The Search for Gina Renee Hall

Explicit content warning

08/27/19 • 95 min

Gina Renee Hall experienced more pain in her 18 years than most of us do in our lifetimes. As a young child, she suffered severe burns. As a result, she went through multiple surgeries and was left with disfiguring scars.

You might think that she would have been bitter and isolated herself from the world. But Gina was a friendly, outgoing, and pretty young woman. She accepted what life had given her—dressing to hide her scars and yet always being fashionable, playing competitive sports, and attending college.

But Gina’s decision to go out dancing, and to dance with 28-year old Stephen Epperly, would lead somewhere that she couldn’t have predicted. Others who had known Stephen Epperly for years were aware of his violent past. He had been accused of rape more than once, but he was never convicted.

Epperly was the last person to see Gina alive. And blood was found in multiple locations where he had taken her. Her car was found abandoned with the trunk open. The trunk was stained with dried blood. But Gina has never been found.

In today’s True Crime Brewery, The Search for Gina Renee Hall, we will go over the details in this nearly 40-year old case. We’ll explore Epperly’s history, his story, and the extensive circumstantial evidence used to convict him in Virginia’s first “No Body” murder conviction.

Previous Episode

The Long Island Serial Killer

Long Island has a dark and terrible secret: the infamous Long Island Serial Killer – also known as the Gilgo Beach Killer. This still unidentified killer is responsible for the murder of over 10 women and one man, all whose remains were dumped along the Ocean Parkway.

In December of 2010, the Suffolk County Police Department was conducting a search for Shannan Gilbert, a 24-year-old sex worker. Shannon lived in Jersey City and she had been missing since running away from the home of a client that May. While conducting that search in the dunes of Ocean Parkway, Police Officer Mallia and his German Shephard Blue found the skeletal remains of a woman stuffed into a burlap sack. But these remains were not Shannon Gilbert’s.

The search expanded and, two days later, they uncovered three more bodies – all female – that had been dumped in the thick vegetation along the road.

The four bodies were identified within weeks. All four women were revealed to have been escorts or sex workers who had advertised their services on Craigslist. Six more sets of remains were found in March and April 2011.

As the police widened the scope of their search, they continued to find more human remains. The FBI eventually became involved and speculated that the alleged killer was someone familiar with law enforcement techniques. But finding the killer has proven been impossible. Psychologists have put together a profile and several suspects have been looked at, but the case remains unsolved.

Join us today at the quiet end for a discussion of these murders, including a heartbreaking look at the victims and what turned their lives in a direction where they became vulnerable to this serial killer.

Next Episode

Nebraska Joyride: The Murders of Sharmon & Wayne Stock

After middle-aged couple Wayne and Sharmon Stock were brutally killed in their Nebraska farmhouse, police decided that a family member was behind their murder. A nephew confessed and implicated his cousin as his accomplice. But they still needed some physical evidence.

Enter forensics investigator David Kofoed. Kofoed found a spot of blood underneath the dashboard of a car. DNA testing confirmed that the blood was Wayne Stocks’. But other evidence at the scene was not adding up.

The discovery of an engraved ring in the Stock house turned the investigation in the right direction. The ring was traced to a Wisconsin couple whose truck had been stolen with the ring inside of it. Two teenagers had stolen the truck and took it for a joyride.

Join us at the quiet end today for Nebraska Joyride. This is a fascinating case involving a false confession, two cold-blooded killers, and a forensics investigator charged with planting evidence.