is pushing our case to get attention. Please click on the above links and leave a response to the article he posted. He will have other sites included later.

Murder conviction should be upheld

Murder conviction should be upheld

PRAY FOR JUSTICE

Former police chief to remain in prison until Supreme Court decision

WHAT HAPPENED TO JUSTICE??

JUSTICE FOR SARA

HAYDEN APPEAL ARGUED

Hayden appeal argued

SUPPORT GROUPS FOR VICTIMS OF VIOLENT CRIMES

JUSTICE IS ONLY PARTLY COMPLETE

ALL SOLDIERS HAVE SILENT NIGHTS

TOLEDO'S OLDEST COLD CASE SOLVED

SEPTEMBER 16, 1972

38TH ANNIVERSARY APPROACHING

ANOTHER VICTORY FOR THE ONSLOW COUNTY DA

GEORGE HAYDEN MOVED

THE MURDER WALL

SISTER BONNIE'S LETTER TO GEORGE

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY FROM YOUR GIRLS

THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO TESTIFIED FOR JUSTICE

REMEMBERING A FALLEN BROTHER

TOP 5 POLICE BLUNDERS OF THE WEEK

COURT VERDICT HELPS LOCAL WOMAN FIND SOME CLOSURE IN FATHER'S DEATH

Family never lost hope in Marine cold case

HAYDEN JURY MEMBER TALKS ABOUT CASE

HAYDEN'S CONVICTION BRINGS REACTION FROM TOWN MANAGER

HAYDEN SENTENCED TO LIFE IN PRISON-UPDATE

GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY

UPDATE VIDEOS OF TRIAL TRIAL

Jury deliberations on hold in Hayden trial

Woman travels to NC for trial in brother’s 37-year-old murder

Jurors dismissed until Monday in Hayden trial

MAY 21 Jury in Hayden trial dismissed until Monday

MAY 20 -- CONSPIRACY CHARGE OUT, MURDER ONE STAYS

MAY 20, 2010

MAY 19, 2010

MAY 18 CONTINUED

MAY 18, 2010

JURY SELECTION IS SET

IN JACKSONVILLE

TIME HAS RUN OUT

CLOSURE AND A LITTLE JUSTICE

HAYDEN'S MURDER TRIAL SCHEDULED FOR MAY 17

THEY COULDN'T TAKE THE MEMORIES

THE COUNTDOWN

TRIAL UPDATE

MAY 17 TRIAL DATE LOOMS

OFF THE CUFF ENDING

1970 DONNA WILLING CASE GETTING MEDIA ATTENTION

NEW TRIAL DATE

OLDEST COLD CASE AWAITING TRIAL

ASSOCIATED PRESS ARTICLE BY KEVIN MAURER

TRIAL DATE FOR VICKIE

ANOTHER COLD CASE MIRACLE

NEVER GIVE UP HOPE- I'M NOT A VICTIM-I'M VICTORIOUS"

LEST WE FORGET!

LINDELL KAY ENDING HIS COLD CASE ASSIGNMENT

National Day of Remembrance for Murder Victims

37TH ANNIVERSARY

RODGER GILL IS BAILED OUT OF JAIL

ARE THE COURTS PARTIAL TO THE ACCUSED??

AS WE AWAIT THREE TRIALS;

GILL'S WIFE ASKING FOR DONATIONS???

THE GRIEF OF PARENTS IS A LIFETIME JOURNEY

WE WILL NOT JUST LET IT GO!

BOND

FAMILIES DESERVE RIGHTS!

RODGER GILL'S ORIGINAL STATEMENT 6/5/1973

RODGER GILL STATMENT OF APRIL 21,2009

TRIO PLEADS NOT GUILTY

PROUD MILLER WOMAN

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