POLICE LOOKING FOR MURDER VICTIM'S WIFE - "Not Yet A Suspect," She Flees Murder Scene

(05/30/2005)

Police are looking for the wife of a man shot and killed on remote Grannies Creek yesterday.

The Herald reported the shooting Sunday afternoon, after the West Virginia Police Lab arrived on the scene, where neighbors had heard gunshots.

Police say Hanna was shot twice about 5 p.m. yesterday.

SEE earlier Herald story and map.

Roane County Sheriff's Department has identified the murdered man as fifty-year-old Randall Hanna, who recently moved to the Walton area of Roane County from New Mexico a few weeks ago.

Sheriff Todd Cole says it appears Hanna's wife, 34-year-old Kimberly Sue Solt Hanna, fled the scene after the shooting.

The man was shot to death on the old Fred Hall property, where the couple were allegedly removing building materials from a barn or outbuilding. The old homestead has been abandoned, since the large Hall farm house burned to the ground several years ago.

Deputies believe she left in Hanna's green Dodge pickup truck. The truck has a green canopy painted to match the truck and New Mexico license plates.

Authorities are yet to call her a suspect.

The Newton and Walton Fire Departments were summoned to the mouth of Grannies Creek Monday morning, to help search for a weapon or other materials.

Grannies Creek is also located close to Clay County's "Murder Mountain," scene of numerous shootings in the past two years.

A neighbor reported he heard gunshots coming from the old Fred Hall farm, saying that a body was discovered under a piece of tin.